Pe (Semitic letter)

This article is about the Semitic letter. For the Cyrillic letter, see Pe (Cyrillic). For the Persian letter, see Pe (Persian letter).

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

← Ayin Pe Tsade →
Phoenician
Hebrew	פ
Aramaic
Syriac	ܦ
Arabic	ف
Phonemic representation	p, f (originally ɸ), w
Position in alphabet	17
Numerical value	80
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek	Π
Latin	P
Cyrillic	П

The original sound value is a voiceless bilabial plosive: /p/; it retains this value in most Semitic languages, except for Arabic, where the sound /p/ changed into the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, carrying with it the pronunciation of the letter. Not to be confused with the Turned g. 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).

Hebrew pe

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

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

Variations on written form/pronunciation

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

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.

Variant forms of Pe/Fe

 

Pe Kefulah / Double Pe (Pe within a Pe)

A notable variation on the letter Pe is the Pe Kefulah (Doubled Pe), also known as the Pei Lefufah (Wrapped Pe). The Pe Kefulah is written as a small Pe scribed within a larger Pe. This atypical letter appears in Torah scrolls (most often Yemenite Torahs^[3] but is also present in Sephardic and Ashkenazi Torahs), manuscripts, and some modern printed Hebrew Bibles. When the Pe is written in the form of a Doubled Pe, this adds a layer of deeper meaning to the Biblical text.^[4] This letter variation can appear on the final and non-final forms of the Pe.

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.

Arabic fāʾ

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: (Help)	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 Maghrebi scripts, the i'ajami dot in fāʼ has traditionally been written underneath (ڢ). Once the prevalent style, it is now mostly used in countries of the Maghreb in ceremonial situations or for writing Qur'an, with the exception of Libya and Algeria, which adopted the Mashriqi form (dot above).

The Maghrebi fāʼ

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Form of letter:	ڢ‎	ـڢ‎	ـڢـ‎	ڢـ‎

The Maghrebi alphabet, to write qāf (ق), a letter that resembles fā’ (ف) in the initial and medial forms is used, but it is really a qāf with a single dot (ڧ‎).

Central Asian variant

In the Arabic orthographies of Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz, the letter fā’ has a descender in the final and isolated positions, much like the Maghrebi version of qāf.^[5][6]

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ڧ‎	ـڧ‎	ـڧـ‎	ڧـ‎

Theoretically this shape could be approximated by using U+06A7 ڧ ARABIC LETTER QAF WITH DOT ABOVE, but in practice U+0641 ف ARABIC LETTER FEH is used in databases of these languages, and most commercial fonts for these languages give the codepoint of the usual Arabic fā’ a shape like ڧ‎.

 

MS Windows Uyghur keyboard layout. On the key combination ⇧ Shift+F, U+06A7 ڧ on the "Legacy" keyboard layout is shown in pink, and U+0641 ف on the latest keyboard is shown in blue.

When the Uyghur keyboard layout for Microsoft Windows was first added in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the key combination ⇧ Shift+F resulted in U+06A7 ڧ .^[7] The Uyghur keyboard layout in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 changed that key combination to give U+0641 ف .^[8] On the newer systems, the old keyboard layout is still available under the name Uyghur (Legacy).

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+06A4.

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

Other similar letters

Code point	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial	Unicode character name (or descriptive synonyms used in the JoiningType and JoiningGroup datatables)
U+0641	ف‎	ـف‎	ـفـ‎	فـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH
U+06A1	ڡ‎	ـڡ‎	ـڡـ‎	ڡـ‎	ARABIC LETTER DOTLESS FEH
U+06A2	ڢ‎	ـڢ‎	ـڢـ‎	ڢـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT MOVED BELOW
U+06A3	ڣ‎	ـڣ‎	ـڣـ‎	ڣـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT BELOW
U+06A4	ڤ‎	ـڤ‎	ـڤـ‎	ڤـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 3 DOTS ABOVE = VEH
U+06A5	ڥ‎	ـڥ‎	ـڥـ‎	ڥـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 3 DOTS BELOW = MAGHRIBI VEH
U+06A6	ڦ‎	ـڦ‎	ـڦـ‎	ڦـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 4 DOTS ABOVE = PEHEH
U+0760	ݠ‎	ـݠ‎	ـݠـ‎	ݠـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 2 DOTS BELOW
U+0761	ݡ‎	ـݡ‎	ـݡـ‎	ݡـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH 3 DOTS POINTING UPWARDS BELOW
U+08A4	ࢤ‎	ـࢤ‎	ـࢤـ‎	ࢤـ‎	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT BELOW AND THREE DOTS ABOVE
U+08BB	ࢻ‎	ـࢻ‎	ـࢻـ‎	ࢻـ‎	ARABIC LETTER AFRICAN FEH

Character encodings

Character information

Preview	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	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	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 information

Preview	𐎔		𐡐		𐤐
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER PU		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER PE		PHOENICIAN LETTER PE
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	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

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.
3. Yeivin, Israel (1985). Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah. Atlanta47-48: SBL Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
4. Thompson, Deborah B. (2019). "Teaching Otiot Meshunot from Scribal Biblical Hebrew Texts" (PDF). Hebrew Higher Education. 21: 50–64. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
5. "Request for glyph changes and annotations for Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uyghur" (PDF).
6. "U+0641 information for Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz" (PDF).
7. "Uyghur (Legacy) Keyboard".
8. "Uyghur Keyboard".

External links

 

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