Ye (Cyrillic)

Ye, from Karion Istomin's alphabet book (1694)

E (Е е; italics: Е е or Е е; italics: Е е), known in Russian and Belarusian as Ye, Je, or Ie, is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In some languages this letter is called E. It commonly represents the vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, like the pronunciation of Template:Angle bracket in "yes". It was derived from the Greek letter epsilon (Ε ε), and the shape is very similar to the Latin letter E or another version of E (Cyrillic).

Ye is romanized using the Latin letter E for Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Rusyn, and occasionally Russian (Озеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal), Je for Belarusian (Заслаўе, Zaslaŭje), Ye for Russian (Европа, Yevropa), and Ie occasionally for Russian (Днепр, Dniepr) and Belarusian (Маладзе́чна, Maladziečna).

Usage

Russian and Belarusian

• At the beginning of a word or after a vowel, Ye represents the phonemic combination {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (phonetically {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}), like the pronunciation of Template:Angle bracket in "yes". Ukrainian uses the letter Template:Angle bracket (see Ukrainian Ye) in this way.
• Following a consonant, Ye indicates that the consonant is palatalized, and represents the vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (phonetically {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}), like the pronunciation of Template:Angle bracket in "yes".

In Russian, the letter Template:Angle bracket can follow unpalatalized consonants, especially Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket. In some loanwords, other consonants before Template:Angle bracket (especially Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket) are also not palatalized, see E (Cyrillic). The letter Template:Angle bracket also represents {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (as in "yogurt") and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} after palatalized consonants, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket. In these cases, Template:Angle bracket may be used, see Yo (Cyrillic). In unstressed syllables, Template:Angle bracket represents reduced vowels like {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, see Russian phonology and Vowel reduction in Russian.

Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Rusyn

This letter is called E, and represents the vowel phoneme {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (phonetically {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}), like the pronunciation of Template:Angle bracket in the word "set".

Mongolian

The letter represents the sound {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (й+ө) at the beginning of words (yo represents {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) like ес (nine) and ерөнхийлөгч (president), and also represents {{#invoke:IPA|main}} at the beginning of some words and in the middle or end of words and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in Russian loanwords and transcriptions of foreign names. Finally, it represents {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in the volitional forms of certain verbs like хүргэе and тэгье, etc.

Turkic languages and Tajik

In Turkic languages utilizing the Cyrillic script (such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uzbek) and in Tajik, Ye is used to represent the phoneme Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link, both word-finally and medially. Isolated, word-initially, or vowel-succeeding, this letter is substituted with the letter Э. If the letter Ye occurs word-initially, isolated, or vowel-succeeding, it represents the phoneme /je/~/jɛ/. This is done in imitation of the Russian usage, as many of these languages received Cyrillic orthographies as part of Russification in the Soviet Union.

Related letters and other similar characters

• the Latin letter E
• the Latin letter É
• the Greek letter Ε
• Ukrainian Ye

External links

• Template:Wiktionary-inline
• Template:Wiktionary-inline