Ye (kana)

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ye
hiragana katakana[1] alternate katakana[2]
transliteration	ye
hiragana origin	江
katakana origin	江
another katakana origin	延
Man'yōgana	曳 延 要 遥 叡 兄 江 吉 枝 衣
unicode	U+1B001

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Ye" kana – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2020)

Ye (hiragana: 𛀁, katakana: エ, sometimes distinguished as 𛄡) is a Japanese mora or a kana used to write it, no longer in standard use.^[3]

It is presumed that 𛀁 would have represented [je] ^{ⓘ[citation needed]}. 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.

Japanese people separated e and ye in Man'yōgana, early Hiragana and early Katakana.

	e	ye
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]	etc.	エ etc.

After that, e and ye merged into ye in the 10th century, before eventually evolving back to e.^[8]

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^[9] (Hiragana)
    • (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
    • エ (Katakana)
  • Constructed kana
    • ^[10] (A part of 衣.^[11] Katakana.)
    • ^[12] (A part of 衣.^[13] Katakana.)
    • ^[14] (A part of 衣.^[15] Katakana.)
    • ^[16] (A part of 衣.^[17] Katakana.)
    • ^[18] (A part of 衣.^[19] Katakana.)

• ye
  • Traditional kana
    • え (平仮名)
    • 𛀁^[20] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
    • ^[21] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
    • ^[22] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
    • ^[23] (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
    • エ^[24] (Katakana)
  • Constructed kana
    • え^〻[25] (え with dots. Hiragana.)
    • エ^〻[26] (エ with dots. Katakana.)
    • ^[27] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
    • ^[28][29][30] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
    • ^[31][32] (A part of 衣. Katakana.)
    • 𛄡^[33][34] (A part of 延.^[35] Katakana.)
    • ^[36] (A part of 兄.^[37] Katakana.)
    • ^[38] (A part of 延. Katakana.)

These suggestions weren't accepted.

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.

• Early Middle Japanese
• Old Japanese
• Yi (kana)
• Wu (kana)

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