| Latin epsilon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ɛ ɛ | |||
 | |||
| Usage | |||
| Writing system | Latin script | ||
| Type | Alphabetic andlogographic | ||
| Sound values | |||
| In Unicode | U+0190, U+025B | ||
| History | |||
| Development |
| ||
| Other | |||
| Writing direction | Left-to-Right | ||
| 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. | |||
Latin epsilon oropen E (majuscule:Ɛ, minuscule:ɛ) is a letter of the extendedLatin alphabet, based on thelowercase of theGreek letterepsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century byGian Giorgio Trissino[1] to represent the pronunciation of the "open e" (the lettere pronounced as theopen-mid front unrounded vowel) in theItalian language; this use of the letter has since become the standard inIPA notation[1](see§ Use in phonetic alphabets below). Since the 20th century, the letter also occurs in the orthographies of manyNiger–Congo andNilo-Saharan languages, such asEwe,Akan,Lingala,Dinka andMaasai, for the vowel[ɛ] or[e̙], and is included in theAfrican reference alphabet.
In theBerber Latin alphabet used in Algerian Berber school books,[2] and before that proposed by the French instituteINALCO, it represents avoiced pharyngeal fricative[ʕ]. Some authors useƹayin⟨ƹ⟩ instead;[citation needed] both letters are similar in shape with theArabic ʿayn⟨ع⟩.
TheInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:
TheUralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:[3]
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)
Dinka,Maasai,Nuer,Songhai,Zarma.
Latin epsilon is called "Open E" in Unicode.[4]
| Preview | Ɛ | ɛ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OPEN E | LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E | ||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 400 | U+0190 | 603 | U+025B |
| UTF-8 | 198 144 | C6 90 | 201 155 | C9 9B |
| Numeric character reference | Ɛ | Ɛ | ɛ | ɛ |
This is actually a Latin epsilon and should have been so called.
