From The Hebrew Alphabet...

The Hebrew Alphabet Letter Qoph

The nineteenth letter in many of the Semitic alphabets, including Hebrew, is Qoph or Qop. Over the course of time it became Q in the Latin alphabet. This letter represents the sound of a Q or a hard K. The letter Qoph also represents the number 100. This is the twelfth and the final of the twelve "single letters".

The beginning of Qoph is thought to have been derived from a picture or pictogram of a monkey with both the body and the tail showing. Others have made the proposal that Qoph originated from a picture or a pictogram of a person’s head and neck.

The letter Qoph means the exalted state of Aleph. As you remember, Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It also stands for the end of death and everything that is negative. The ancient Hebrew letter shows a picture of a sun splitting the line of the horizon. This means that the sun sets on death but it rises on Life.

Hebrew Pronunciation

In Modern Hebrew, Kuf is usually represented by /k/, that is, there is no distinction made between Kuf and Kaph. There are distinctions made with the way Kuf is pronounced between different Israeli dialects.

Arabic qaf

The letter is named qaf in Arabic and can be written in several different ways depending upon its position in the word. The letter can be pronounced in several different ways depending upon which Arabic dialect one is speaking in. For example, in the Arabic of Southern of Upper Egypt, qaf is often pronounced as a voiced velar plosive, that is, /g/. However, in rural Palestinian Arabic the pronunciation is often that of /k/.

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