Koppa - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Literal Koppa

Note: the phonetic transcriptions follow the International Phonetic Alphabet. The quoted Greek letters autonymiquement as letters are not put in italic, contrary to the Latin letters.

One thus indicates the sign Ϙ (ϙ into tiny, which is a recent invention since the letter, antiquated, got busy only at the time where the Greek only in capital was traced) when it is used to not note a Phonème but a Allophone of the /k/ phoneme, namely, i.e. a type of /k/ articulated behind of the velar zone, before the consonant which one would note. Such a distinction, nonrelevant in Greek, was not preserved a long time.

Origin phenician

When the Greek people borrowed from VIIIe century before the Christian era the letters phenicians to create their alphabets (there indeed were many grindings of the Greek alphabet before the Ionian model of Millet is not essential on Athens into -403), they made use of the letter qōf (one can find other names, those of the letters phenicians not being directly attested us but being rebuilt) to transcribe the nonrelevant Allophone of the Phonème /k/, its who, with the Greek ears, was closest to the value phenician of the letter, namely.

This distinction is not useful in Greek (whereas in the Semitic Langues and does not merge): indeed, combinative Variante of /k/ is only a in front of the vowels /o/ and /u/ (directly or not: one or more consonants can be intercalated enters and /o, U): the passage of to is thus automatic and it is not possible to find in front of /o/ and /u/ or elsewhere than in front of these vowels (just as in French the /k/ of blow is articulated behind than that of which without one being able to oppose these two types of /k/, which thus form one phoneme). The letter, named ϙόππα ḵóppa , is however present in many old Greek alphabets. One finds it for example in those of Théra, of Crete, Naxos, Athens, Milet and Arcadie, inter alia.

The layout of the letter, since the phenician, evolved/moved in various ways according to the alphabets, although one now represents it in a standardized form Ϙ, near of our Q Latin (which of it is drawn). Other forms are however attested, but seldom used in the modern editions of Greek texts, including one similar to the eye phenician.

The Order Levantine having been respected by the Greeks, the letter koppa occupied the 18th place in the original alphabet and was used to note number 90. It is besides this last function which enabled him not to be entirely forgotten.

Disappearance of the letter

After Ve century, koppa as a letter (and not as a number) falls in disuse in Greece: indeed, far from being necessary to the writing, it does not have any raison d'être (of as much less than compared to the couple of deaf persons Κ ~ Ϙ, one finds only one sound Γ). Koppa is simply replaced in all the positions by kappa .

Importance in the epigraphic and philological study

The existence of the literal koppa interests only the paleographer and the epigraphist: the consonant not noting a distinct phoneme, it is rare, except in the study of the Greek writing itself, that it is used. When it is advisable to represent an antiquated text accurately, however, the koppa finds its interest.

For example, the work of Mr. Lejeune quoted in bibliography, approaching the case of the koppa in the 24, cite paragraph following words (in small letters; one preferred the here capital S for marking the character epigraphic of the terms well): ΛΕϘΥΘΟΣ (λήκυθος “small vase”), ΚΑϘΟΝ (Ionian-attic: κακόν “bad” Neutral), ΛΕϘΤΟΙΣ (λεκτοῖς “selected” Plural Dative ), ϘΟΡΕΙ (κόρῃ “young girl” Singular Dative ), etc

Transmission with the alphabets Etruscan then Latin

The koppa was borrowed before its disappearance by the Etruscans in their alphabet (which made use of the model of Eubée, borrowed and adapted during VIIe century before the Christian era). Proceeding in the same way that the Greeks, they assigned with the koppa the allophonic value of /k/ posterior in front of /u/ (the Etruscan language does not know a /o/ phoneme), reserving for K the median role of /k/ and for C (resulting from the Γ Greek gamma which is worth /g/ there, that they pronounced /k/ since their language does not have the voiced sounds /b/, /d/ and /g/) that of /k/ former in front of /e/ and /i/. Thus, the Etruscan alphabet was rich of three Graphème S different for three allophones from the same phoneme, which proved far from useful: remainder, during Ve century before the Christian era, only C was preserved.

Meanwhile, the Romans, borrowing the Etruscan letters for their own alphabet, inherited ces three letters for the same sound. If the destiny of K and C (which gave then G ) does not import here, it should be noted that they preserved the koppa , become Q in the C-W communication Quadrata , which was continued to us. With the manner of the Etruscans, they kept with the Q its role of graphème allophonic of /k/ in front of /o/ and /u/ and extended it to the notation of the independent phoneme /k ʷ/(as in “quadruped”) by considering that it acted of /k/ in front of /u/ consonant (written thus QV ), which is inaccurate since /k/ and /k ʷ/are, in Latin, two different phonemes: one finds thus, in the antiquated inscriptions, CENSOR (“critic”), KAPVT ( caput , “head”) but QOMES ( comes , “hair”, QVRA ( cleaned , “care”) and AQVA (“water”). Quickly, Q was limited to the Digramme QV noting /k ʷ/, C prevailing in the other cases.

Numeral Koppa

Although now uncommon as a letter (except in the didactic works, cf supra ), the koppa continues to be employed like signs Greek alphabetical numeration with value 90. Its eye is not however any more that of the old letter but that known as “in flash” or “ Z ”. It is only used in the Greek legal documents: the old koppa used as number meets only in the current editions of old texts. The use of the open uncial form (Ҁ), which one meets in some of the old text-editings) is not relevant: indeed, the letter could be confused with the Digamma / Stigma (Ϛ).

The reasons of this modification of aspect are explained historically; as the letter was not included/understood any more nor used, if it is not in numeration, it underwent a simplification of the layout:

first of all, the loop opened in the C-W communication Onciale: Ϙ → Ҁ (C-W communication preserved in Cyrillic);
the loop is reduced while the jamb is wide: Ҁ → (C-W communication preserved in the gotic Alphabet);
the round layout is broken in three segments taking again only the general pace of the ductus : → Ϟ.

Data-processing coding

The letters koppa are coded by Unicode with the following sites:

Both koppa S were not distinguished one from the other than starting from version 3.2 of Unicode, which explains why old police forces confuse them and post one of the layouts for the other.

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