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pe

 
() pronunciation
n.
The 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[Hebrew , of Phoenician origin.]


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1. In the lumber industry, abbr. for “plain end.”
2. Abbr. for polyethylene.


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Pe (letter)

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peh
Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Syriac Arabic
peh פ,ף peh ܦ ف‍,ف
Alphabetic
derivatives
Greek Latin Cyrillic
Π P П
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 and Persian, Arabic fāʼ ف (in abjadi order). (look below)

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 П.

Contents

Origins

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

Hebrew Pe

The Hebrew spelling is "פֵּא".

Orthographic variants
position in word Various Print Fonts Cursive Hebrew Rashi
Script
Serif Sans-serif Monospaced
non final פ פ פ Hebrew letter Pe handwriting.svg Hebrew letter Pe-nonfinal Rashi.png
final ף ף ף Hebrew letter Pe-final handwriting.svg Hebrew letter Pe-final Rashi.png

Variations on written form/pronunciation

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.

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 as פ without the dagesh ("dot") in its center 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 This does not alter the pronunciation (see above).

When a word in modern Hebrew borrowed from another language ends in /p/, a pe with a dagesh at the end of the word is used instead of the final form, as a word almost never ends with a letter containing a Dagesh, except for very few biblical exceptions. A Pe sofit is virtually non-existent in Hebrew, .

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 fāʼ

The letter is named ﻓﺎء fāʾ. It is commonly known in Egypt as [fe]. It is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Form of letter: ف ـف ـفـ فـ

Normally, the letter 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.[as in يونيلفر (Unilever)]. It may be used interchangeably with the modified letter - ve (with 3 dots) in this case.

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: 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 prevalent style, it is now only used in Maghribi countries for writing Qur'an with the exception of Libya which adopted the Mashriqi form. See also qaf for the Maghribi style of writing that letter.

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

References


Translations:

Pe

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Dansk (Danish)
abbr. - physical education; gymnastik

Nederlands (Dutch)
verhouding prijs en inkomsten, gymles, zetfout

Français (French)
abbr. - (abrév = physical education) Éducation physique

Deutsch (German)
abbr. - Sportunterrricht

Ελληνική (Greek)
abbr. - γυμναστική (το μάθημα)

Italiano (Italian)
educazione fisica

Português (Portuguese)
abbr. - E.F. (educação física)

Русский (Russian)
физкультура

Español (Spanish)
abbr. - educación física

Svenska (Swedish)
abbr. - Physical Education (gymnastik)

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
爱德华太子岛, 体育, 股票收益率, 聚乙烯

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
abbr. - 愛德華太子島, 體育, 股票收益率, 聚乙烯

한국어 (Korean)
abbr. - physical education(체육)

日本語 (Japanese)
abbr. - ペー

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(اختصار) إختصار لكلمه : خطأ محتمل Probable error , أختصار لكلمه : تربيه بدنيه Physical education‏

עברית (Hebrew)
abbr. - ‮חינוך גופני, היחס בין מחיר מניה לרווח ממנה‬


 
 
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American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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