P is the 16th letter of the alphabet used for the modern English language. It is also used in a number of other languages, including French, German, and Spanish.
The letter P represents the sound that occurs in such words as pop, simple, tap, and apple. P has other sounds, however. At the beginning of a word, P is silent before S, as in psychology. The combination of PH represents the F sound in such words as photograph. See Pronunciation .
Scholars believe the letter P evolved from an Egyptian hieroglyph (pictorial symbol) that represented a corner. Hieroglyphs were adapted to be used for a Semitic language by around 1500 B.C. The alphabet for this Semitic language—the earliest known alphabet—is called Proto-Sinaitic. By 1100 B.C., an alphabet for another Semitic language, Phoenician, had evolved from Proto-Sinaitic. See Semitic languages .
The Phoenician letter that can be traced to the Egyptian corner hieroglyph is the 17th letter of the Phoenician alphabet, pe. The Phoenicians used the letter to represent the beginning P sound of pe, which was their word for mouth. Around 800 B.C., when the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet, pe became pi. The Etruscans adopted the Greek alphabet about 700 B.C. By around 650 B.C., the Romans adopted the alphabet from the Etruscans. The Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans all used the letter that evolved from the corner hieroglyph for the sound of P.
