Q
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The Semitic sound value of Qôp (perhaps originally qaw cord) was /q/ (voiceless uvular plosive). In Greek this sign as Qoppa Ϙ probably came to represent several labialized velar plosives, among them /kʷ/ and /kʷʰ/. These sounds changed to /p/ and /pʰ/ respectively. Therefore, Qoppa was transformed into two letters: Qoppa, which stood for a number only, and Phi Φ which stood for the aspirated sound /pʰ/ that came to be pronounced /f/ in Modern Greek. The Etruscans used Q only in conjunction with V, symbolizing thus a /kʷ/. Some scholars claim that Q and Phi are unrelated.
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Usage
In most modern languages, Q is rather superfluous; in Romance and Germanic languages it appears almost exclusively in the digraph QU. In English this digraph most often denotes the cluster /kw/, as it does in Italian (where [w] is an allophone of /u/); in German, /kv/; and in French, Spanish, and Catalan, /k/. (In Spanish and in French, qu replaces c for /k/ before the vowels i and e, since in those contexts c is a fricative.) In the Aymara, Azeri, Uzbek, Quechua, and Tatar languages, Q is a voiceless uvular plosive. q is also used in IPA for the voiceless uvular plosive, as well as in most transliteration schemes of Semitic languages for the "emphatic" qōp sound.
In Maltese and Võro, Q denotes the glottal stop.
In Chinese Hanyu Pinyin, Q is used to represent the sound [tɕʰ], which is similar to English "ch" in "cheese".
Alternative representations
Quebec represents the letter Q in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
In international Morse code the letter Q is DahDahDitDah: - - · -
In Braille the letter Q is represented as ⠟ (in Unicode), the dot pattern:
XX XX X.
Computing
In Unicode the capital Q is codepoint U+0051 and the lowercase q is U+0071.
The ASCII code for capital Q is 81 and for lowercase q is 113; or in binary 01010001 and 01110001, correspondingly.
The EBCDIC code for capital Q is 216 and for lowercase q is 152.
The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "Q" and "q" for upper and lower case respectively.
Meanings for Q
- In biblical criticism, Q is an abbreviation used by scholars of the New Testament to describe the Q document, a hypothetical lost written "source" (German, Quelle, hence, Q) behind the Synoptic Gospels.
- In biochemistry, Q is the symbol for glutamine.
- In chess, Q is a notation symbol for the queen piece
- In computing:
- Q is an "equational programming language"; see Q programming language.
- Q is the runtime component of the QSDK.
- In electrical engineering, Q is a symbol for characterizing electronic filters and other resonant systems; see Q factor. Q stands for quality.
- In English, Q can be an abbreviation for 'question'.
- In film, Q is a character in the James Bond series; see Q (James Bond) (see also: science fiction, below).
- in finance, Q is the U.S. ticker symbol for Qwest Communications International Inc.
- In international licence plate codes, Q stands for Qatar.
- Q is the equivalent of the number 87 in the story The Game by Griselda Holshed, an international best seller. it is significant because jilu the main character has to determine the predisposition of the letter before he can overcome the quantitive force of 87 in the mean.
- In Financial economics q stands for Tobin's-q.
- In literature,
- Q is the title of a historical novel by Luther Blissett; see Q (novel).
- Q is the pen name of writer Arthur Quiller-Couch.
- Q is the leading character in the famous Chinese novel A True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun. Because of this novel, "Ah Q" in China means someone who always claims spiritual victory despite frequent defeat.
- In marketing, Q is sometimes used as a synonym for Q Score
- In mathematics, blackboard bold <math>\mathbb{Q}</math> denotes the set of all rational numbers.
- In mechanical engineering and civil engineering, Q is the symbol for volumetric flow rate.
- In medicine, Q is a bacterial infection; see Q fever. "q" also is a medical abbreviation for every, often used to specify drug dosing schedules (e.g., q6h indicates every 6 hours; q4w indicates 4 times per week).
- In military science, Q is the name for anti-submarine ships; see Q-ship.
- In phonetics, lowercase [q] is the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for the voiceless uvular plosive.
- In physics, Q is a symbol for electric charge or heat.
- In fusion power, Q is the symbol for the fusion energy gain factor
- In a deck of playing cards, Q is used to mark each of the queens.
- In publishing, Q is a British music magazine; see Q magazine
- In radiotelegraphy and amateur radio, the Q code is a set of three-letter code signals.
- In science fiction, Q is a character from the Q Continuum in several Star Trek spin-off series; see Q (Star Trek).
- In Scientology, Q refers to a "common denominator" of subsidiary information which forms a "pyramid of data" (from Scientology 0-8).
- In statistics, the Q Test helps in the decision to retain or discard questionable datum.
- In television, Q TV is a music video channel from the same people who produce Q magazine.
- In video games, Q is a character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games.
- In economics, Q is usually used to represent quantity.
- Q was also the name for a number of comedy series written by and starring Spike Milligan
- Q is an acronym for queue
- Q is an acronym for "queer", an appropriation of the historically pejorative word, now used neutrally or positively by those who strongly reject traditional gender identities.
- Q is another name of the Panasonic Q multimedia console,a hybrid of a DVD player and a GameCube.
- Q is the nickname for Quentin Richardson.
- Q is the commonly used abbreviation for the Greek telecom operator Q-telecom
- Q was a 1982 movie about Quetzalcoatl in Manhattan
Q trivia
- Q is the only letter that does not appear in any US state name
- The James Bond character Q (see Q (James Bond)) appears in every film except Live and Let Die (although it has also been announced that he will not appear in the 2006 Bond film, Casino Royale.)
- People connected to an IRC-network with usermode +q are immune to bans, kicks and akicks.
See also
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ca:Q sn:Q cs:Q da:Q de:Q el:Q als:Q es:Q eo:Q fr:Q gl:Q ko:Q id:Q it:Q kw:Q la:Q nl:Q ja:Q no:Q nn:Q pl:Q pt:Q ro:Q simple:Q sl:Q fi:Q sv:Q vi:Q yo:Q zh:Q