Latin epsilon
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Template:Short description Template:Infobox grapheme
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] Template:See 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 Template:IPAblink or Script error: No such module "IPA"., and is included in the African reference alphabet.
In the Berber Latin alphabet used in Algerian Berber school books,[2] and before that proposed by the French institute INALCO, it represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative Script error: No such module "IPA".. Some authors use ƹayin Template:Angle bracket instead;Script error: No such module "Unsubst". both letters are similar in shape with the Arabic ʿayn Template:Angle bracket.
Use in phonetic alphabets
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:
- Template:Unichar represents the open-mid front unrounded vowel
- Template:Unichar represents the rhotacized open-mid central vowel
- Template:Unichar represents the open-mid central rounded vowel (shown as Template:Unichar on the 1993 IPA chart)
The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:[3]
List of languages that use Latin epsilon
Niger-Congo
Akan, Bambara, Baule, Dagbani, Dogon, Douala. Ewe, Fante, Frafra, Fon, Ga, Jula, Kabiye, Kpelle, Kuya, Lingala, Loma, Mende, Moore, Soninke, Twi, Vai, Yoruba (in Benin)
Nilo-Saharan
Dinka, Maasai, Nuer, Songhai, Zarma.
Unicode
Latin epsilon is called "Open E" in Unicode.[4]
See also
- Open O
- Writing systems of Africa (section on Latin script)
- Open-mid front unrounded vowel
- Greek Epsilon
- Reversed Ze Ԑ (Cyrillic script)