Ye (kana)
Character of the Japanese writing system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ye (hiragana: 𛀁, katakana: エ, sometimes also written as 𛄡) is a Japanese mora or a kana used to write it, no longer in standard use.[3]
| ye | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
| transliteration | e, ye | ||||
| hiragana origin | 江 | ||||
| katakana origin | 江 | ||||
| another katakana origin | 延 | ||||
| Man'yōgana | 延 曳 睿 叡 盈 要 縁 裔 兄 柄 枝 吉 江 遥 | ||||
| unicode | U+1B001 | ||||
History
It is presumed that 𛀁 would have represented [je] ⓘ[citation needed]. In the 10th century, e and ye progressively merged into ye, and then during the Edo period the pronunciation changed from /je/ to /e/.
However, during the Meiji period, linguists almost unanimously agreed on the kana for yi, ye, and wu. 𛀆 and 𛄢 are thought to have never occurred as morae in Japanese, and 𛀁 was merged with え and エ.
Characters
Nara period–Heian period
Japanese people separated e and ye in Man'yōgana, early Hiragana and early Katakana.
| e | ye | |
|---|---|---|
| Man'yōgana[4] | 愛,哀,埃,衣,依,榎,荏,得,"可愛" | 延,曳,睿,叡,盈,要,縁,裔,兄,柄,枝,吉,江 |
| Hiragana[5][6] | え etc. |  etc. |
| Katakana[7] |  etc. |
エ etc. |
After that, e and ye merged into ye in the 10th century, before eventually evolving back to e.[8]
Edo period–Meiji period
In the Edo period and the Meiji period, some Japanese linguists tried to separate kana e and kana ye again. The shapes of characters differed with each linguist. 𛀁 and 𛄡 were just two of many shapes.
They were phonetic symbols to fill in the blanks of the gojūon table, but Japanese people did not separate them in normal writing.
| e | ye | |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional kana |
|
|
| Constructed kana |
These suggestions were not accepted.
Unicode
The hiragana version is encoded as HIRAGANA LETTER ARCHAIC YE (with the normative alias of HENTAIGANA LETTER E-1) in the position U+1B001. The katakana version is encoded as KATAKANA LETTER ARCHAIC YE, in the position of U+1B121. A small form, used in Shōwa-period linguistic works to transcribe Marshallese, was encoded in Unicode 18.0 (September 2026) as KATAKANA LETTER SMALL ARCHAIC YE at U+1B168 in the Small Kana Extension block.[22][23]
