Pe (letter)
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| ← 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 Pei פ, Persian alphabet Pe پ 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 |
[edit] Origins of Pe
| Phoenician alphabet (ca. 1050–200 BCE) |
| 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 |
Pe is usually assumed to come from a pictogram of a mouth (in Hebrew pe; in Arabic, fam).
[edit] Hebrew Pei
| Orthographic variants | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| position in word |
Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script |
||
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | |||
| non final | פ | פ | פ |  |
 |
| final | ף | ף | ף |  |
 |
[edit] Variations on written form/pronunciation:
The letter Pei is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pei, 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 |
[edit] Pei with the dagesh
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.
[edit] Pei without the dagesh (Fei)
When this letter appears as פ without the dagesh ("dot") in its center then it usually represents a voiceless labiodental fricative /f/.
[edit] Final form of Pei/Fei
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).
However, when a word in modern Hebrew borrowed from another language ends in /p/, normally a pe with a dagesh at the end of the word is used instead of the final form.
[edit] Significance of Pei:
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.
[edit] Arabic fāʼ
The letter is named fāʼ, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Initial | Medial | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form of letter: | 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.
Fayʼ-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").
The Maghribi style of writing fa' is different. It is written with a dot underneath like this ڢ . Once the pervailant style, it is now only used in Maghribi countries for writing Qur'an with the exception of Libya which adopted the Mashriqi form.[1]. See also qaf for the Maghribi style of writing that letter.
[edit] References
- ^ Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah, cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires & cAbdus Samad, Are There Scribal Errors In The Qur'ân?, Retrieved 2008-March-20
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