Pe (letter) Article Index for
Pe
 

Information About

Pe (letter)




Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic Abjads , including Phoenician , Aramaic , Hebrew and Arabic Alphabet (in Abjadi Order ).

The original sound value is a ; it retains this value in most Semitic languages except for Arabic, which having lost now uses it to render a Voiceless Labiodental Fricative .

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


ORIGINS OF PE

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


ARABIC Fāʼ


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

Fāʼ- Fatḥa (فَـ ) is a prefix equivalent to "so" or "so that." For example: نكتب ''naktub'' ("we write") → فنكتب ''fanaktub'' ("so we write").


PE IN HEBREW



Variations on written form/pronunciation:

See Also: Hebrew phonology


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 (see Hebrew Alphabet for more about these letters).

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

  • פּ   Pe  

  • and

  • פ Phe ''or'' Fe  



Pe with the dagesh

When the Pe has a "dot" in its center, known as a Dagesh , it represents a Voiceless Bilabial Plosive , }. There are various rules in Hebrew Grammar that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.


Pe without the dagesh (Phe)

When this letter appears as פ ''without'' the Dagesh ("dot") in its center then it usually represents a Voiceless Labiodental Fricative .


Final form of Phe

At the end of words the letter's written form changes to a ''Phe Sophit'' (Final Phe):
  • ף This does not alter the pronunciation (see above).

  • Some use to pronounce it ''Pe Sophit''.



Significance of Pe:

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.