Q, is the seventeenth letter of Alphabet in many languages, included both of English and Bahasa Indonesia. In English, there are many words that started with “Q”. The number of them can be more than a hundred. Mostly, in English, the words with “Q” in the beginning is followed by “U”. Example of given are quarter, quality, queen, quit, quality, and etc.
Meanwhile, there are only few words with the beginning Q in Bahasa Indonesia. In 1991, based on the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI)—the Official Dictionary for Bahasa Indonesia—there were only eight words that started with Q. They were qaf, qari, qariah, qasar, qiamulail, qiraah, qiraat, and Qur’an. Actually, all of them were the loanwords that were derived from Arabic Language.
In 2005, there were two additional words in the third KBBI. They were qi and qudsi. Then, since 2008 until now, in the fourth edition of KBBI, there are four additional words—qanun, quasar, qurah, and qurani. They are still derived from Arabic Language.
However, in Kamus Lengkap Indonesia—an unofficial dictionary of Indonesian Language that is published by Media Centre, there is also other words such as qalam, qamar, qamariah, qiam, qarun, qanaah, and Quran.
Before we discuss it, let’s learn about:
- How to Learn Indonesian Alphabets
- Indonesian Words in Alphabetical Order
- Learning Indonesian Alphabets Easy and Fast
Indonesian Words that Start with Q
English word (The origin)[/th] [th]Indonesian word (The loanword
Quantity[/td] [td]Kuantitas
Quality[/td] [td]Kualitas
Frequency[/td] [td]Frekuensi
Aquarium[/td] [td]Akuarium
Why were only few Indonesian words started with Q ? Why most of them are adopted from Arabic Language ? There is no specific explanation to answer the questions. However, about the adoption of Arabic language is probably because the Muslim influence who came to Indonesia through Arabic and Persian traders. Then, over centuries the influence still exists until now.
Indonesian words that start with Q
After all, here they are the explanation about some words that started with “Q” in Bahasa Indonesia. For your information, all words below are noun.
Indonesian Word[/th] [th]The Meaning
Qaf[/td] [td](1) The 21st Arabic Letter
(2)The 50th surah in Al-Quran—the Muslims’ holy book
Qari[/td] [td] The men who recites Al-Qur’an with the proper rules of recitation called tajwid. The ability of recitation is without memorizing Al-Qur’an
Qariah[/td] [td]Similar with Qari, but this term for the woman
Qasar[/td] [td] The dispensation to allow Muslim travelers shortening a four rakaah prayer to be two rakaah.
Qiamulail[/td] [td] Muslim pray which is to spend the night or even a part of it such as only an hour by praying, reading Al-Qur’an, remembering Allah (It’s called dhikr), and other worships.
Qiraah[/td] [td]Terminology of Al-Qur’an recitation method.
Qiraat[/td] [td]Synonim of Qiraah
Qudsi[/td] [td]Significant meaning of hadith from Allah and the words that are related from the Messenger of Allah (Rasulullah).
Quran[/td] [td]Muslims’ holy book–Al-Qur’an
Actually, Indonesian vocabulary consists of many words that derived from many foreign languages besides Arabic Languages. (See: Indonesian Words Derived from Arabic) They are particularly from English, and the others adapted from Dutch and Sanskrit. The loanwords are adapted grammatically in Indonesian Language.
But in this case, the adaptation doesn’t make much change from the origin of words. So that, people can recognize the origin, although it is the Indonesian words. The words with Q in other languages commonly are adapted to become “K” in Indonesian Language, either the letter Q in the beginning or in the middle of the words.
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