Ë

This article is about the letter of the Latin alphabet. Not to be confused withCyrillic Yo (Ë).

E-Diaeresis
Ë ë
É é,Ẽ ẽ
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Sound values	[ə] [ɛ] [iː] [iə] [ɔʏ] [eu] [ɘ] [jo] [ẽ] [e] [ɤu] [ɤ] [ɤ̞] [ʌ]
InUnicode	U+00CB, U+00EB
History
Development	EE Ë ë
Variations	É é,Ẽ ẽ
Other

Ë,ë(e-diaeresis) is a letter in theAlbanian,Kashubian,Emilian,Romagnol,Ladin,andLenapealphabets. As a variant of the lettere,it also appears inAcehnese,Afrikaans,Belarusian,Breton,Dutch,English,Filipino,French,Luxembourgish,Piedmontese,Russian,the Abruzzese dialect of theNeapolitan language,and the Ascolano dialect. The letter is also used inSeneca,Taiwanese Hokkien,Turoyo,andUyghurwhen written inLatin script.

Usage in various languages

Acehnese

InAcehnese,ëis used to represent/ə/(schwa), amid central vowel.

Afrikaans

InAfrikaans,thetrema(Afrikaans:deelteken,[ˈdɪəl.tɪəkən]) is used mostly to indicate that the vowel should not bediphthongised.Thedeeltekendoes exactly what it means in Afrikaans ( "separation mark" ) by marking the beginning of a new syllable and by separating it from the previous one. For example,voël( "bird" ) is pronounced in two syllables. Without thedeelteken,the word would becomevoel( "feel" ), which is pronounced in one syllable.

Sometimes, however, thedeeltekendoes not change the pronunciation. For example, inreën( "rain" ), which is pronounced[rɪən].The nonexistent word*reenwould have been pronounced identically, and thedeeltekenis onlyetymologicalsince the archaic form ofreënisregen.Thedeeltekenindicates the removal ofg,and some older people still pronouncereënin two syllables ([ˈreː.ən]). Likewise,geër( "giver" ) andgeer(a wedge-shaped piece of fabric) are both nowadays pronounced[χɪər].

Albanian

Ëis the 8th letter of theAlbanian alphabetand represents the vowel/ə/,like the pronunciation of the⟨a⟩in "ago ". It is the fourth most commonly used letter of the language, comprising 7.74 percent of all writings.

Armenian

Ëis used in theromanization of Classical or Eastern Armenianto represent the letterԸ/ը(ët’).

Ascolano

Ëis a phonetic symbol also used in the transcription ofAbruzzese dialectsand in theProvince of Ascoli Piceno(the Ascolano dialect). It is called "mute E" and sounds like a hummedé.It is important for the prosody of the dialect itself.

Dutch

In Dutch,ëappears in the plural form of most words that end in-ieor-ee,likekolonie->koloniën,zee->zeeën,andknie->knieën(Dutch-language rules stipulate an extraebefore theëin plurals if the accent falls on the syllable containing theë). This so-calledtremaindicates that the vowel letter does not form a digraph with the preceding vowel letter but is pronounced separately. For example,koloniënis pronounced[koːˈloːniən],butkolonienwould be pronounced[koːˈloːnin].

Emilian

In some peripheralEmiliandialects, ë is used to represent [ə], e.g.strëtt[strətː] "narrow".

English

Use of the characterËin theEnglish languageis relatively rare. Some publications, such as the American magazineThe New Yorker,use it more often than others.It is used to indicate that theeis to be pronounced separately from the preceding vowel (e.g. in the word "reëntry", the feminine name "Chloë" or in the masculine name "Raphaël" ), or at all – like in the name of theBrontë sisters,where without diaeresis the finalewould be mute.

Tagalog

Further information:§ Tagalog

Ë represents the schwa sound in loanwords fromMaranao,Pangasinan,Ilocano,and other Cordillera languages in the Philippines.

Finnic

Ëis used in the linguistic reconstructions ofProto-Finnicto denote an unrounded (mid?) back vowel [ɤ~ɤ̞~ʌ] the back counterpart to [e] for Proto-Finnic's system ofvowel harmony.It is also used in the allophonic diphthong [ɤu] –ëu.

French

Ëappears in words like FrenchNoël.Like in Dutch, it is used to indicate that the vowel letter does not form a digraph with the preceding vowel letter but is pronounced separately. For example,Noëlis pronounced[nɔɛl],whilstNoelwould be pronounced[nwɛl].

German

E-diaeresis in the wordPoësie

Ëdoes not occur in theofficialGerman alphabet.However, a diaeresis aboveein German occurs in a few proper names and ethnonyms, such asFerdinand Piëch,Bernhard Hoëcker,Alëuten,Niuë,Uëa.Occasionally, a diaeresis may be used in some well-known names, such asItaliën,which is usually written asItalien.Without a diaeresis,iewould be [iː] instead of [iə];euwould be [ɔʏ] instead of [eu] andae,oe,uewould be alternative representations of respectivelyä,ö,ü.

Hungarian

Ëdoes not belong to theofficialHungarian alphabet,but is usually applied in folklore notations and sometimes also in stylistic writing, e.g. is extensively used in the vocal oeuvre ofKodály.The reason is that opene(close to English hat, cat, cap) and closedë(close to Spanish e) are distinguished in most spoken dialects, but is not indicated in writing because of the history of writing and due to little but observable areal variation.

