E
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the [English alphabet|modern English alphabet], the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is e ; plural es, Es, or E's.
It is the most commonly used letter in many languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Latvian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Name
In English, the name of the letter is the "long E" sound, pronounced. In most other languages, its name matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables.History
The Latin letter 'E' differs little from its source, the Greek letter epsilon, 'Ε'. This in turn comes from the Semitic letter hê, which has been suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure, and was most likely based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation.In Semitic, the letter represented ; in Greek, hê became the letter epsilon, used to represent. The various forms of the Old Italic script and the Latin alphabet followed this usage.
Use in writing systems
English
Although Middle English spelling used to represent long and short, the Great Vowel Shift changed long to while short remained a mid vowel. In unstressed syllables, this letter is usually pronounced either as or. In other cases, the letter is silent, generally at the end of words like queue.Other languages
In the orthography of many languages, it represents either,,, or some variation of these sounds, often with diacritics to indicate contrasts. Less commonly, as in French, German, or Saanich, represents a mid-central vowel. Digraphs with are common to indicate either diphthongs or monophthongs, such as or for or in English, for in German, and for in French or in German.Other systems
The International Phonetic Alphabet uses for the close-mid front unrounded vowel or the mid front unrounded vowel.Frequency
E is the most common letter in the English language alphabet and several other European languages, which has implications in both cryptography and data compression. This makes it a harder letter to use when writing lipograms.Other uses
Image:Avogadro's number in e notation.jpg|thumb|A scientific calculator display showing the Avogadro constant in E notation- In the hexadecimal numbering system, "E" corresponds to the number 14 in decimal counting.
- "e" is also commonly used to denote Euler's number.
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
- E with diacritics: Ĕ ĕ Ḝ ḝ Ȇ ȇ Ê ê Ê̄ ê̄ Ê̌ ê̌ Ề ề Ế ế Ể ể Ễ ễ Ệ ệ Ẻ ẻ Ḙ ḙ Ě ě Ɇ ɇ Ė ė Ė́ ė́ Ė̃ ė̃ Ẹ ẹ Ë ë È è È̩ è̩ Ȅ ȅ É é É̩ Ē ē Ḕ ḕ Ḗ ḗ Ẽ ẽ Ḛ ḛ Ę ę Ę́ ę́ Ę̃ ę̃ Ȩ ȩ E̩ e̩ ᶒ
- ⱸ: E with notch is used in the Swedish Dialect Alphabet
- Æ æ: Latin AE ligature
- Œ œ: Latin OE ligature
- The umlaut diacritic ¨ used above a vowel letter in German and other languages to indicate a fronted or front vowel
- Phonetic alphabet symbols related to E :
- * Ɛ ɛ: Latin letter epsilon / open e, which represents an open-mid front unrounded vowel in the IPA
- * ᶓ: Epsilon / open e with retroflex hook
- * Ɜ ɜ: Latin letter reversed epsilon / open e, which represents an open-mid central unrounded vowel in the IPA
- * ɝ: Latin small letter reversed epsilon / open e with hook, which represents a rhotacized open-mid central vowel in the IPA
- * ᶔ: Reversed epsilon / open e with retroflex hook
- *ᶟ: Modifier letter small reversed epsilon / open e
- * ɞ: Latin small letter closed reversed open e, which represents an open-mid central rounded vowel in IPA
- * ?: Modifier letter small closed reversed open e, which is a superscript IPA letter
- * Ə ə: Latin letter schwa, which represents a mid central vowel in the IPA
- * Ǝ ǝ: Latin letter turned e, which is used in the writing systems of some African languages
- * ɘ: Latin letter reversed e, which represents a close-mid central unrounded vowel in the IPA
- * ?: Modifier letter small reversed e, which is a superscript IPA letter
- The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of e and epsilon / open e:
- *
- *
- *
- *
- *
- *
- *
- *
- e: Subscript small e is used in Indo-European studies
- Teuthonista phonetic transcription system symbols related to E:
- *
- *
- *
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
- ?: Semitic letter He (letter), from which the following symbols originally derive:
- * Ε ε: Greek letter Epsilon, from which the following symbols originally derive:
- ** Е е: Cyrillic letter Ye
- ** Є є: Ukrainian Ye
- ** Э э: Cyrillic letter E
- ** : Coptic letter Ei
- ** ?: Old Italic E, which is the ancestor of modern Latin E
- *** : Runic letter Ehwaz, which is possibly a descendant of Old Italic E
- ** : Gothic letter eyz
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
- €: Euro sign.
- ℮: estimated sign.e: the symbol for the elementary charge.
- ∃: existential quantifier in predicate logic. It is read "there exists... such that".
- ∈: the symbol for set membership in set theory.
- ?: the base of the natural logarithm.