From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

← Ayin               Pe               Tsade →
Phoenician	Hebrew	Aramaic	Syriac	Arabic
	פ,ף		ܦ	ﻓ,ﻑ
Phonemic representation:				p, f (was ɸ), w
Position in alphabet:				17
Numerical (Gematria/Abjad) value:				80

Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew פ and Arabic alphabet 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 Pe.

Contents 1 Origins of Pe 2 Hebrew Pei 2.1 Variations on written form/pronunciation: 2.1.1 Pei with the dagesh 2.1.2 Pei without the dagesh (Fei) 2.1.3 Final form of Pei/Fei 2.2 Significance of Pei: 3 Arabic fāʼ

Phoenician alphabet (1050 BCE–unknown)

𐤀    𐤁    𐤂    𐤃    𐤄    𐤅

𐤆    𐤇    𐤈    𐤉    𐤊    𐤋

𐤌    𐤍    𐤎    𐤏    𐤐

𐤑    𐤒    𐤓    𐤔    𐤕

Semitic abjads · Genealogy

Hebrew alphabet (1000 BCE–present)

א    ב    ג    ד    ה    ו

ז    ח    ט    י    כך

ל    מם    נן    ס    ע    פף

צץ    ק    ר    ש    ת

History · Transliteration Niqqud · Dagesh · Gematria Cantillation · Numeration

Syriac alphabet (200 BCE–present)

ܐ    ܒ    ܓ    ܕ    ܗ    ܘ

ܙ    ܚ    ܛ    ܝ    ܟܟ    ܠ

ܡܡ    ܢܢ    ܣ    ܥ    ܦ

ܨ    ܩ    ܪ    ܫ    ܬ

Arabic alphabet (400 CE–present)

ﺍ    ﺏ    ﺕ    ﺙ    ﺝ    ﺡ

ﺥ    ﺩ    ﺫ    ﺭ    ﺯ     س

ﺵ    ﺹ    ﺽ    ﻁ    ﻅ    ﻉ

ﻍ    ﻑ    ﻕ    ﻙ    ﻝ

ﻡ    ﻥ    ه‍    ﻭ    ﻱ

History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration

v • d • e

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

Main article: Hebrew phonology

The letter Pei is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, and Tav (see Hebrew Alphabet for more about these letters).

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

Name	Symbol	IPA	Transliteration	Example
Pei	פּ	/p/	p	pan
Fei	פ	/f/	f	fan

When the Pei 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.

When this letter appears as פ without the dagesh ("dot") in its center then it usually represents a voiceless labiodental fricative /f/.

At the end of words the letter's written form changes to a Pei/Fei Sophit (Final Pei/Fei):

• ף This does not alter the pronunciation (see above).

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

The letter is named fāʼ, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position
Isolated	Initial	Medial	Final
ف	فـ‍	ـفـ	ـف

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.

Fāʼ-fatḥa (فَـ /fa/) is a multi-function prefix most commonly equivalent to "so" or "so that." For example: نكتب naktub ("we write") → فنكتب fanaktub ("so we write").