Kashubian

Ëis the 9th letter of theKashubian alphabetand represents/ə/.

Ladin

Although not used in standardLadin,Ëis used in the local variationsgherdëina,badiotandfodom.It represents/ɜ/.

Latin

In many editions ofLatintexts, the diaeresis is used to indicate thataeandoeform ahiatus,not a diphthong (in the Classical pronunciation) or a monophthong (in traditional English pronunciations). Examples:aër"air",poëta"poet",coërcere"to coerce".

Lenape

In theLenapelanguage, the letter ë is used to represent the schwa vowel. An example of its use is the wordmikwën,which means "feather". It can also be found in more complex words, such asntëmpëm,which means "my brain".

Luxembourgish

InLuxembourgish,ëis used to indicate stressedschwa/ə/as in the wordëmmer[ˈəmɐ] ( "always" ). Otherwise, a stressedeis pronounced as [æ] (e.g.sechs[zæks] ( "six" )), [ɛ] (e.g.Verb[vɛχp] ( "verb" )) or [eː] (e.g.Prefix[ˈpʀeːfiks] ( "prefix" )).

It is also used to indicate an unstressed schwa in the following cases:

1. Before or after a doubleee,pronounced [eː], to indicate that theëdoes not form a digraph with the preceding or following vowel letter but is pronounced separately, for example:gëeegent[ɡəˈʔeːʑənt] ( "suitable" ),Eeër[ˈeːɐ] ( "eggs" ) orleeën[ˈleːən] ( "to lay" ). This also applies to French loanwords ending in-ée,e.g.Musée[ˈmyːzeː] ( "museum" ),n-plural:Muséeën[ˈmyːzeːən],n-less plural:Muséeë[ˈmyːzeːə]. About usage of plural forms with and without-n,seeEifeler Regel.

2. To indicate that the word-final-eis pronounced in then-less plural form of words whose singular ends in a mute-e,e.g.Orange[ˈoʀɑ̃ːʃ] ( "orange", singular),Orangen[ˈoʀɑ̃ːʃən] (plural with-n),Orangë[ˈoʀɑ̃ːʃə] (plural without-n).

3. In feminine nouns with a word-final mute-edenoting a female person, an extraëis added in the plural to distinguish it from the plural of the corresponding masculine noun:

• Cliente[ˈkliɑ̃ːt] ( "customer" [female], feminine, singular),Clienteën[ˈkliɑ̃ːtən] (plural with-n),Clienteë[ˈkliɑ̃ːtə] (plural without-n) vs.
• Client[ˈkliɑ̃ː] ( "customer" [male or gender-neutral], masculine, singular),Clienten[ˈkliɑ̃ːən] (plural with-n),Clientë[ˈkliɑ̃ːə] (plural without-n).

4. In the corresponding masculine nouns thediaeresisis used in then-less plural form to distinguish it from the singular of the corresponding feminine noun:Clientë[ˈkliɑ̃ːə] ( "customers" [male or gender-neutral], masculine, plural without-n) vs.Cliente[ˈkliɑ̃ːt] ( "customer" [female], feminine, singular).

Mayan languages

In the modern orthography ofMayan languages,the letterËrepresents/ə/.

Piedmontese

Ërepresents the mid central vowel/ə/in the modern orthography ofPiedmontese language.

Quenya

Inconstructed languageQuenyadiaeresis indicates that a vowel is not part of a diphthong, for example inëaorëo,while finalëis marked with a diaeresis to remind English-speakers that it is not silent.

Romagnol

Ë is used inRomagnolto represent [ɛː~ɛə], e.g.fradël[fraˈdɛəl~fraˈdɛːl] "brother".

Russian

In some Latin transliterations ofRussiansuch asISO 9,ëis used for itshomoglyphё,representing a/jo/,as inPotëmkinto render the CyrillicПотёмкин.Other translations useyo,joor (ambiguously) simplye.

Syriac

In theromanization of Syriac,the letterËgives aschwa.In some grammatical constructions, it is a replacement for the other, original vowels (a, o, e, i, u). Example words that haveË:knoṭër( "he is waiting" ),krëhṭi( "they are running" ),krëqdo( "she is dancing" ),ŝërla( "she has closed" ),gfolëḥ( "he will work" ),madënḥo( "east" ),mën( "what" ),ašër( "believe" ).TuroyoandAssyrianlanguages may utilize this diacritic, albeit rarely.

Seneca

InSeneca,the letterËis used to represent/ẽ/,aclose-mid front unroundednasalized vowel.

Tagalog

InTagalogand its standardized formFilipino,Ëis used to represent theschwa,particularly in words originating from otherPhilippine languages,for instanceMaranao(Mëranaw),Pangasinan,Ilocano,andIbaloi.Before introduction of this letter, schwa was ambiguously represented byAorE.

Uyghur

Ëis the 6th letter of theUyghur Latin alphabetand represents close-mid front unrounded vowel/e/(while plainEstands for/ɛ/or/æ/).

Character mappings

Character information

Preview	Ë		ë
Unicode name	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS		LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	203	U+00CB	235	U+00EB
UTF-8	195 139	C3 8B	195 171	C3 AB
Numeric character reference	Ë	Ë	ë	ë
Named character reference	Ë		ë
ISO 8859-1,2,3,4,9,10,14,15,16	203	CB	235	EB

See also

• Umlaut (diacritic)
• Yo,aCyrillichomoglyph