E (Indic)

Summary

E is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, E is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter ng after having gone through the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, E comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

E
E
Example glyphs
Bengali–AssameseE
TibetanE
TamilE
Thai
Malayalam
Sinhala
Ashoka BrahmiE
DevanagariE
Properties
Phonemic representation/eː/
IAST transliteratione E
ISCII code pointAC (172)

Āryabhaṭa numeration edit

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The े sign was used to modify a consonant's value ×1010, but the vowel letter ए did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]

Historic Ē edit

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. E as found in standard Brahmi,   was a simple geometric shape, and remained basically unchanged all the way through the generally more flowing Gupta as  . Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian E   has an accompanying vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A. All other independent vowels, including E are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi Ē edit

The Brahmi letter E  , is probably derived from the Aramaic Ayin  , and is thus related to the modern Latin O and Greek Omicron.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi E can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with some vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi E historic forms
Ashoka
(3rd-1st c. BCE)
Girnar
(~150 BCE)
Kushana
(~150-250 CE)
Gujarat
(~250 CE)
Gupta
(~350 CE)
         

Tocharian Ē edit

The Tocharian letter   is derived from the Brahmi  . Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian consonants with E vowel marks
Ke Khe Ge Ghe Ce Che Je Jhe Nye Ṭe Ṭhe Ḍe Ḍhe Ṇe
                   
Te The De Dhe Ne Pe Phe Be Bhe Me Ye Re Le Ve
                         
Śe Ṣe Se He
       

Kharoṣṭhī E edit

The Kharoṣṭhī letter E is indicated with the vowel mark  . As an independent vowel, E is indicated by adding the vowel mark to the independent vowel letter A  .

Devanagari Ē edit

 
 
Devanagari independent Ē and Ē vowel sign.

Ē () is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , after having gone through the Gupta letter  . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter 𑘊.

Devanagari Using Languages edit

The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ए is pronounced as [e]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Ē edit

 
 
Bengali independent Ē and Ē vowel sign.

Ē () is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter  , and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ए.

Bengali Script Using Languages edit

The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, এ is pronounced as [e]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Ē edit

 
 
Gujarati independent E and E vowel sign.

Ē () is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ē  , and ultimately the Brahmi letter  .

Gujarati-using Languages edit

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, એ is pronounced as [e]. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Gujarati Candra E edit

 
 
Gujarati independent Candra E and Candra E vowel sign.

Candra E ( short E) is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Candra E, and ultimately the Brahmi letter  .

Gujarati-using Languages edit

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઍ is pronounced as gu. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Javanese E edit

Telugu E edit

 
 
Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign E.

E () is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  . It is closely related to the Kannada letter . Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Vowel signs in Telugu can interact with a base consonant in one of three ways: 1) the vowel sign touches or sits adjacent to the base consonant without modifying the shape of either 2) the vowel sign sits directly above the consonant, replacing its v-shaped headline, 3) the vowel sign and consonant interact, forming a ligature.

 
Telugu E vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Ke, Khe, Ge, Ghe and Nge. Note that how the vowel sign interacts with the base consonant is dependent on the location of the headline, the absence of a headline, and the presence of a tail to attach to.

Telugu Ē edit

 
 
Telugu independent Ē vowel and vowel sign .

In addition, Telugu also contains a second E vowel, Ē (). It is also derived from the Brahmi letter  . It is closely related to the Kannada letter . The long Ē vowel sign interacts with base consonants the same as the short E.

 
Telugu vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kē, Khē, Gē, Ghē and Ngē. Note that how the vowel sign interacts with the base consonant is dependent on the location of the headline, the absence of a headline, and the presence of a tail to attach to.

Malayalam E edit

 
 
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign E.

E () is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , via the Grantha letter   e. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.

Malayalam Ē edit

 
 
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Ē.

Ē (, Long E) is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It is ultimately a derivation of a predecessor to Malayalam short "E" that arose after Grantha. Like other Malayalam vowels, Ē has two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.

Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Vowels edit

, , and are the bare vowel characters in the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. is derived from the vowel series, and has the value of a glottal stop. Unlike the bare-consonant forms of most Canadian syllabic letters that are a small version of the A-series letter, ᐞ is a small version of the I-series ᐃ. The base character ᐁ is derived from a handwritten form of the Devanagari letter ए.[4][5] Unlike most writing systems without legacy computer encodings, complex Canadian syllabic letters are represented in Unicode with pre-composed characters, rather than with base characters and diacritical marks.

Variant E-series I-series O-series A-series Other
Bare vowels -
E I O A -
Small - - -
- ʔ Eastern W Western W - - Ai
Long vowels -
- Ī Ō Cree Ō Ā
W- vowels -
We Cree We Wi Cree Wi Wo Cree Wo Wa Cree Wa -
W- long vowels - -
- Cree Cree Naskapi Cree Naskapi -
Carrier vowels - - -
Ē I - - -
Vowels with ring diacritic - -
- Āi Oy Ay Āy Way -

Odia E edit

 
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign E

E () is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , via the Siddhaṃ letter   e. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Kaithi E edit

 
 
Kaithi independent vowel and vowel sign E.

