Ɛ | |||
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Ɛ ɛ | |||
Usage | |||
Writing system | Latin script | ||
Type | Alphabetic and Logographic | ||
Sound values | |||
In Unicode | U+0190, U+025B | ||
History | |||
Development |
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Other | |||
Writing direction | Left-to-Right | ||
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino[1] to represent the pronunciation of the "open e" (the letter e pronounced as the open-mid front unrounded vowel) in the Italian language; this use of the letter has since become the standard in IPA notation[1] (see § Use in phonetic alphabets, below). Since the 20th century, the letter also occurs in the orthographies of many Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Ewe, Akan, Lingala, Dinka and Maasai, for the vowel [ɛ] or [e̙], and is included in the African reference alphabet.
In the Berber Latin alphabet currently[when?] used in Algerian Berber school books,[2] and before that proposed by the French institute INALCO, it represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative [ʕ]. Some authors use ƹayin ⟨ƹ⟩ instead; both letters are similar in shape with the Arabic ʿayn ⟨ع⟩.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:
The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:[3]
Akan, Bambara, Baule, Dagbani, Dogon, Douala. Ewe, Fante, Frafra, Fon, Ga, Jula, Kabiye, Kpelle, Kuya, Lingala, Loma, Mende, Moore, Soninke, Twi, Vai.
Dinka, Maasai, Nuer, Songhai, Zarma.
Latin epsilon is called "Open E" in Unicode.[4]
Preview | Ɛ | ɛ | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OPEN E | LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E | ||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 400 | U+0190 | 603 | U+025B |
UTF-8 | 198 144 | C6 90 | 201 155 | C9 9B |
Numeric character reference | Ɛ | Ɛ | ɛ | ɛ |
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