Ê
Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox graphemeÊ, ê (e-circumflex) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, found in Afrikaans, French, Friulian, Kurdish, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Welsh. It is used to transliterate Chinese and Ukrainian.
Usage in various languages
Afrikaans
Ê is not considered a separate letter in Afrikaans but a variation of "E". The circumflex changes the pronunciation of "e" to be Template:IPA (or Template:IPA if the succeeding consonant is either a dorsal or a liquid)
Chinese
In the Pinyin romanization of Standard Mandarin Chinese, ê represents Template:IPA. It corresponds to Zhuyin ㄝ. The circumflex occurs only if ê is the only vowel in a syllable: ề Template:IPA (Template:Zh; "eh!"). Without the circumflex, e as the only vowel represents Template:IPA: è Template:IPA (Template:Zh; "hungry"). Elsewhere, Template:IPA is written as a (after i or ü before n) or e (before or after another vowel), with the appropriate tone mark,: xiān Template:IPA (Template:Zh; "first"), xuǎn Template:IPA (Template:Zh; "to choose", noting that ü is written u after x), xué Template:IPA (Template:Zh; "to learn"), xièxie Template:IPA (Template:Zh; "thanks").
In Pe̍h-ōe-jī, ê is the fifth tone of e: ê (Template:Zh; possessive, adjectival suffix).
French
Diacritics are not considered to be distinct letters of the French alphabet. In French, ê usually changes the pronunciation of e from /ə/ to /ɛ/. It is used instead of "è" for words that used to be written with e + another letter (usually an s).
Friulian
Ê represents Template:IPA and Template:IPA.
Khmer
Ê is used in UNGEGN romanization system for Khmer to represent Template:IPA and Template:IPAslink, for example Khmêr (Template:Lang Template:IPA) and Dângrêk Mountains (Template:Lang Template:IPA).
Kurdish
Ê is the 7th letter of the Kurdish Kurmanji alphabet and represents /eː/.
Norwegian Nynorsk
In Nynorsk, ê is used to represent the reduction of the Old Norse sequence Template:Angbr, similar to the use of ê for the historical sequence Template:Angbr in French. It is mostly used to differentiate words which otherwise would be spelled the same, e.g. vêr 'weather' and ver, imperative of 'to be'.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Portuguese
In Portuguese, ê marks a stressed Template:IPAslink only in words whose stressed syllable is in an otherwise unpredictable location in the word: "pêssego" (peach). The letter, pronounced Template:IPAslink, can also contrast with é, pronounced Template:IPAslink, as in pé (foot).
In Brazilian Portuguese, ê also used on final syllable of the root word e.g. Template:Lang ("Guinea-Bissau").
Tibetan
Ê is used in Tibetan pinyin to represent Template:IPA, for example Gêrzê County.
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 Template:IPA. 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 Template:IPA if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short Template:IPA: llên Template:IPA "literature", as opposed to llen Template:IPA "curtain", or gêm Template:IPA "game", as opposed to gem Template:IPA "gem, jewel". That is useful for borrowed words with a final stress like apêl Template:IPA "appeal".
Other
In Popido, a fictitious dialect of Esperanto made by Manuel Halvelik for use in literature, ê represents Template:IPA. It is only used epenthetically to break consonant clusters, especially before grammatical suffixes.
Character mappings
Unicode also encodes five pairs of precomposed characters with compounded diacritis (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 written using combining diacritical marks.Template:Efn