Ye (kana)

ye
hiragana
japanese hiragana ye		 katakana[1]
japanese katakana ye
alternate katakana[2]
japanese katakana ye
transliteratione, 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
unicodeU+1B001

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]

History

It is presumed that 𛀁 would have represented [je] ⓘ. 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.

eye
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] 𛀀 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
  • え (Hiragana)
  • 𛀁[9] (A variant form of え. Hiragana.)
  • [10] (A variant form of え. Hiragana.)
  • [11] (A variant form of え. Hiragana.)
  • [10] (A variant form of え. Hiragana.)
  • エ[9] (Katakana)
Constructed kana
  • [9] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • [10] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • [10] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • [10] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • [10] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • え゙[12] (え with dots. Hiragana.)
  • エ゙[12] (エ with dots. Katakana.)
  • [13] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • [14][15][16] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • [17][18] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
  • 𛄡[19][20][10] (A part of 延. Katakana.)
  • [21] (A part of 兄. Katakana.)
  • [11] (A part of 延. Katakana.)

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.

References

See also

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