Q
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robot Adding: [[lv:Q]]
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{{Latin alphabet navbox|uc=Q|lc=q}}
'''Q''' is the seventeenth letter of the modern [[Latin alphabet]]. Its name in [[English language|English]] is spelled ''cue'' ({{pronEng|kjuː}}).<ref>"Q" ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989); ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "que," op. cit.</ref>
==History==
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;text-align:center;"
|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! Egyptian hieroglyph ''wj''
! Phoenician Q
! Etruscan Q
! Greek Qoppa
|-----
|<hiero>V24</hiero>
|[[Image:PhoenicianQ-01.png]]
|[[Image:EtruscanQ-01.svg|64px]]
|[[Image:GreekQ-01.png]]
|}
The [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] sound value of [[Qoph|Qôp]] (perhaps originally ''qaw'' cord of wool, and possibly based on an [[Egyptian hieroglyph]]) was {{IPA|/q/}} ([[voiceless uvular plosive]]), a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones. In [[Greek language|Greek]], this sign as [[Qoppa]] {{Unicode|Ϙ}} probably came to represent several [[labiovelar|labialized velar]] [[plosive]]s, among them {{IPA|/kʷ/}} and {{IPA|/kʷʰ/}}. As a result of later sound shifts, these sounds in Greek changed to {{IPA|/p/}} and {{IPA|/pʰ/}} respectively. Therefore, Qoppa was transformed into two letters: Qoppa, which stood for a number only, and [[Phi (letter)|Phi]] Φ which stood for the aspirated sound {{IPA|/pʰ/}} that came to be pronounced {{IPA|/f/}} in Modern Greek. The [[Etruscans]] used Q only in conjunction with V to represent {{IPA|/kʷ/}}.
==Usage==
In most modern western languages written in Latin script, such as in [[Romance language|Romance]] and [[Germanic languages]], Q appears almost exclusively in the digraph QU, though see [[List of English words containing Q not followed by U|Q without U]]. In [[English language|English]] this digraph most often denotes the cluster {{IPA|/kw/}}, except in borrowings from French where it represents {{IPA|/k/}} as in ''plaque''. In Italian qu represents {{IPA|[kw]}} (where {{IPA|[w]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/u/}}); in German, {{IPA|/kv/}}; and in [[French language|French]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Occitan language|Occitan]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[Catalan language|Catalan]], {{IPA|/k/}} or {{IPA|/kw/}}. (In Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan and French, ''qu'' replaces [[c]] for {{IPA|/k/}} before front vowels [[i]] and [[e]], since in those contexts ''c'' is a fricative and letter 'k' is seldom used outside [[loan word]]s.)
In the [[Aymara language|Aymara]], [[Greenlandic language|Greenlandic]], [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]], [[Quechua]], and [[Tatar language]]s, as well as [[Romanization of Arabic|romanised]] [[Arabic language|Arabic]], Q is a [[voiceless uvular plosive]]. {{IPA|[q]}} is also used in the [[help:IPA|IPA]] for the voiceless uvular plosive, as well as in most transliteration schemes of [[Semitic languages]] for the "emphatic" ''[[Qoph|qōp]]'' sound. The sound is rendered with letter ﻕ in [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic script]].
In [[Maltese language|Maltese]] and [[Võro language|Võro]], Q denotes the [[glottal stop]].
In [[Albanian language|Albanian]], ''q'' represents the [[voiceless palatal plosive]], {{IPA|/c/}}.
In [[Chinese language|Chinese]] [[Hanyu Pinyin]], Q is used to represent the sound {{IPA|[tɕʰ]}}, which is close to English "ch" in "cheese".
In [[Fijian language|Fijian]], Q represents the [[Prenasalized consonant|prenasalized]] [[voiced velar plosive]] {{IPA|[ŋɡ]}}.
In [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]] and [[Zulu language|Zulu]], Q represents the [[postalveolar click]] {{IPA|[kǃ]}}.
