Why is Q used in some words instead of K or C
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Chapters
00:00 Why Is Q Used In Some Words Instead Of K Or C
00:14 Answer 1 Score 8
00:30 Accepted Answer Score 25
01:29 Thank you
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Full question
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Tags
#orthography
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 25
There are a small number of words and names used in English that have Q but no U and do not correspond to a "kw" sound:
- Aqaba
- Haq
- Iraq
- Qasr
- qat
- Qatar
- Qi
- Qian
- Qiao
- Qing
- Qingdao
- souq
- Tariq
... among others
Most of these have a q because they are words or names that come from Arabic, which traditionally uses the letter Q to transcribe a sound that doesn't occur in English: the voiceless uvular stop, which sounds similar to but not quite like the sound of the letter "K", and is the sound usually used when saying these words in English.
A few of these—those starting with "QI", such as "Qi", "Qian", and "Qing"—come from Chinese, where Q is the letter used to transcribe a different sound—the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate—which sounds similar to but not quite like the sound of the "CH", and is the sound usually used when saying these words in English.
ANSWER 2
Score 8
The place names that you mention are transliterations from Arabic, and the letter Q is traditionally used in transliterations of Arabic to represent a stop sound which doesn't exist in English.