Pe (letter)

← Ayin Pe Tsade →
Phonemic representation	p, f (was ɸ), w
Position in alphabet	17
Numerical value	80
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician

Pe is the seventeenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Pē , Hebrew Pē פ, Aramaic Pē , Syriac Pē ܦ, and Arabic Fāʼ ف (in abjadi order).

The original sound value is a voiceless bilabial plosive: /p/; it retains this value in most Semitic languages except for Arabic, which having lost /p/ now uses it to render a voiceless labiodental fricative /f/.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Pi (Π), Latin P, and Cyrillic П.

Origins

Pe is usually assumed to come from a pictogram of a “mouth” (in Hebrew pe; in Arabic, فا fah).

Arabic fāʼ

The letter ﻑ is named ﻓﺎء fāʾ. It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ف‬	ـف‬	ـفـ‬	فـ‬

In the process of developing from Proto-Semitic, Proto-Semitic /p/ became Arabic /f/, and this is reflected in the use of the letter representing /p/ in other Semitic languages for /f/ in Arabic.

Examples on usage in Modern Standard Arabic:

Fāʾ-fatḥah (فَـ /fa/) is a multi-function prefix most commonly equivalent to "so" or "so that." For example: نَكْتُب naktub ("we write") → فَنَكْتُب fanaktub ("so we write").

Maghrebi variant

In the Maghreb (northwest Africa), the dot in fāʼ is written underneath (ڢ). Once the prevalent style, it is now only used in Maghribi countries for writing Qur'an, with the exception of Libya and Algeria, which adopted the Mashriqi form (dot above).

The Maghrebi *qāf*
Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Form of letter:	ڢ‬	ـڢ‬	ـڢـ‬	ڢـ‬

The Maghrebi alphabet has taken the shape of fa’ (ﻑ) to mean qāf instead.

Diacriticized Arabic versions

Normally, the letter ﻑ fāʼ renders /f/ sound, but may also be used some names and loanwords where it can render /v/, might be arabized as /f/ in accordance to its spelling, e.g., يُونِيلِفِر (Unilever). It may be used interchangeably with the modified letter ﭪ - ve (with 3 dots above) in this case.

The character is mapped in Unicode under position U+06A8.

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ڤ‬	ـڤ‬	ـڤـ‬	ڤـ‬

Maghrebi variant

The Maghrebi style, used in Northwestern Africa, the dots moved underneath (Unicode U+06A5), because it is based on the other style of fāʼ (ڢ‬):

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ڥ‬	ـڥ‬	ـڥـ‬	ڥـ‬

Other similar letters

Code point	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
U+0641	ف‬	ـف‬	ـفـ‬	فـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH
U+06A1	ڡ‬	ـڡ‬	ـڡـ‬	ڡـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER DOTLESS FEH
U+06A2	ڢ‬	ـڢ‬	ـڢـ‬	ڢـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT MOVED BELOW
U+06A3	ڣ‬	ـڣ‬	ـڣـ‬	ڣـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT BELOW
U+06A4	ڤ‬	ـڤ‬	ـڤـ‬	ڤـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 3 DOTS ABOVE = VEH
U+06A5	ڥ‬	ـڥ‬	ـڥـ‬	ڥـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 3 DOTS BELOW = MAGHRIBI VEH
U+06A6	ڦ‬	ـڦ‬	ـڦـ‬	ڦـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 4 DOTS ABOVE = PEHEH
U+0760	ݠ‬	ـݠ‬	ـݠـ‬	ݠـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 2 DOTS BELOW
U+0761	ݡ‬	ـݡ‬	ـݡـ‬	ݡـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 3 DOTS POINTING UPWARDS BELOW
U+08A4	ࢤ‬	ـࢤ‬	ـࢤـ‬	ࢤـ‬ \|style="text-align:left"\| ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT BELOW AND THREE DOTS ABOVE

Hebrew Pe

The Hebrew spelling is פֵּא. It is also romanized pey, especially when used in Yiddish.^[1]^[2]

Orthographic variants
position in word	Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
position in word	Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced	Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
non final	פ	פ	פ
final	ף	ף	ף

Variations on written form/pronunciation

The letter Pe is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, and Tav.

There are two orthographic variants of this letter which indicate a different pronunciation:

Name	Symbol	IPA	Transliteration	as in the English word
Pe	פּ‬	/p/	p	pan
Fe	פ‬	/f/	f	fan

Pe with the dagesh

When the Pe has a "dot" in its center, known as a dagesh, it represents a voiceless bilabial plosive, /p/. There are various rules in Hebrew grammar that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.

Fe

When Pe appears without the dagesh dot in its center (פ), then it usually represents a voiceless labiodental fricative /f/.

Final form of Pe/Fe

At the end of words, the letter's written form changes to a Pe/Fe Sophit (Final Pe/Fe): ף.

When a word in modern Hebrew borrowed from another language ends with /p/, the non-final form is used (e.g. ּפִילִיפ /ˈfilip/ "Philip"), while borrowings ending in /f/ still use the Pe Sofit (e.g. כֵּיף /kef/ "fun", from Arabic). This is because native Hebrew words, which always use the final form at the end, cannot end in /p/.

Significance

In gematria, Pe represents the number 80. Its final form represents 800 but this is rarely used, Tav written twice (400+400) being used instead.

Character encodings

Character	פ		ף		ف		ܦ		ࠐ
Unicode name	HEBREW LETTER PE		HEBREW LETTER FINAL PE		ARABIC LETTER FEH		SYRIAC LETTER PE		SAMARITAN LETTER PI
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	1508	U+05E4	1507	U+05E3	1601	U+0641	1830	U+0726	2064	U+0810
UTF-8	215 164	D7 A4	215 163	D7 A3	217 129	D9 81	220 166	DC A6	224 160 144	E0 A0 90
Numeric character reference	פ	פ	ף	ף	ف	ف	ܦ	ܦ	ࠐ	ࠐ

Character	𐎔		𐡐		𐤐
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER PU		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER PE		PHOENICIAN LETTER PE
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	66452	U+10394	67664	U+10850	67856	U+10910
UTF-8	240 144 142 148	F0 90 8E 94	240 144 161 144	F0 90 A1 90	240 144 164 144	F0 90 A4 90
UTF-16	55296 57236	D800 DF94	55298 56400	D802 DC50	55298 56592	D802 DD10
Numeric character reference	𐎔	𐎔	𐡐	𐡐	𐤐	𐤐

References

↑ Daniels, Peter T. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. p. 736. ISBN 978-0-19-507993-7.
↑ Kahn, Lily (2013). Colloquial Yiddish: The Complete Course for Beginners. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-136-96779-5.

External links

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[1] Daniels, Peter T. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. p. 736. ISBN 978-0-19-507993-7.

[2] Kahn, Lily (2013). Colloquial Yiddish: The Complete Course for Beginners. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-136-96779-5.

[a]