E (kana)
Encyclopedia
In Japanese writing
, the kana
え (hiragana
) and エ (katakana
) (romanised
e) occupy the fourth place, between う
and お
, in the modern Gojūon
(五十音) system of collating
kana
. In the Iroha
, they occupy the 34th, between こ
and て
. In the table at right (ordered by columns, from right to left), え lies in the first column (あ行, "column A") and the fourth row (え段, "row E"). Both represent [e
].
衣 and 江, respectively.
The archaic kana ゑ
(we), as well as many non-initial occurrences of the character へ
(he), have entered the modern Japanese language
as え. The directional
particle
へ is today pronounced "e", though not written as え. Compare this to は
(ha) and を
(wo), which are pronounced "wa" and "o" when used as grammatical particles.
When initial or following /i/ or /n/, many speakers give the letter an initial glide, pronouncing it [ʲe], leading to Romanizations such as "yen", "Yedo", "Yebisu", and so forth.
s, a small ぇ is also combined with the kana く (ku) and ふ (fu or hu) to form the digraphs くぇ kwe and ふぇ hwe.
, Kunrei-shiki
and Nihon-shiki
systems of romanization, both え and エ are transliterated
as "e
". In the Polivanov system of cyrillization
, the kana are transliterated as "э
".
The katakana エ is made with three strokes:
this is also the way to make "I" (although the correct upper case form does not look like lower case "l")
Japanese writing system
The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts:*Kanji, adopted Chinese characters*Kana, a pair of syllabaries , consisting of:...
, the kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
え (hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
) and エ (katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
) (romanised
Hepburn romanization
The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
e) occupy the fourth place, between う
U (kana)
う in hiragana or ウ in katakana is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, they occupy the third place in the modern Gojūon system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupied the 24th position, between む and ゐ...
and お
O (kana)
In Japanese writing, the kana お and オ occupy the fifth place, between え and か, in the modern Gojūon system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 27th, between の and く. In the table at right , お lies in the first column and the fifth row...
, in the modern Gojūon
Gojuon
The is a Japanese ordering of kana.It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a...
(五十音) system of collating
Collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...
kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
. In the Iroha
Iroha
The is a Japanese poem, probably written in the Heian era . Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian Period. The first record of its existence...
, they occupy the 34th, between こ
Ko (kana)
こ, in hiragana, or コ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent . The shape of these kana comes from the kanji 己....
and て
Te (kana)
て, in hiragana, or テ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent .-Stroke order:...
. In the table at right (ordered by columns, from right to left), え lies in the first column (あ行, "column A") and the fourth row (え段, "row E"). Both represent [e
Close-mid front unrounded vowel
The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-mid front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
].
| Form | Rōmaji | Hiragana Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora... |
Katakana Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal a/i/u/e/o (あ行 a-gyō) |
e | え | エ |
| ei ee ē |
えい, えぃ ええ, えぇ えー |
エイ, エィ エエ, エェ エー |
Derivation
え and エ originate, via man'yōgana, from the kanjiKanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
衣 and 江, respectively.
The archaic kana ゑ
We (kana)
ゑ, in hiragana, or ヱ in katakana, is a nearly obsolete Japanese kana.It is presumed that ゑ represented . It is thought that, after ゑ and え came to denote the same pronunciation as イェ in the Kamakura period, they came to be pronounced as the modern エ ; there is also the view that the pronunciation...
(we), as well as many non-initial occurrences of the character へ
He (kana)
へ, in hiragana, or ヘ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which represents one mora. The two ways of writing this mora are almost identical. Each is written in one stroke and represents . In the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, ヘ can be written as small ㇸ to represent a final h after an...
(he), have entered the modern Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
as え. The directional
Lative case
Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location. It corresponds to the English prepositions "to" and "into". The lative case belongs to the group of the general local cases together with the locative and separative case...
particle
Grammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
へ is today pronounced "e", though not written as え. Compare this to は
Ha (kana)
は, in hiragana, or ハ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. Both represent ). They are also used as a grammatical particle and serve as the topic marker of the sentence...
(ha) and を
Wo (kana)
を, in hiragana, or ヲ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora.-Modern usage:In Japanese, this kana is used almost exclusively for a particle; therefore, the katakana form is fairly uncommon in everyday language — mostly used as a stand-in for its hiragana...
(wo), which are pronounced "wa" and "o" when used as grammatical particles.
When initial or following /i/ or /n/, many speakers give the letter an initial glide, pronouncing it [ʲe], leading to Romanizations such as "yen", "Yedo", "Yebisu", and so forth.
Variant forms
Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぇ, ェ) are used to express morae foreign to the Japanese language, such as ヴェ (ve). In several Okinawan writing systemOkinawan writing system
Okinawan language, spoken in Okinawa Island, was once the official language of the Ryukyuan Kingdom. At the time, documents were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. However, after Japan annexed the kingdom, the language was labeled as the "dialect" of mainland Japanese...
s, a small ぇ is also combined with the kana く (ku) and ふ (fu or hu) to form the digraphs くぇ kwe and ふぇ hwe.
Transliteration
In the HepburnHepburn romanization
The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
, Kunrei-shiki
Kunrei-shiki
is a Japanese romanization system, i.e. a system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. It is abbreviated as Kunrei-shiki. Its name is rendered Kunreisiki using Kunrei-shiki itself....
and Nihon-shiki
Nihon-shiki
Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki Rōmaji is a romanization system for transliterating the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. In discussion about romaji, it is abbreviated as Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki. Among the major romanization systems for Japanese, Nippon-shiki is the most regular, and has...
systems of romanization, both え and エ are transliterated
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
as "e
E
E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:...
". In the Polivanov system of cyrillization
Cyrillization of Japanese
Cyrillization of Japanese is the practice of expressing Japanese sounds using Cyrillic characters. It is commonly accepted in Russia.Below is a cyrillization system for the Japanese language known as the Yevgeny Polivanov system...
, the kana are transliterated as "э
E (Cyrillic)
E , also known as Backwards E from , E oborotnoye, is a letter found amongst Slavonic languages only in Russian and Belarusian, representing the sounds and...
".
Stroke order
The hiragana え is made with two strokes:- At the top, a short diagonal stroke proceeding downward and to the right.
- At the bottom, a stroke composed of a horizontal line, a diagonal proceeding downward and to the left, and a rightward stroke resembling a tildeTildeThe tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
(~).
The katakana エ is made with three strokes:
- At the top, a horizontal stroke from left to right.
- A downward vertical stroke starting in the center of the first stroke.
- At the bottom, a horizontal stroke parallel to the first stroke, and touching the second. This stroke is usually slightly longer than the first.
this is also the way to make "I" (although the correct upper case form does not look like lower case "l")
Other communicative representations
- BrailleJapanese BrailleJapanese braille is a braille code for writing the Japanese language. It is based on the original braille system. In Japanese it is known as , literally "dot characters". Below is a basic chart of Japanese braille with the Japanese hiragana character followed by the standard roman character reading...
:-
●●
●－
－－
-
- Phonetic alphabetJapanese phonetic alphabetThe is a radiotelephony spelling alphabet, similar in purpose to the NATO phonetic alphabet, but designed to communicate Japanese kana rather than Latin letters...
: 「英語のエ」 ("e as in eigo") - Morse code: －・－－－