Syriac Letter Pe

It can be either; a Syriac mark decides. The unmarked letter usually represents p. Qushshaya, the hardening mark, keeps that sound; rukkakha, the softening mark, signals f, made by pushing air through a narrow gap. In late and modern East Syriac, a separate dot below can mark the soft reading.

Syriac script developed from Aramaic writing and was used to record the local Aramaic of Edessa. The Birecik stone inscription, dated 6 CE, is an early distinct Syriac inscription; the first dated Syriac manuscript is from 411 CE. Early evidence also includes a bill of sale from Dura Europos.

Syriac belongs to the Aramaic branch of the older Phoenician alphabet tradition. Syriac writing later served Neo-Aramaic varieties, including Assyrian, Garshuni (Arabic written in Syriac letters), and other historical languages. Its styles give context too: Serto is associated with West Syriac texts, East Syriac style with East Syriac texts, and Estrangela with ancient manuscripts and scholarly titles.

Why can ܦ look different in different fonts?

Writing style and joining position shape the glyph. Syriac uses the same encoded Pe across Estrangela, Serto, and East Syriac styles. Its letters join within words, so ܦ changes shape when isolated or at the start, middle, or end of a word. These are contextual forms of one character.

A font without Syriac support may show a box instead of ܦ; that display problem does not change the text.