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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 as follows:
No word similar topeorð is known inOld English. According to a 9th-century manuscript (Codex Vindobonensis 795), the letter of theGothic alphabet
p (based on a GreekΠ) is called "pertra." As this name is reconstructed to*pairþra, it could be related to peorð, but its meaning is similarly unknown.[1]
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."