Pe (Cyrillic) Explained

Pe (П п; italics:

П п) is a letter of the Cyrillic script.

It commonly represents the unaspirated voiceless bilabial plosive pronounced as //p//, like the pronunciation of (p) in "spin".

History

The Cyrillic letter Pe was derived from the Greek letter Pi (Π π).[1] The name of Pe in the Early Cyrillic alphabet was (pokoi), meaning "peaceful state".[2]

In the Cyrillic numeral system, Pe had a value of 80.

Form

The capital Cyrillic letter Pe looks exactly like the Greek capital Pi from which it is derived, and small Pe looks like a smaller version of the same, though with a less prominent horizontal bar (Greek Π π > Cyrillic П п). Pe is not to be confused with the Cyrillic letter El (Л л; italics:

Л л), which has a hook on its left leg in some fonts (in others El resembles the Greek Lambda (Λ)).

In italics and handwriting, capital Pe looks identical to the Greek capital Pi in these forms. The lowercase forms, however, differ among the languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet. Small italic Cyrillic Pe

(п) in the majority of fonts or handwritten styles looks like the small italic Latin N (n). In handwritten Serbian, however, it appears as a Latin U (u) with a bar over it (ū).

Usage

As used in the alphabets of various languages, Pe represents the following sounds:

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language; for details consult the articles on the languages.

Language Position in
alphabet
Pronunciation
align=center 17th pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //pʲ//
align=center 16th pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //pʲ//
align=center 20th pronounced as //p//
align=center 17th pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //pʲ//
align=center 19th pronounced as //p//
align=center 20th pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //pʲ//
Kazakh22ndpronounced as //p//
Abkhaz19thpronounced as //pʼ//

Related letters and other similar characters

Notes and References

  1. Book: Campbell . George L. . The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets . Moseley . Christopher . 2013-05-07 . Routledge . 978-1-135-22296-3 . en.
  2. Book: Corbett . Professor Greville . The Slavonic Languages . Comrie . Professor Bernard . September 2003 . Routledge . 978-1-136-86137-6 . en.