| E with circumflex | |
| Script: | Latin script |
| Equivalents: | Єє, ﻉ |
| Unicode: | U+00CA, U+00EA |
| Fam1: | |
| Fam6: | Ε ε ϵ |
| Fam8: | E e |
| Type: | alphabet |
| Typedesc: | ic |
Ê, ê (e-circumflex) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, found in Afrikaans, French, Friulian, Kurdish, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Welsh. It is used to transliterate Chinese, Persian, and Ukrainian.
Ê is not considered a separate letter in Afrikaans but a variation of "E". The circumflex changes the pronunciation of "e" to be pronounced as //ɛː// (or pronounced as //æː// if the succeeding consonant is either a dorsal or a liquid)
In the Pinyin romanization of Standard Mandarin Chinese, ê represents pronounced as //ɛ//. It corresponds to Zhuyin ㄝ. The circumflex occurs only if ê is the only vowel in a syllable: ề pronounced as //ɛ̂// (; "eh!"). Without the circumflex, e as the only vowel represents pronounced as //ɤ//: è pronounced as //ɤ̂// (; "hungry"). Elsewhere, pronounced as //ɛ// is written as a (after i or ü before n) or e (before or after another vowel), with the appropriate tone mark,: xiān pronounced as //ɕi̯ɛ́n// (; "first"), xuǎn pronounced as //ɕy̯ɛ̀n// (; "to choose", noting that ü is written u after x), xué pronounced as //ɕy̯ɛ̌ ~ ɕy̯ě// (; "to learn"), xièxie pronounced as //ɕi̯ɛ̂.ɕi̯ɛ ~ ɕi̯ê.ɕi̯e// (; "thanks").
In Pe̍h-ōe-jī, ê is the fifth tone of e: ê (; possessive, adjectival suffix).
Diacritics are not considered to be distinct letters of the French alphabet. In French, ê usually changes the pronunciation of e from /ə/ to /ɛ/. It is used instead of "è" for words that used to be written "es".
Ê represents pronounced as //eː// and pronounced as //ɛː//.
Ê is used in UNGEGN romanization system for Khmer to represent pronounced as //ae// and pronounced as /link/, for example Khmêr (Central Khmer: ខ្មែរ in Central Khmer pronounced as /kʰmae/) and Dângrêk Mountains (Central Khmer: ដងរែក in Central Khmer pronounced as /ɗɑːŋrɛːk/).
Ê is the 7th letter of the Kurdish Kurmanji alphabet and represents /eː/.
In Nynorsk, ê is used to represent the reduction of the Old Norse sequence
Ê is used in the Persian Latin (Rumi) alphabet, equivalent to ع.
In Portuguese, ê marks a stressed pronounced as /link/ only in words whose stressed syllable is in an otherwise unpredictable location in the word: "pêssego" (peach). The letter, pronounced pronounced as /link/, can also contrast with é, pronounced pronounced as /link/, as in pé (foot).
Ê is used in Tibetan pinyin to represent pronounced as //e//, for example Gêrzê County.
Ê is used in the ISO 9:1995 system of Ukrainian transliteration as the letter Є.
Ê is the 9th letter of the Vietnamese alphabet and represents pronounced as //e//. In Vietnamese phonology, diacritics can be added to form five forms to represent five tones of ê:
In Welsh, ê represents long stressed e in Welsh pronounced as /eː/ if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short in Welsh pronounced as /ɛ/: llên in Welsh pronounced as /ɬeːn/ "literature", as opposed to llen in Welsh pronounced as /ɬɛn/ "curtain", or gêm in Welsh pronounced as /ɡeːm/ "game", as opposed to gem in Welsh pronounced as /ɡɛm/ "gem, jewel". That is useful for borrowed words with a final stress like apêl in Welsh pronounced as /apˈeːl/ "appeal".
In Popido, a fictitious dialect of Esperanto made by Manuel Halvelik for use in literature, ê represents pronounced as //ə//. It is only used epenthetically to break consonant clusters, especially before grammatical suffixes.
Unicode encoded 5 pairs of precomposed characters (Ề / ề, Ể / ể, Ễ / ễ, Ế / ế, Ệ / ệ) for the five tones of ê in Vietnamese. Two pairs of the five (Ế / ế and Ề / ề) can also be used as the second and fourth tones of ê in Pinyin. The first and third tones of ê in Pinyin have to be represented by combining diacritical marks, like ê̄ (ê̄) and ê̌ (ê̌).