E (𑂉) is a vowel of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , via the Siddhaṃ letter   E. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Kaithi usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Kaithi.

Comparison of E edit

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including E, are related as well.

Comparison of E in different scripts
Aramaic
 
Kharoṣṭhī
𐨅
Ashoka Brahmi
 
Kushana Brahmi[a]
 
Tocharian[b]
-
Gupta Brahmi
 
Pallava
 
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
𑰊
Siddhaṃ
 
Grantha
𑌏
Cham
Sinhala
Pyu /
Old Mon[c]
-
Tibetan
 
Newa
𑐊
Ahom
𑜦
Malayalam
Telugu
Burmese
Lepcha
Ranjana
 
Saurashtra
Dives Akuru
𑤆
Kannada
Kayah Li
Limbu
Soyombo[d]
𑩔
Khmer
ឯ / េ
Tamil
 
Chakma
𑄆
Tai Tham
Meitei Mayek
Gaudi
-
Thai
Lao
Tai Le
Marchen
𑲳
Tirhuta
𑒋
New Tai Lue
Tai Viet
Aksara Kawi
-
'Phags-pa
Odia
Sharada
𑆍
Rejang
Batak
Buginese
Zanabazar Square
𑨄
Bengali-Assamese
 
Takri
𑚆
Javanese
Balinese
Makasar
𑻵
Hangul[e]
-
Northern Nagari
-
Dogri
𑠆
Laṇḍā
-
Sundanese
Baybayin
-
Modi
𑘊
Gujarati
Khojki
𑈄
Khudabadi
𑊶
Mahajani
𑅓
Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
 
Nandinagari
𑦪
Kaithi
 
Gurmukhi
Multani
𑊃
Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics[f]
Soyombo[g]
𑩔
Sylheti Nagari
Gunjala Gondi
-
Masaram Gondi[h]
𑴆
Hanuno'o
-
Notes
  1. ^ The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms.
  2. ^ Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession.
  3. ^ Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
  4. ^ May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
  5. ^ The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida.
  6. ^ Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas.
  7. ^ May also be derived from Ranjana (see above)
  8. ^ Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.


Character encodings of E edit

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter E in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. E from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information
Preview      
Unicode name DEVANAGARI LETTER E BENGALI LETTER E TAMIL LETTER EE TELUGU LETTER EE ORIYA LETTER E KANNADA LETTER EE MALAYALAM LETTER EE GUJARATI LETTER E GURMUKHI LETTER EE
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 2319 U+090F 2447 U+098F 2959 U+0B8F 3087 U+0C0F 2831 U+0B0F 3215 U+0C8F 3343 U+0D0F 2703 U+0A8F 2575 U+0A0F
UTF-8 224 164 143 E0 A4 8F 224 166 143 E0 A6 8F 224 174 143 E0 AE 8F 224 176 143 E0 B0 8F 224 172 143 E0 AC 8F 224 178 143 E0 B2 8F 224 180 143 E0 B4 8F 224 170 143 E0 AA 8F 224 168 143 E0 A8 8F
Numeric character reference ए ए এ এ ஏ ஏ ఏ ఏ ଏ ଏ ಏ ಏ ഏ ഏ એ એ ਏ ਏ
ISCII 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC 172 AC


Character information
Preview
Ashoka 
Kushana 
Gupta 
  𑌏
Unicode name BRAHMI LETTER E SIDDHAM LETTER E GRANTHA LETTER EE
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 69647 U+1100F 71050 U+1158A 70415 U+1130F
UTF-8 240 145 128 143 F0 91 80 8F 240 145 150 138 F0 91 96 8A 240 145 140 143 F0 91 8C 8F
UTF-16 55300 56335 D804 DC0F 55301 56714 D805 DD8A 55300 57103 D804 DF0F
Numeric character reference 𑀏 𑀏 𑖊 𑖊 𑌏 𑌏


Character information
Preview 𑐊 𑰊 𑆍
Unicode name PHAGS-PA LETTER E NEWA LETTER E BHAIKSUKI LETTER E SHARADA LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 43104 U+A860 70666 U+1140A 72714 U+11C0A 70029 U+1118D
UTF-8 234 161 160 EA A1 A0 240 145 144 138 F0 91 90 8A 240 145 176 138 F0 91 B0 8A 240 145 134 141 F0 91 86 8D
UTF-16 43104 A860 55301 56330 D805 DC0A 55303 56330 D807 DC0A 55300 56717 D804 DD8D
Numeric character reference ꡠ ꡠ 𑐊 𑐊 𑰊 𑰊 𑆍 𑆍


