Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

The twenty-first letter of the alphabet: called قَافٌ. Respecting its pronunciation as the title of the fiftieth chapter of the Ḳur-án, see صاد, in art. صود. It is one of the letters termed مَجْهُورَة [or vocal, i. e. pronounced with the voice, and not with the breath only]; its place of utterance is between the root of the tongue and the uvula, in the furthest part of the mouth; and it is of the strongest of the letters, and of the most certain of them in sound. (TA at the commencement of باب القاف.) It is sometimes pronounced like the Pers. گ, i. e. الكَافُ المَمْزُوجَةُ بِالقَافِ; in which case it is termed القَافُ المَقْعُودَةُ [?]: this mode of pronouncing it is well known as of the dial. of the people of El-Yemen [and others]: Ibn-Khaldoon says that it is of the dial. of Mudar; and that some of the people of the [Prophet's] house are so extravagant as to assert that recitation in prayer is not rightly but with this letter thus pronounced. (MF and TA voce جُلَّنَارٌ.) It has been substituted for one letter, i. e. ك, [as some say,] in the instance of أُكْنَةُ الطَّائِرِ [for which they sometimes said أُقْنَة]. (MF and TA at the commencement of باب القاف. [It is there added that a pl. of أُكْنَة has been heard, but not of أُقْنَة, and this is a sign of the originality of the former: but أُقَنَاتٌ is mentioned as pl. of أُقْنَة in art. اقن in the TA.])