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ye
hiragana katakana [1] another 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,𛄡) is a Japanese syllable or a kana used to write it, no longer in standard use. ^[3]

History

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 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
    • ^[9] (A part of 衣. ^[10] Katakana.)
    • ^[11] (A part of 衣. ^[12] Katakana.)
    • ^[13] (A part of 衣. ^[14] Katakana.)
    • ^[15] (A part of 衣. ^[16] Katakana.)
    • ^[17] (A part of 衣. ^[18] Katakana.)

• 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

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

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