History of Oceania

What is the origin of letter Q?

The letter Q originated from the Greek letter Koppa (Ϙ ϙ), which was borrowed into the Latin alphabet. Koppa was used in Greek to represent the /k/ sound, but in Latin it was reassigned to represent the /kw/ sound. This sound was later simplified to /k/, and Q eventually came to be used exclusively for this sound.

The letter Q is not found in the alphabets of many languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. In these languages, the /kw/ sound is typically represented by the letter C, which is pronounced as /k/ before the vowels E and I, and as /kw/ before the vowels A, O, and U.