Qaaf

Qaaf (ق) is the twenty-first letter of the Arabic alphabet, written qāf in its name. In Modern Standard Arabic it represents the voiceless uvular stop /q/; in many regional dialects the sound may be realized as /ɡ/ or /k/. The letter is used across languages that employ the Arabic script, including Persian, Urdu, Kurdish and others.

Qaaf has four contextual forms depending on position in a word: isolated ق, initial قـ, medial ـقـ, and final ـق. In most typefaces it is drawn with two dots above the letter.

Origin and classification: Qaaf is derived from the Phoenician qoph, through the ancient Semitic writing systems, and belongs to the Arabic branch of the family. It is one of the 28 basic letters of the Arabic alphabet and is common in alphabets used for many languages of the Middle East and South Asia.

Numeral value: In the traditional Abjad numeral system, qāf is assigned the value 100.

Distinguishing features: It is set apart from kaf (ك) primarily by its two dots above, whereas kaf typically bears one dot above. The qāf’s pronunciation and form can vary slightly between dialects, but its canonical standard is /q/.