Ê

Ê, ê (e-circumflex) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, found in Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Friulian, Kurdish, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Welsh. It is used to transliterate Ukrainian and Chinese.

Afrikaans

Ê is considered not a separate letter in Afrikaans but a variation of "e". The circumflex forces the pronunciation of "e" to be /ɛ/, but "e", without the circumflex, is pronounced as /e/, /æ/ or /ɛ/, depending on its placement in the word.

Chinese

In the Pinyin romanization of Standard Mandarin Chinese, ê represents /ɛ/. It corresponds to Zhuyin ㄝ. The circumflex occurs only if ê is the only letter in the syllable: ề /ɛ̂/ (诶; 誒; "eh!"). Without the circumflex, e as, the only letter in the syllable, represents /ɤ/: è /ɤ̂/ (饿; 餓; "hungry"). Elsewhere, /ɛ/ is written as a (before n) or e (at the end of a syllable), with the appropriate tone mark,: xiān /ɕi̯ɛ́n/ (先; "first"), xuǎn /ɕy̯ɛ̀n/ (选; 選; "to choose"), xué /ɕy̯ɛ̌ ~ ɕy̯ě/ (学; 學; "to learn"), xièxie /ɕi̯ɛ̂.ɕi̯ɛ ~ ɕi̯ê.ɕi̯e/ (谢谢; 謝謝; "thanks").

In Pe̍h-ōe-jī, ê is the fifth tone of e: ê (的; possessive, adjectival suffix).

Dutch

In Dutch, ê changes the pronunciation of e from /ə/ to /ɛ/ and appears only in words from French.

French

Diacritics are not considered letters of the French alphabet. In French, ê changes the pronunciation of e from /ə/ to /ɛ/. It is used instead of "è" for words that used to be written "es".

Friulian

Ê represents /e/ and /ɛː/.

Italian

Ê occasionally used to represent /eː/ or /ɛː/ in words like fêro (they did).

Kurdish

Ê is the 7th letter of the Kurdish Kurmanji alphabet and represents /e/.

Portuguese

In Portuguese, ê marks a stressed /e/ only in words whose stressed syllable is in an unpredictable location in the word: "pêssego" (peach). The letter, pronounced /e/, can also contrast with é, pronounced /ɛ/, as in dê! (give!).

Ukrainian

Ê is used in the ISO 9:1995 system of Ukrainian transliteration as the letter Є.

Vietnamese

Ê is the 9th letter of the Vietnamese alphabet and represents /e/. In Vietnamese phonology, diacritics can be added to form five forms to represent five tones of ê:

• Ề ề
• Ể ể
• Ễ ễ
• Ế ế
• Ệ ệ

Welsh

In Welsh, ê represents long stressed e [eː] if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short [ɛ]: llên [ɬeːn] "literature", as opposed to llen [ɬɛn] "curtain", or gêm [ɡeːm] "game", as opposed to gem [ɡɛm] "gem, jewel". That is useful for borrowed words with a final stress like apêl [apˈeːl] "appeal".

Character mappings

Unicode encoded 5 pairs of precomposed characters (Ề / ề, Ể / ể, Ễ / ễ, Ế / ế, Ệ / ệ) for the five tones of ê in Vietnamese. Two pairs of the five (Ế / ế and Ề / ề) can also be used as the second and fourth tones of ê in Pinyin. The first and third tones of ê in Pinyin have to be represented by combining diacritical marks, like ê̄ (ê̄) and ê̌ (ê̌).

See also

• Circumflex