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| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English |
|---|---|---|
| *Perþō? | Peorð | |
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc |
 | ||
| Unicode | ᛈ U+16C8 | |
| Transliteration | p | |
| Transcription | p | |
| IPA | [p] | |
| Position in rune-row | 14 b | |
ᛈ is the rune denoting the soundp (voiceless bilabial stop) in theElder Futharkrunic alphabet. It does not appear in theYounger Futhark. It is namedpeorð in theAnglo-Saxon rune-poem and glossed enigmatically as follows:
The name is not comprehensible fromOld English, i.e. no word similar topeorð is known in this language. According to a 9th-century manuscript ofAlcuin (Codex Vindobonensis 795), written using theGothic alphabet in Britain, the letters
p (based on a GreekΠ) and
q (an inverted Π) are called "pairþra" and "qairþra", respectively. One of these names clearly is derived from the other. However, the names are not comprehensible in Gothic either, and it is not clear which is derived from which, although it is known that the Elder Futhark had ap, but noq rune. In any case, it seems evident that peorð is related to pairþra. The Anglo-Saxonfuthorc adopted exactly the same approach for the addition of a labiovelar rune,ᛢcƿeorð, in both shape and name based on peorð, but it is not known if theGothic runes already had a similar variant rune ofp, or if the labiovelar letter was a 4th-century creation ofUlfilas.
The Common Germanic name could be referring to apear-tree (or perhaps generally a fruit-tree). Based on the context of "recreation and amusement" given in the rune poem, a common speculative interpretation[by whom?] is that the intended meaning is "pear-wood" as the material of either awoodwind instrument, or a "game box" or game pieces made from wood.
Frompeorð,Proto-Germanic form *perðu, *perþō or *perþaz may be reconstructed on purely phonological grounds. The expected Proto-Germanic term for "pear tree" would be*pera-trewô (*pera being, however, a post-Proto-Germanic loan, eitherWest Germanic, or Common Germanic, if Gothicpairþra meant "pear tree", fromVulgar Latinpirum (pluralpira), itself of unknown origin). TheOgham letter nameCeirt, glossed as "apple tree", may in turn be a loan from Germanic intoPrimitive Irish.
The earliest attestation of the rune is in theKylver Stonefuthark row (ca. AD 400). The earliest example in a linguistic context (as opposed to anabecedarium) is already in futhorc, in the Kent II, III and IV coin inscriptions (the personal namespada andæpa/epa), dated to ca. AD 700. OnSt. Cuthbert's coffin (AD 698), ap rune takes the place of GreekΡ. TheWesteremden yew-stick (ca. AD 750) hasop hæmu "at home" andup duna "on the hill".
Looijenga (1997) speculates that thep rune arose as a variant of theb rune, parallel to the secondary nature of Oghampeith. The uncertainty surrounding the rune is a consequence of the rarity of the*p phoneme in Proto-Germanic.
The rune is discontinued inYounger Futhark, which expresses /p/ with theb rune, for example on theViking AgeSkarpåker Stone,
iarþ
sal
skal
rifna
rifna
uk
ok
ubhimin
upphiminn.
iarþ sal rifna uk ubhimin
Jörð skal rifna ok upphiminn.
"Earth shall be rent, and the heavens above."
