What is "koppa"

alt. The 18th Ancient Greek letter Ϙ (lowercase ϙ). n. The 18th Ancient Greek letter Ϙ (lowercase ϙ).

Koppa or Qoppa (; as a modern numeral sign: ) is a letter that was used in early forms of the Greek alphabet, derived from Phoenician qoph . It was originally used to denote the /k/ sound, but dropped out of use as an alphabetic character in favor of Kappa (Κ). It has remained in use as a numeral symbol (90) in the system of Greek numerals, although with a modified shape. Koppa is the source of Latin Q, as well as the Cyrillic numeral sign of the same name ( Koppa).

Koppa (Ҁ ҁ; italics: Ҁ ҁ) is an archaic letter-like numeral character of the Cyrillic script. Its form (and modern name) are derived from the Greek letter Koppa (Ϙ ϙ).

Koppa was used as a numeral character in the oldest Cyrillic manuscripts, representing the value 90 (exactly as its Greek ancestor did). It was replaced relatively early by the Cyrillic letter Che (Ч ч), which is similar in appearance and originally had no numeric value. Isolated examples of Ч used as a numeral are found in the East and South Slavonic areas as early as the eleventh century, though Koppa continued in regular use into the fourteenth century. In some varieties of Western Cyrillic, however, Koppa was retained, and Ч used with the value 60, replacing the Cyrillic letter Ksi (Ѯ ѯ).

Cyrillic Koppa never had a phonetic value and was never used as a letter by any national language using Cyrillic. However, certain modern textbooks and dictionaries of Old Church Slavonic language insert this character among other letters of the early Cyrillic alphabet, either between П and Р (to reproduce the Greek alphabetical order) or at the very end of the list.

Koppa may refer to:

• Koppa (letter), an archaic Greek letter and numeral symbol
• Koppa (Cyrillic), an archaic Cyrillic symbol derived from the Greek
• Koppa, India, a town in Karnataka, India