Re: Ê in Pinyin?

I don't understand why my answer has been sent to Philip Newton privately
since the other times I click on Répondre (Answer), that's the list address
which appears in the To field. Here's a copy of my answer.


On Monday, February 21, 2005 4:08 PM, Philip Newton wrote:


> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 14:22:34 +0100, Jean-François Colson
> <fa597525@...> wrote:
>> On
>> http://www.eki.ee/letter/chardata.cgi?lang=zh_r+Chinese&script=romanization
>> I read that the letter E with circumflex is used in Pinyin.
>> Is that a mistake?
>> If that's true, what's its use?
>
> I believe it's used for the "e" sound in "ye" (as opposed to the "e"
> sound in "ke, le, ne").
>
> In Zhuyin Fuhao ("Bopomofo"), those two sounds have separate letters
> (and "ye" is written "i" + "ê", while e.g. "ke" is written "k" + "e"),
> and I believe that "ê" is used as the name of that letter, though I
> think it occurs only in the syllables "ye" and "yue" and not by itself
> (whereas "e" does occur on its own).
OK. Its very limited use should explain why, unlike "ü", "ê" is not combined
with any tone marks. Thanks.

JF

Reply