ye
hiragana
japanese hiragana ye		 katakana[1]
japanese katakana ye
another katakana[2]
japanese katakana ye
transliterationye
hiragana origin江
katakana origin江
another katakana origin延
Man'yōgana曳 延 要 遥 叡 兄 江 吉 枝 衣
unicodeU+1B001

Ye (hiragana: 𛀁, katakana: エ,𛄡) is a hentaigana, a variant kana or Japanese syllable, 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 syllables 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.

Man'yōgana[4]

  • e
    • 愛、哀、埃、衣、依、榎、荏、得
    • 可愛
  • ye
    • 延、曳、睿、叡、盈、要、縁、裔、兄、柄、枝、吉、江

Hiragana[5]

  • e
    • (Undiscovered)
  • ye
    • etc.

Katakana[6]

  • e
    • 𛀀 etc.
  • ye
    • エ etc.

After that, e and ye merged into ye in the 10th century, before eventually evolving back to e.[7]

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 gojuon table. Japanese people didn't separate them in normal writing.

  • e
    • Traditional kana
      • え[8] (Hiragana)
      • (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
      • エ (Katakana)
    • Constructed kana
  • ye
    • Traditional kana
      • え (平仮名)
      • 𛀁[19] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
      • [20] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
      • [21] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
      • [22] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
      • エ[23] (Katakana)
    • Constructed kana
      • え〻[24] (え with dots. Hiragana.)
      • エ〻[25] (エ with dots. Katakana.)
      • [26] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
      • [27][28][29] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
      • [30][31] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
      • 𛄡[32][33] (A part of 延.[34] Katakana.)
      • [35] (A part of 兄.[36] Katakana.)
      • [37] (A part of 延. Katakana.)

These suggestions weren't 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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