View source for Ê

{{short description|Latin letter E with circumflex}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|name=E with circumflex
|image=File:Latin letter E with circumflex.svg
|imageclass=skin-invert-image
|image2=Braille Ê colored.svg
|imageclass2=skin-invert-image
|script=[[Latin script]]
|letter=Ê ê
|phonemes={{flex list
| [{{IPAlink|ɛ}}]
| [{{IPAlink|ɛː}}]
| [{{IPAlink|ɛ̂}}]
| [{{IPAlink|æː}}]
| [{{IPAlink|e}}]
| [{{IPAlink|eː}}]
| [{{IPAlink|ʔ}}]
| [{{IPAlink|ʁ}}]
| [je]
}}
|equivalents=[[Ukrainian Ye|Єє]]
|unicode=U+00CA, U+00EA
|fam1=<hiero>A28</hiero>
|fam2=[[Image:Proto-semiticE-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Heh]]
|fam3=[[File:Protohe.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|He]]
|fam4=[[File:PhoenicianE-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician He]]
|fam5=[[Image:phoenician he.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|He]]
|fam6=[[Epsilon|Ε ε ϵ]]
|fam7=[[𐌄]]
|fam8=[[E|E e]]
|type=alphabet
|typedesc=ic}}'''Ê''', '''ê''' ([[e]]-[[circumflex]]) is a letter of the [[Latin alphabet]], found in [[Afrikaans]],  [[French language|French]], [[Friulian language|Friulian]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]], [[Norwegian (Nynorsk)]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], and [[Welsh language|Welsh]].  It is used to transliterate [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Ukrainian language|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 {{IPA|/ɛː/}} (or {{IPA|/æː/}} if the succeeding consonant is either a dorsal or a liquid)

===Chinese===
In the [[Pinyin]] romanization of [[Standard Mandarin]] Chinese, ''ê'' represents {{IPA|/ɛ/}}. It corresponds to [[Bopomofo|Zhuyin]] ㄝ. The circumflex occurs only if ''ê'' is the only vowel in a syllable: ''ề'' {{IPA|/ɛ̂/}} ({{zh|t=誒|s=诶|labels=no}}; "eh!"). Without the circumflex, ''e'' as the only vowel represents {{IPA|/ɤ/}}: ''è'' {{IPA|/ɤ̂/}}  ({{zh|t=餓|s=饿|labels=no}}; "hungry"). Elsewhere, {{IPA|/ɛ/}} is written as ''a'' (after ''i'' or ''ü'' before ''n'') or ''e'' (before or after another vowel), with the appropriate tone mark,: ''xiān'' {{IPA|/ɕi̯ɛ́n/}} ({{zh|c=先|labels=no}}; "first"), ''xuǎn'' {{IPA|/ɕy̯ɛ̀n/}} ({{zh|t=選|s=选|labels=no}}; "to choose", noting that ''ü'' is written ''u'' after ''x''), ''xué'' {{IPA|/ɕy̯ɛ̌ ~ ɕy̯ě/}} ({{zh|t=學|s=学|labels=no}}; "to learn"), ''xièxie'' {{IPA|/ɕi̯ɛ̂.ɕi̯ɛ ~ ɕi̯ê.ɕi̯e/}} ({{zh|t=謝謝|s=谢谢|labels=no}}; "thanks").

In [[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]], ''ê'' is the fifth tone of ''e'': ''ê'' ({{zh|c=的|labels=no}}; 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 {{IPA|/eː/}} and {{IPA|/ɛː/}}.

===Khmer===
Ê is used in [[Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN|UNGEGN]] romanization system for [[Khmer language|Khmer]] to represent {{IPA|/ae/}} and {{IPAslink|ɛː}}, for example ''Khmêr'' ({{lang|km|ខ្មែរ}} {{IPA|km|kʰmae|}}) and [[Dângrêk Mountains]] ({{lang|km|ដងរែក}} {{IPA|km|ɗɑːŋrɛːk|}}).

===Kurdish===
Ê is the 7th letter of the [[Kurdish alphabet|Kurdish Kurmanji alphabet]] and represents /eː/.

=== Norwegian Nynorsk ===
In Nynorsk, ''ê'' is used to represent the reduction of the Old Norse sequence {{angbr|eð}}, similar to the use of ''ê'' for the historical sequence {{angbr|es}} 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>{{Citation |title=Danish and Norwegian alphabet |date=2022-11-18 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danish_and_Norwegian_alphabet&oldid=1122605045 |work=Wikipedia |language=en |access-date=2023-02-19}}</ref>

===Portuguese===
In Portuguese, '''ê''' marks a stressed {{IPAslink|e}} only in words whose stressed syllable is in an otherwise unpredictable location in the word: "pêssego" (peach). The letter, pronounced {{IPAslink|e}}, can also contrast with é, pronounced {{IPAslink|ɛ}}, as in ''pé'' (foot).

In Brazilian Portuguese, '''ê''' also used on final syllable of the root word e.g. {{lang|pt-BR|Guinê-Bissau}} ("[[Guinea-Bissau]]").

===Tibetan===
Ê is used in [[Tibetan pinyin]] to represent {{IPA|/e/}}, for example [[Gêrzê County]].

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

===Vietnamese===
Ê is the 9th letter of the [[Vietnamese alphabet]] and represents {{IPA|/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 language|Welsh]], ''ê'' represents long [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed]] ''e'' {{IPA|cy|eː|}} if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short {{IPA|cy|ɛ|}}: ''llên'' {{IPA|cy|ɬeːn|}} "literature", as opposed to ''llen'' {{IPA|cy|ɬɛn|}} "curtain", or ''gêm'' {{IPA|cy|ɡeːm|}} "game", as opposed to ''gem'' {{IPA|cy|ɡɛm|}} "gem, jewel". That is useful for borrowed words with a final stress like ''apêl'' {{IPA|cy|apˈeːl|}} "appeal".

===Other===
In [[Esperantido#La Sociolekta Triopo|Popido]], a fictitious dialect of [[Esperanto]] made by [[Manuel Halvelik]] for use in literature, ''ê'' represents {{IPA|/ə/}}. It is only used [[epenthesis|epenthetically]] to break consonant clusters, especially before grammatical suffixes.

==Character mappings==
* {{unichar |  00CA }}
* {{unichar |  00EA }}

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 character|combining diacritical marks]].{{efn|like ê̄ and ê̌, using {{code|ê&amp;#304x;}} and {{code|ê&amp;#30Cx;}} ({{unichar|0304|cwith=|nlink=}} and {{unichar|030C|cwith=|nlink=}}).}}

==See also==
* [[Circumflex]]

{{Latin script}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Latin letters with diacritics|E-circumflex]]