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Ye (kana)

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

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

History

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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 and .

Characters

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Nara period–Heian period

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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] 𛀀 etc. エ etc.

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

Edo period–Meiji period

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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
      • [9] (Hiragana)
      • (Hentaigana of え. Hiragana.)
      • エ (Katakana)
    • Constructed kana
  • 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.)
      • [24] (Katakana)
    • Constructed kana
      • [25] (え with dots. Hiragana.)
      • [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.

Unicode

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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

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See also

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