The original sound value is a voiceless bilabial plosive/p/ and 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. However, the sound /p/ in Arabic is used in loanwords with the letter pe as an alternative. Under the Persian influence, many Arabic dialects in the Persian Gulf, as well as in Egypt and in some of the Maghreb under the Ottoman influence uses the letter pe to represent the sound /p/ which is missing in Modern Standard Arabic. Not to be confused with the Turned g. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the GreekPi (Π), LatinP, GlagoliticⰒ,[1] and CyrillicП.
Origins
Pe is usually assumed to come from a pictogram of a "mouth" (as in Hebrew פֶּה (pe),[2] Arabic, فا fah).
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.
Fāʾ-fatḥah (فَـ/fa/) is a multi-function prefix most commonly equivalent to "so" or "so that." For example: نَكْتُبnaktub ("we write") → فَنَكْتُبfanaktub ("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). When the letter is isolated or word-final, it may sometimes become unpointed.
The Maghrebi fāʼ
Position in word:
Isolated
Final
Medial
Initial
Form of letter:
ڢ / ࢻ
ـڢ / ـࢻ
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.[3][4]
Theoretically this shape could be approximated by using U+06A7ڧARABIC LETTER QAF WITH DOT ABOVE, but in practice U+0641فARABIC 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+06A7ڧARABIC LETTER QAF WITH DOT ABOVE on the "Legacy" keyboard layout is shown in pink, and U+0641فARABIC LETTER FEH 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+06A7ڧARABIC LETTER QAF WITH DOT ABOVE.[5] The Uyghur keyboard layout in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 changed that key combination to give U+0641فARABIC LETTER FEH.[6] On the newer systems, the old keyboard layout is still available under the name Uyghur (Legacy).
Diacriticized Arabic versions
Normally, the letter فfāʼ 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 letter fāʾ with three dots above is no longer used in Persian, as the [β]-sound changed to [b], e.g. archaic زڤان/zaβɑn/ > زبان/zæbɒn/ 'language'[7]
The character is mapped in Unicode under position U+06A4.
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[10] 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.[11] 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:
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.
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.
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
