E (Е е; italics: Е е or Ее; italics: Ее), known in Russian and Belarusian as Ye, Je, or Ie, is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In some languages this letter is called E. It commonly represents the vowel [e] or [ɛ], like the pronunciation of ⟨e⟩ in "yes". It was derived from the Phoenician letter heGreek letter epsilon (Ε ε), and the shape is very similar to the Latin letter E or another version of E (Cyrillic).
Ye is romanized using the Latin letter E for Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Rusyn, and occasionally Russian (Озеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal), Je for Belarusian (Заслаўе, Zaslaŭje), Ye for Russian (Европа, Yevropa), and Ie occasionally for Russian (Днепр, Dniepr) and Belarusian (Маладзе́чна, Maladziečna).
Usage
Russian and Belarusian
At the beginning of a word or after a vowel, Ye represents the phonemic combination /je/ (phonetically [je] or [jɛ]), like the pronunciation of ⟨ye⟩ in "yes". Ukrainian uses the letter ⟨є⟩ (Ukrainian Ye) in this way.
Following a consonant, Ye indicates that the consonant is palatalized, and represents the vowel /e/ (phonetically [e] or [ɛ]), like the pronunciation of ⟨e⟩ in "yes".
In Russian, the letter ⟨е⟩ can follow unpalatalized consonants, especially ⟨ж⟩, ⟨ш⟩, and ⟨ц⟩. In some loanwords, other consonants before ⟨е⟩ (especially ⟨т⟩, ⟨д⟩, ⟨н⟩, ⟨с⟩, ⟨з⟩, and ⟨р⟩) are also not palatalized, see E (Cyrillic). The letter ⟨е⟩ also represents /jo/ (as in "yogurt") and /o/ after palatalized consonants, ⟨ж⟩, and ⟨ш⟩. In these cases, the diaresis variant ⟨ё⟩ (yo) may be used. In unstressed syllables, ⟨e⟩ represents reduced vowels like [ɪ], see Russian phonology and Vowel reduction in Russian.
Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Ukrainian and Rusyn
This letter is called E, and represents the vowel phoneme /e/ (phonetically [e] or [ɛ]), like the pronunciation of ⟨e⟩ in the word "set".
To transcribe a "ye" /jɛ/ phoneme in loanwords and foreign names for Bulgarian, it is spelled as йе, as in йена (yen).
In Serbian, Macedonian, and Montenegrin, the "ye" phoneme is transcribed as "је". In Ukrainian and Rusyn, "ye" is spelled as "є".
Mongolian
The letter represents the sound /jo/ (й+ө) at the beginning of words (yo represents /jɔ/) like ес (nine) and ерөнхийлөгч (president), and also represents /je/ at the beginning of some words and in the middle or end of words and /e/ in Russian loanwords and transcriptions of foreign names. Finally, it represents /i/ in the volitional forms of certain verbs like хүргэе and тэгье, etc.
Turkic languages and Tajik
In Turkic languages utilizing the Cyrillic script (such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uzbek) and in Tajik, Ye is used to represent the phoneme e~ɛ, both word-finally and medially. Isolated, word-initially, or vowel-succeeding, this letter is substituted with the letter Э. If the letter Ye occurs word-initially, isolated, or vowel-succeeding, it represents the phoneme /je/~/jɛ/. This is done in imitation of the Russian usage, as many of these languages received Cyrillic orthographies as part of Russification in the Soviet Union.
