Latin epsilon

Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It occurs in the orthographies of many Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Ewe, Akan, Lingala, Dinka and Maasai, for the vowel [ɛ] or [e̙], and is included in the African reference alphabet.

Ɛ
Ɛ ɛ
Upper and lower case Latin Epsilon
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
Unicode codepointU+0190, U+025B
History
Development
A28
Other
Writing directionLeft-to-Right
Fante translation of the Book of Mormon; note the use of the Latin epsilon in the word N'AHYƐMU.

In the Berber Latin alphabet currently used in Algerian Berber school books,[1] and before that proposed by the French institute INALCO, it represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative [ʕ]. Some authors use ƹayin ƹ instead; both letters are similar in shape with the Arabic ʿayn ع.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:

The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:[2]

  • U+1D08 LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED OPEN E
  • U+1D4B MODIFIER LETTER SMALL OPEN E
  • U+1D4C MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TURNED OPEN E

List of languages that use Latin epsilon

Niger-Congo

Akan, Bambara, Baule, Dagbani, Dogon, Douala. Ewe, Fante, Frafra, Fon, Ga, Jula, Kabiye, Kpelle, Kuya, Lingala, Loma, Mende, Moore, Soninke, Twi, Vai.

Nilo-Saharan

Dinka, Maasai, Nuer, Songhai, Zarma.

Unicode

Latin epsilon is called "Open E" in Unicode.[3]

It looks similar to the lowercase epsilon.
Character information
PreviewƐɛ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OPEN E LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode400U+0190603U+025B
UTF-8198 144C6 90201 155C9 9B
Numeric character referenceƐƐɛɛ

See also

References

  1. "Tamazight-Dzayer".
  2. Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF).
  3. Asmus Freytag; Rick McGowan; Ken Whistler (2006-05-08). "Unicode Technical Note #27: Known Anomalies in Unicode Character Names". The Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 2009-02-24. This is actually a Latin epsilon and should have been so called.
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