Q, which is rarely seen in a word without a U next to it in English, is the second most rarely used letter in the [[English language]]. The Q represents a voiceless velar plosive, contrary to the belief that it represents a labialized voiceless velar plosive. If this was the case, their would be no need for the "U" at the end.
The lowercase Q is usually written as a lowercase O with a line below it, with or without a "tail". It is usually typed without due to the major difference between the tails of the lowercase G and lowercase Q. It is usually written with the tail to distinguish from the G. Unlike the written lowercase G, which has a leftward facing tail, the Q's tail faces right. An example of the lowercase Q written from a keyboard is a "q".
==Codes for computing==
{{Letter
|NATO=Quebec
|Morse= – – · –
|Character=Q
|Braille=⠟
}}
In [[Unicode]] the [[majuscule|capital]] Q is codepoint U+0051 and the [[lower case]] q is U+0071.
The [[ASCII]] code for capital Q is 81 and for lowercase q is 113; or in [[Binary numeral system|binary]] 01010001 and 01110001, correspondingly.
The [[EBCDIC]] code for capital Q is 216 and for lowercase q is 152.
The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are "<tt>&#81;<tt>" and "<tt>&#113;</tt>" for upper and lower case respectively.
==Trivia==
{{Trivia|date=September 2007}}
* Q is the only English [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] that does not appear in any [[US state]] name
* People connected to an [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]]-network with [[Internet_Relay_Chat#Modes|usermode]] +q are immune to bans, kicks and akicks.
* "Q" Added To Stock Ticker Symbol: When a company is involved in bankruptcy proceedings, the letter "Q" is added to the end of the company's stock ticker symbol. When a company emerges from bankruptcy, in most cases the plan of reorganization will cancel the existing equity stock.
* Q is never used as the initial letter in the [[call sign]] of any radio or television station, being prohibited from such use by the [[ITU]] anywhere in the world (as of 2007).
==Abbreviations==
* 'Q' = Stock symbol for [[Qwest]] Communications International Inc.
* 'Q' = Qualified Developmental Disabilities Professional (aka QP or QDDP).
* 'Q' = Medical Term for Cardiac Output (Stroke Volume * Heart Rate)
==See also==
{{Commons|Q}}
* [[List of English words containing Q not followed by U]]
{{Latin alphabet}}
[[Category:Latin letters]]
[[af:Q]]
[[als:Q]]
[[ar:Q]]
[[arc:Q]]
[[ast:Q]]
[[az:Q]]
[[bs:Q]]
[[br:Q (lizherenn)]]
[[ca:Q]]
[[cs:Q]]
[[co:Q]]
[[cy:Q]]
[[da:Q]]
[[de:Q]]
[[el:Q]]
[[es:Q]]
[[eo:Q]]
[[eu:Q]]
[[fa:Q]]
[[fr:Q (lettre)]]
[[fur:Q]]
[[gan:Q]]
[[gd:Q]]
[[gl:Q]]
[[ko:Q]]
[[hr:Q]]
[[ilo:Q]]
[[is:Q]]
[[it:Q]]
[[he:Q]]
[[ka:Q]]
[[kw:Q]]
[[sw:Q]]
[[ht:Q]]
[[la:Q]]
[[lv:Q]]
[[lt:Q]]
[[hu:Q]]
[[mzn:Q]]
[[ms:Q]]
[[nah:Q]]
[[nl:Q (letter)]]
[[ja:Q]]
[[no:Q]]
[[nn:Q]]
[[nrm:Q]]
[[uz:Q (harf)]]
[[pl:Q]]
[[pt:Q]]
[[ro:Q]]
[[qu:Q]]
[[ru:Q (латиница)]]
[[scn:Q]]
[[simple:Q]]
[[sl:Q]]
[[sr:Q (слово латинице)]]
[[fi:Q]]
[[sv:Q]]
[[tl:Q]]
[[th:Q]]
[[vi:Q]]
[[tr:Q]]
[[uk:Q (латиниця)]]
[[vo:Q]]
[[yo:Q]]
[[zh-yue:Q]]
[[bat-smg:Q]]
[[zh:Q]]