Koppa (letter)

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Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron Δδ Delta Ππ Pi Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma Ηη Eta Ττ Tau Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon Ιι Iota Φφ Phi Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
History
Archaic local variants tsan digamma Diacritics Ligatures Numerals ϛ (6) ϟ (90) ϡ (900)
Use in other languages
Bactrian Coptic Albanian
Related topics
Use as scientific symbols
Category
v t e

Koppa or qoppa (Ϙ, ϙ; as a modern numeral sign: ϟ) is a letter that was used in early forms of the

In Phoenician, qoph was pronounced [

The koppa was used as a symbol for the city of Corinth, which had the early spelling of Ϙόρινθος.

Numeric

Koppa remained in use in the system of

minuscule handwriting, the shape changed further into a simple zigzag line (,

Typography

Modern typography of the numeral Koppa has most often employed some version of the Z-shaped character. It may appear in several variants: as a simple geometrical lightning-bolt shape (

As with the numeral usage of

The Unicode character encoding standard originally (since version 1.1 of 1993), had only a single code point for Koppa, which was marked as uppercase and could be used either for an epigraphic or a numeral glyph, depending on font design. A lowercase form was encoded in version 3.0 (1999).^[4][5] A second pair of code points specifically for the original closed epigraphical shape was introduced in version 3.2 (2002).^[4] This left the older two code points (U+03DE/U+03DF, Ϟϟ) to cover primarily the numeral glyphs.

As of 2010, coverage of these code points in common computer fonts is therefore still inconsistent: while the most commonly used version of the numeral glyph will be located at the lowercase code point U+03DF in recent fonts, older fonts may either have no character at all or a version of the closed epigraphic form at that position. Conversely, older fonts may have the numeral glyph at the uppercase code point, while this position may be filled with any of several less common glyphs in newer ones. Since there had never been a consistent typographic tradition for a specifically uppercase numeral koppa, the typographer Yannis Haralambous proposed two new variants for it, and , noting that he himself found them not "entirely satisfactory".^[6] A serifed version similar to his koppa was adopted as the reference glyph for the Unicode code charts, along with a lowercase form with heavy curved arms and pointed angles: . Some current Unicode fonts have adopted these new shapes, while many font designers have opted for some combination of the more traditional glyphs, including the uncial and the lamedh-shaped ones.^[7]

References

Further reading

• Powell, Barry B. (1991). Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 0-521-37157-0
  .
• Threatte, Leslie (1980). The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
  ISBN 3-11-007344-7
  .
• Woodard, Roger D. (1997). Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer. New York: Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 0-19-510520-6
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Koppa (letter).

• Koppa (alphabetic use)
• Koppa (numeric use)