Ê

E with circumflex
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Type	alphabetic
Sound values	[ɛ] [ɛː] [ɛ̂] [æː] [e] [eː] [ʔ] [ʁ] [je]
InUnicode	U+00CA, U+00EA
History
Development	Ε ε ϵ 𐌄 E e Ê
Transliterations	Єє,ﻉ
Other

Ê,ê(e-circumflex) is a letter of theLatin alphabet,found in Afrikaans, French, Friulian, Kurdish, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Welsh. It is used to transliterate Chinese, Persian, and Ukrainian.

Usage in various languages

Afrikaans

Ê is not considered a separate letter inAfrikaansbut a variation of "E". The circumflex changes the pronunciation of "e" to be/ɛː/(or/æː/if the succeeding consonant is either a dorsal or a liquid)

Chinese

In thePinyinromanization ofStandard MandarinChinese,êrepresents/ɛ/.It corresponds toZhuyinㄝ. The circumflex occurs only ifêis the only vowel in a syllable:ề/ɛ̂/(Ai;Ai;"eh!" ). Without the circumflex,eas the only vowel represents/ɤ/:è/ɤ̂/(Ngạ;Ngạ;"hungry" ). Elsewhere,/ɛ/is written asa(afteriorübeforen) ore(before or after another vowel), with the appropriate tone mark,:xiān/ɕi̯ɛ́n/(Tiên;"first" ),xuǎn/ɕy̯ɛ̀n/(Tuyển;Tuyển;"to choose", noting thatüis writtenuafterx),xué/ɕy̯ɛ̌~ɕy̯ě/(Học;Học;"to learn" ),xièxie/ɕi̯ɛ̂.ɕi̯ɛ~ɕi̯ê.ɕi̯e/(Tạ tạ;Tạ tạ;"thanks" ).

InPe̍h-ōe-jī,êis the fifth tone ofe:ê(Đích;possessive, adjectival suffix).

French

Diacritics are not considered to be distinct letters of theFrench alphabet.In French, ê usually changes the pronunciation ofefrom /ə/ to /ɛ/. It is used instead of "è" for words that used to be written "es".

Friulian

Ê represents/eː/and/ɛː/.

Khmer

Ê is used inUNGEGNromanization system forKhmerto represent/ae/and/ɛː/,for exampleKhmêr(ខ្មែរ[kʰmae]) andDângrêk Mountains(ដងរែក[ɗɑːŋrɛːk]).

Kurdish

Ê is the 7th letter of theKurdish Kurmanji alphabetand represents /eː/.

Norwegian Nynorsk

In Nynorsk,êis used to represent the reduction of the Old Norse sequence <eð>, similar to the use ofêfor the historical sequence <es> in French. It is mostly used to differentiate words which otherwise would be spelled the same, e.g.vêr'weather' andver,imperative of 'to be'.

Persian

Ê is used in thePersian Latin (Rumi) alphabet,equivalent toع.

Portuguese

In Portuguese, ê marks a stressed/e/only in words whose stressed syllable is in an otherwise unpredictable location in the word: "pêssego" (peach). The letter, pronounced/e/,can also contrast with é, pronounced/ɛ/,as inpé(foot).

Tibetan

Ê is used inTibetan pinyinto represent/e/,for exampleGêrzê County.

Ukrainian

Ê is used in theISO 9:1995system ofUkrainian transliterationas the letterЄ.

Vietnamese

Ê is the 9th letter of theVietnamese alphabetand represents/e/.InVietnamese phonology,diacriticscan be added to form five forms to represent five tones of ê:

• Ề ề
• Ể ể
• Ễ ễ
• Ế ế
• Ệ ệ

Welsh

InWelsh,êrepresents longstressede[eː]if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short[ɛ]:llên[ɬeːn]"literature", as opposed tollen[ɬɛn]"curtain", orgêm[ɡeːm]"game", as opposed togem[ɡɛm]"gem, jewel". That is useful for borrowed words with a final stress likeapêl[apˈeːl]"appeal".

Other

InPopido,a fictitious dialect ofEsperantomade byManuel Halvelikfor use in literature,êrepresents/ə/.It is only usedepentheticallyto break consonant clusters, especially before grammatical suffixes.

Character mappings

Unicode encoded 5 pairs ofprecomposed characters(Ề / ề, Ể / ể, Ễ / ễ, Ế / ế, Ệ / ệ) for the five tones of ê in Vietnamese. Two pairs of the five (Ế / ế and Ề / ề) can also be used as the second and fourth tones of ê in Pinyin. The first and third tones of ê in Pinyin have to be represented bycombining diacritical marks,like ê̄ (ê&#772;) and ê̌ (ê&#780;).

Character information

Preview	Ê		ê
Unicode name	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX		LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	202	U+00CA	234	U+00EA
UTF-8	195 138	C3 8A	195 170	C3 AA
Numeric character reference	Ê	Ê	ê	ê
Named character reference	Ê		ê
EBCDICfamily	114	72	82	52
ISO 8859-1/3/9/14/15/16	202	CA	234	EA

See also

• Circumflex