E

In English, the name of the letter is the "long E" sound, pronounced . In most other languages, its name matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. ==History==

The Latin letter 'E' differs little from its source, the Greek letter epsilon, 'Ε'. This in turn comes from the Semitic letter hê, which has been suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure (hillul, 'jubilation'), and was most likely based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation. In Semitic, the letter represented (and in foreign words); in Greek, hê became the letter epsilon, used to represent . The various forms of the Old Italic script and the Latin alphabet followed this usage. ==Use in writing systems==

English Although Middle English spelling used to represent long and short , the Great Vowel Shift changed long (as in me or bee) to while short (as in met or bed) remained a mid vowel. In unstressed syllables, this letter is usually pronounced either as or . In other cases, the letter is silent, generally at the end of words like queue. Other languages In the orthography of many languages, it represents either , , , or some variation (such as a nasalized version) of these sounds, often with diacritics (as: ) to indicate contrasts. Less commonly, as in French, German, or Saanich, represents a mid-central vowel . Digraphs with are common to indicate either diphthongs or monophthongs, such as or for or in English, for in German, and for in French or in German. Other systems The International Phonetic Alphabet uses for the close-mid front unrounded vowel or the mid front unrounded vowel. Frequency E is the most common (or highest-frequency) letter in the English language alphabet and several other European languages, which has implications in both cryptography and data compression. This makes it a harder letter to use when writing lipograms. ==Other uses==

display showing the Avogadro constant () in E notation • In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, "E" corresponds to the number 14 in decimal (base 10) counting. • "e" is also commonly used to denote Euler's number. ==Related characters==

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet • E with diacritics: Ĕ ĕ Ḝ ḝ Ȇ ȇ Ê ê Ê̄ ê̄ Ê̌ ê̌ Ề ề Ế ế Ể ể Ễ ễ Ệ ệ Ẻ ẻ Ḙ ḙ Ě ě Ɇ ɇ Ė ė Ė́ ė́ Ė̃ ė̃ Ẹ ẹ Ë ë È è È̩ è̩ Ȅ ȅ É é É̩ Ē ē Ḕ ḕ Ḗ ḗ Ẽ ẽ Ḛ ḛ Ę ę Ę́ ę́ Ę̃ ę̃ Ȩ ȩ E̩ e̩ ᶒ • ⱸ: E with notch is used in the Swedish Dialect Alphabet • Æ æ: Latin AE ligature • Œ œ: Latin OE ligature • The umlaut diacritic ¨ used above a vowel letter in German and other languages to indicate a fronted or front vowel (this sign originated as a superscript e) • Phonetic alphabet symbols related to E (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems): • Ɛ ɛ: Latin letter epsilon / open e, which represents an open-mid front unrounded vowel in the IPA • ᶓ: Epsilon / open e with retroflex hook • The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of e and epsilon / open e: • • • • • • • • • e: Subscript small e is used in Indo-European studies • Teuthonista phonetic transcription system symbols related to E: • • • Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets • 𐤄: Semitic letter He (letter), from which the following symbols originally derive: • Ε ε: Greek letter Epsilon, from which the following symbols originally derive: • Е е: Cyrillic letter Ye • Є є: Ukrainian Ye • Э э: Cyrillic letter E • : Coptic letter Ei • 𐌄: Old Italic E, which is the ancestor of modern Latin E • : Runic letter Ehwaz, which is possibly a descendant of Old Italic E • : Gothic letter eyz Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations • €: Euro sign. • ℮: estimated sign (used on prepackaged goods for sale within the European Union). • e: the symbol for the elementary charge (the electric charge carried by a single proton). • ∃: existential quantifier in predicate logic. It is read "there exists ... such that". • ∈: the symbol for set membership in set theory. • 𝑒: the base of the natural logarithm. ==Other representations==

Computing Other In British Sign Language (BSL), the letter 'e' is signed by extending the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of index on the left hand, with all fingers of left hand open. ==See also==