New orthogonality relations for the continuous and the discrete q-ultraspherical polynomials

In a recent contribution [N.M. Atakishiyev, A.U. Klimyk, On discrete q-ultraspherical polynomials and their duals, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 306 (2005) 637–645], the so-named discrete q-ultraspherical polynomials were introduced as a specialization of the big q-Jacobi polynomials, and their orthogonality established for values of the parameter outside its commonly known domain but inside the range of validity of the conditions of Favardʹs theorem. In this paper we consider both the continuous and the discrete q-ultraspherical polynomials and we prove that their orthogonality is guaranteed for the whole range of the allowed parameters, even in those intriguing cases in which the three term recurrence relation breaks down. The presence of either the Askey–Wilson divided difference operator (in the continuous case), or the q-derivative operator (in the discrete one), provides the q-Sobolev character of the non-standard inner products introduced in our approach.