Pe (Semitic letter)

Pe is the seventeenth letter of the Semitic abjads, which include languages like Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, and Syriac. It looks different in each language, such as ف‎ in Arabic, פ‎ in Hebrew, and 𐡐 in Aramaic. The letter Pe connects many languages in the Middle East.

At first, Pe made a sound like the "p" in "spin". Most Semitic languages still use this sound today. In Arabic, the sound changed to more like the "f" in "fine". Arabic can still use a special form of Pe, called pe, to show the "p" sound when borrowing words from other languages. This happens especially in areas influenced by Persian culture, such as the Persian Gulf, Egypt, and parts of the Maghreb.

The letter Pe also influenced letters in other writing systems. It is the ancestor of the Greek Pi (Π), the Latin P, and the Cyrillic П. This shows how ancient writing systems are linked together across history.

Origins

Pe is thought to have started from a picture of a "mouth". This idea comes from the Hebrew word פֶּה (pe) and the Arabic word فا fah, both of which mean "mouth".

Arabic fāʾ

The letter ف is called fāʾ /faːʔ/. It can look different depending on where it appears in a word.

From older languages, the sound /p/ changed to become the /f/ sound in Arabic. This is why Arabic uses a letter that stood for /p/ in other Semitic languages.

In everyday Arabic, fāʾ can act like the word "so." For example, from "we write" (نَكْتُب naktub), adding fāʾ makes it "so we write" (فَنَكْتُب fanaktub).

In some areas, like the Maghreb, the dot under fāʼ is written below the letter. This style is mostly used for special writing, like in religious texts, except in Libya and Algeria, where the dot is placed above the letter.

In Central Asia, for languages like Uyghur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz, fā’ sometimes has a longer tail at the bottom. Even though there is a special letter that could be used, most writing systems just use the normal fā’ letter.

Diacriticized Arabic versions

The letter ف, called fāʼ, usually makes the /f/ sound. But in some names and words borrowed from other languages, it can make the /v/ sound. Sometimes it is written as /f/ instead of /v/, like in the word يُونِيلِفِر for Unilever. It can also be used in the same way as the letter ڤ, called ve, which has three dots above it.

In Persian, the letter fāʼ with three dots above is not used anymore. This is because the sound it made changed.

The character fāʼ is found in Unicode at position U+06A4.

Maghrebi variant

In a style used in Northwestern Africa called Maghrebi, the dots of the letter are placed underneath instead of above. This style is shown using the character ڢ‎ and is found in Unicode at U+06A5.

Other similar letters

Hebrew pe

The Hebrew spelling is פֵּא. It is also written as pei or pey, especially in Yiddish.

The letter Pe is one of six letters that can have a special mark called a Dagesh Kal. These six letters are Bet, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, and Tav.

One special form of Pe is called the Pe Kefulah, or Doubled Pe. This looks like a small Pe inside a larger Pe. You can find this form in old Torah scrolls and some modern Hebrew Bibles. It adds extra meaning to the text.

When Pe has a dot in the middle, called a dagesh, it makes the sound /p/. Without the dot, it makes the sound /f/. At the end of words, Pe changes its shape to a Pe Sofit, or Final Pe/Fe: ף. In modern Hebrew, words borrowed from other languages ending in /p/ use the regular Pe, while those ending in /f/ use the Final Pe.

In a system called gematria, Pe stands for the number 80. Its final form stands for 800, but this is rarely used. Instead, the letter Tav is written twice to show 800.

Main articles: Modern Hebrew phonology and Hebrew alphabet § Ancient Hebrew

There are two ways to write this letter that change how it sounds.

When Pe has a dot in the center, it makes the /p/ sound. When Pe is written without the dot (פ), it makes the /f/ sound.

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

In modern Hebrew, if a borrowed word ends with /p/, the regular Pe is used (like in פִילִיפ /ˈfilip/ "Philip"). If it ends with /f/, the Final Pe is used (like in כֵּיף /kef/ "fun", from Arabic). This is because Hebrew words normally use the final form at the end and cannot end in /p/.

Syriac pe

The Syriac letter pe is one of the letters in the Semitic writing systems. It is used in the Syriac alphabet. This alphabet looks similar to others like Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, and Ge'ez. The letter helps people write and read in the Syriac language.

Character encodings

The letter Pe is used in many old writing systems. These include Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, and Syriac. It also links to even older scripts like Ancient North Arabian, South Arabian, and Ge'ez. This shows how writing has changed over time in many cultures.