Pe (Cyrillic letter)

Pe (П, п) is a Cyrillic consonant representing the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/. It derives from Greek Pi and corresponds to Latin P in transliteration and many writing systems.

Overview

Pe (upper-case П, lower-case п) is the Cyrillic letter used to represent the voiceless bilabial plosive, commonly transcribed as /p/. Its name in modern Russian is пэ (pe). The letter appears in most Cyrillic-based alphabets and generally maps to the Latin letter P in romanization schemes.

History and origin

The Cyrillic script was developed from the Greek alphabet with influence from local writing traditions. The shape and sound of Pe descend from the Greek letter Pi. Early Slavic scribes adopted this form to represent the same basic consonant found across Indo‑European languages and used it in the liturgical and vernacular texts of medieval Slavic cultures.

Forms and pronunciation

Printed and handwritten forms differ: the upright, block form is П and п, while cursive and italic styles may alter the lowercase shape so it can resemble the Latin letters n or u in fast handwriting. Phonetically, Pe denotes [p]; before front vowels or when followed by the soft sign it is often palatalized to [pʲ], producing a slightly softer sound. For an overview of the plain /p/ sound in phonetic practice, see IPA resources.

Usage and examples

Pe is used across Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian in Cyrillic, etc.) and in several non‑Slavic languages that adopted Cyrillic. Common word examples in Russian include папа (papa, "father"), письмо (pisʹmo, "letter"), and путь (putʹ, "path"). In orthography it follows regular consonant rules for voicing, assimilation and palatalization specific to each language.

Typographic and transliteration notes

Although visually similar to the Greek Pi (Π, π), Cyrillic Pe is a separate letter in its own script family.
Do not confuse Pe (П) with Cyrillic Er (Р), which looks like Latin P but represents the trilled or tapped R sound.
Standard romanization converts Pe to the Latin letter P; consult transliteration rules for language‑specific conventions (e.g., handling palatalization).

Because the Cyrillic alphabet set and ordering vary among languages, details such as exact position within an alphabet or numeric use in older numeral systems can differ; modern usage focuses on its consistent phonetic role as the /p/ consonant.