Character information
Preview
Unicode name MYANMAR LETTER E NEW TAI LUE VOWEL SIGN E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 4135 U+1027 6581 U+19B5
UTF-8 225 128 167 E1 80 A7 225 166 181 E1 A6 B5
Numeric character reference ဧ ဧ ᦵ ᦵ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL QE THAI CHARACTER SARA E TAI VIET VOWEL E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 6063 U+17AF 3648 U+0E40 43701 U+AAB5
UTF-8 225 158 175 E1 9E AF 224 185 128 E0 B9 80 234 170 181 EA AA B5
Numeric character reference ឯ ឯ เ เ ꪵ ꪵ


Character information
Preview 𑄆 𑤆
Unicode name SINHALA LETTER EYANNA CHAKMA LETTER E TAI LE LETTER E DIVES AKURU LETTER E SAURASHTRA LETTER E CHAM LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 3473 U+0D91 69894 U+11106 6507 U+196B 71942 U+11906 43148 U+A88C 43523 U+AA03
UTF-8 224 182 145 E0 B6 91 240 145 132 134 F0 91 84 86 225 165 171 E1 A5 AB 240 145 164 134 F0 91 A4 86 234 162 140 EA A2 8C 234 168 131 EA A8 83
UTF-16 3473 0D91 55300 56582 D804 DD06 6507 196B 55302 56582 D806 DD06 43148 A88C 43523 AA03
Numeric character reference එ එ 𑄆 𑄆 ᥫ ᥫ 𑤆 𑤆 ꢌ ꢌ ꨃ ꨃ


Character information
Preview 𑘊 𑦪
Unicode name MODI LETTER E NANDINAGARI LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 71178 U+1160A 72106 U+119AA
UTF-8 240 145 152 138 F0 91 98 8A 240 145 166 170 F0 91 A6 AA
UTF-16 55301 56842 D805 DE0A 55302 56746 D806 DDAA
Numeric character reference 𑘊 𑘊 𑦪 𑦪


Character information
Preview 𑒋
Unicode name TIRHUTA LETTER E MEETEI MAYEK LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 70795 U+1148B 43744 U+AAE0
UTF-8 240 145 146 139 F0 91 92 8B 234 171 160 EA AB A0
UTF-16 55301 56459 D805 DC8B 43744 AAE0
Numeric character reference 𑒋 𑒋 ꫠ ꫠ


Character information
Preview 𑚆 𑠆 𑈄 𑊶 𑅓 𑊃
Unicode name TAKRI LETTER E DOGRA LETTER E KHOJKI LETTER E KHUDAWADI LETTER E MAHAJANI LETTER E MULTANI LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 71302 U+11686 71686 U+11806 70148 U+11204 70326 U+112B6 69971 U+11153 70275 U+11283
UTF-8 240 145 154 134 F0 91 9A 86 240 145 160 134 F0 91 A0 86 240 145 136 132 F0 91 88 84 240 145 138 182 F0 91 8A B6 240 145 133 147 F0 91 85 93 240 145 138 131 F0 91 8A 83
UTF-16 55301 56966 D805 DE86 55302 56326 D806 DC06 55300 56836 D804 DE04 55300 57014 D804 DEB6 55300 56659 D804 DD53 55300 56963 D804 DE83
Numeric character reference 𑚆 𑚆 𑠆 𑠆 𑈄 𑈄 𑊶 𑊶 𑅓 𑅓 𑊃 𑊃


Character information
Preview
Unicode name BALINESE LETTER EKARA JAVANESE LETTER E SUNDANESE LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 6927 U+1B0F 43404 U+A98C 7048 U+1B88
UTF-8 225 172 143 E1 AC 8F 234 166 140 EA A6 8C 225 174 136 E1 AE 88
Numeric character reference ᬏ ᬏ ꦌ ꦌ ᮈ ᮈ


Character information
Preview 𑴆
Unicode name MASARAM GONDI LETTER E
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 72966 U+11D06
UTF-8 240 145 180 134 F0 91 B4 86
UTF-16 55303 56582 D807 DD06
Numeric character reference 𑴆 𑴆
Character information
Preview
Unicode name CANADIAN SYLLABICS E CANADIAN SYLLABICS I CANADIAN SYLLABICS O CANADIAN SYLLABICS A CANADIAN SYLLABICS GLOTTAL STOP
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 5121 U+1401 5123 U+1403 5125 U+1405 5130 U+140A 5150 U+141E
UTF-8 225 144 129 E1 90 81 225 144 131 E1 90 83 225 144 133 E1 90 85 225 144 138 E1 90 8A 225 144 158 E1 90 9E
Numeric character reference ᐁ ᐁ ᐃ ᐃ ᐅ ᐅ ᐊ ᐊ ᐞ ᐞ
  • The full range of E Canadian syllabic characters can be found at the codepoint ranges 1401-141B, 141E, 142B-142E, 18B0-18B3, 18DC-18DD.


References edit

  1. ^ Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  2. ^ Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. ^ Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838 [1]
  4. ^ Andrew Dalby (2004:139) Dictionary of Languages
  5. ^ Some General Aspects of the Syllabics Orthography, Chris Harvey 2003