Latin epsilon

{{Redirect|ɛ|similar looking letters|Epsilon|and|Reversed Ze|the sound in the IPA represented by /ɛ/|Open-mid front unrounded vowel}}

{{short description|Letter of the Latin alphabet}}

{{Infobox grapheme

|name=Ɛ

|letter=Ɛ ɛ

|variations=

|image=File:Latin letter open E.svg

|imageclass=skin-invert-image

|imagesize=200px

|imagealt=Upper and lower case Latin Epsilon

|script=Latin script

|type=Alphabet

|typedesc=ic and logographic

|language=

|phonemes={{grid list|[{{IPAlink|ɛ}}] [{{IPAlink|e̙}}] [{{IPAlink|ʕ}}]}}

|unicode=U+0190, U+025B

|alphanumber=

|number=

|fam1=A28

|fam2=Image:Proto-semiticE-01.svg

|fam3=File:Protohe.svg

|fam4=File:PhoenicianE-01.svg

|fam5=Image:phoenician he.svg

|fam6=Ε ε ϵ

|usageperiod=

|children=

|sisters=

|equivalents=

|associates=

|direction=Left-to-Right

}}

File:Book of Mormon - Fante.jpg translation of the Book of Mormon; note the use of the Latin epsilon in the word N'AHYƐMU.]]

Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino{{cite book|title=Concise History of the Language Sciences|year=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCqLBQAAQBAJ|page=154}} to represent the pronunciation of the "open e" (the letter e pronounced as the open-mid front unrounded vowel) in the Italian language; this use of the letter has since become the standard in IPA notation {{see below|{{section link||Use in phonetic alphabets}}, below}}. Since the 20th century, the letter also occurs in the orthographies of many Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Ewe, Akan, Lingala, Dinka and Maasai, for the vowel {{IPAblink|ɛ}} or {{IPA|[e̙]}}, and is included in the African reference alphabet.

In the Berber Latin alphabet used in Algerian Berber school books,{{Cite web|url=http://www.freemorocco.com/tamazight-dzayer.html|title=Tamazight-Dzayer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121152422/http://www.freemorocco.com/tamazight-dzayer.html|archive-date=2020-11-21|url-status=dead}} and before that proposed by the French institute INALCO, it represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative {{IPA|[ʕ]}}. Some authors use ƹayin {{angle bracket|ƹ}} instead;{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} both letters are similar in shape with the Arabic ʿayn {{angle bracket|ع}}.