is descended from the Greek koppa and the Semetic koph.
The Phoenician alphabet had a word koph, which the eastern Greeks adopted
as a letter with a K sound. They dropped the letter soon after, preferring their older kappa for the K sound.
Western Greeks, however, kept their K, and when the Romans adopted
it they used it only before a U. English has kept to the practice, and now all Qs are followed by Us.
