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 was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino to represent the pronunciation of the "open e" (the letter e pronounced as the open-mid front unrounded vowel) in the Italian language; this use of the letter has since become the standard in IPA notation . Since the 20th century, the letter also occurs in the orthographies of many Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Ewe, Akan, Lingala, Dinka and Maasai, for the vowel or , and is included in the African reference alphabet.

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

Usage

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

• represents the open-mid front unrounded vowel
• represents the open-mid central unrounded vowel
• was historically used between 1907–1979
• represents the rhotacized open-mid central vowel
• represents the open-mid central rounded vowel
• was historically used in 1921 and 1993

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

There are capital forms for usage in standard alphabets:

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, Yoruba (in Benin)

Nilo-Saharan

Dinka, Maasai, Nuer, Songhai, Zarma.

Unicode

Latin epsilon is called "Open E" in Unicode.

See also

• Open O
• Writing systems of Africa (section on Latin script)
• Open-mid front unrounded vowel
• Greek Epsilon
• Epsilon Ԑ (Cyrillic script)

References