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Ye (hiragana: 𛀁, katakana: エ, sometimes distinguished as 𛄡) is a Japanese mora 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 morae 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.
After that, e and ye merged into ye in the 10th century, before eventually evolving back to e.[8]
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.
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.
