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Similarly the
letter Q, which is superfluous and useless save for
the purpose of attaching to itself the vowels by
which it is followed, results in the formation of
harsh syllables, as, for example, when we write equos
and aequum, more especially since these two vowels
together produce a sound for which Greek has no
equivalent and which cannot therefore be expressed
in Greek letters.1
1 The sound of Q in itself does not differ from C. It would therefore be useless, save as an indication that U and another vowel are to follow. The U in this combination following Q was, as Donatus later pointed out, “neither a vowel nor a consonant,” i.e. it was something between U and V.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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