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| E with circumflex | |
|---|---|
| Ê ê | |
 | |
 | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Type | alphabetic |
| Sound values | |
| In Unicode | U+00CA, U+00EA |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Transliterations | Єє |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Ê,ê (e-circumflex) is a letter of theLatin alphabet, found inAfrikaans,French,Friulian,Kurdish,Norwegian (Nynorsk),Portuguese,Vietnamese, andWelsh. It is used to transliterateChinese andUkrainian.
Ê is not considered a separate letter inAfrikaans but a variation of "E". The circumflex changes the pronunciation of "e" to be/ɛː/ (or/æː/ if the succeeding consonant is either a dorsal or a liquid)
In thePinyin romanization ofStandard Mandarin Chinese,ê represents/ɛ/. It corresponds toZhuyin ㄝ. The circumflex occurs only ifê is the only vowel in a syllable:ề/ɛ̂/ (诶;誒; "eh!"). Without the circumflex,e as the only vowel represents/ɤ/:è/ɤ̂/ (饿;餓; "hungry"). Elsewhere,/ɛ/ is written asa (afteri orü beforen) ore (before or after another vowel), with the appropriate tone mark,:xiān/ɕi̯ɛ́n/ (先; "first"),xuǎn/ɕy̯ɛ̀n/ (选;選; "to choose", noting thatü is writtenu afterx),xué/ɕy̯ɛ̌~ɕy̯ě/ (学;學; "to learn"),xièxie/ɕi̯ɛ̂.ɕi̯ɛ~ɕi̯ê.ɕi̯e/ (谢谢;謝謝; "thanks").
InPe̍h-ōe-jī,ê is the fifth tone ofe:ê (的; possessive, adjectival suffix).
Diacritics are not considered to be distinct letters of theFrench alphabet. In French, ê usually changes the pronunciation ofe from /ə/ to /ɛ/. It is used instead of "è" for words that used to be written with e + another letter (usually an s).
Ê represents/eː/ and/ɛː/.
Ê is used inUNGEGN romanization system forKhmer to represent/ae/ and/ɛː/, for exampleKhmêr (ខ្មែរ[kʰmae]) andDângrêk Mountains (ដងរែក[ɗɑːŋrɛːk]).
Ê is the 7th letter of theKurdish Kurmanji alphabet and represents /eː/.
In Nynorsk,ê is used to represent the reduction of the Old Norse sequence⟨eð⟩, similar to the use ofê for the historical sequence⟨es⟩ in French. It is mostly used to differentiate words which otherwise would be spelled the same, e.g.vêr 'weather' andver, imperative of 'to be'.[1]
In Portuguese,ê marks a stressed/e/ only in words whose stressed syllable is in an otherwise unpredictable location in the word: "pêssego" (peach). The letter, pronounced/e/, can also contrast with é, pronounced/ɛ/, as inpé (foot).
In Brazilian Portuguese,ê also used on final syllable of the root word e.g.Guinê-Bissau ("Guinea-Bissau").
Ê is used inTibetan pinyin to represent/e/, for exampleGêrzê County.
Ê is used in theISO 9:1995 system ofUkrainian transliteration as the letterЄ.
Ê is the 9th letter of theVietnamese alphabet and represents/e/. InVietnamese phonology,diacritics can be added to form five forms to represent five tones of ê:
InWelsh,ê represents longstressede[eː] if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short[ɛ]:llên[ɬeːn] "literature", as opposed tollen[ɬɛn] "curtain", orgêm[ɡeːm] "game", as opposed togem[ɡɛm] "gem, jewel". That is useful for borrowed words with a final stress likeapêl[apˈeːl] "appeal".
InPopido, a fictitious dialect ofEsperanto made byManuel Halvelik for use in literature,ê represents/ə/. It is only usedepenthetically to break consonant clusters, especially before grammatical suffixes.
Unicode also encodes five pairs ofprecomposed 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 usingcombining diacritical marks.[a]
ê&#304x; andê&#30Cx; (U+0304 ◌̄COMBINING MACRON andU+030C ◌̌COMBINING CARON).