Ę

Ę (minuscule: ę) is a letter in the Polish alphabet and other languages. It is formed from the letter "e" and an ogonek. In Latin and Irish palaeography, it is known as E caudata.

In Polish

In Polish ę comes after "e" in the alphabet but never appears at the start of a word. It usually represents a nasal vowel, more specifically IPA2|/ɛ̃/ or IPA2|/ɛw̃/.

Unlike in French, nasal vowels in Polish are "asynchronous", meaning that they are pronounced as an oral vowel + a nasal semivowel, or a nasal vowel + a nasal semivowel. For instance, ę might be more accurately represented as IPA| [ɛw̃] but for the sake of simplicity, it is usually represented as IPA|/ɛ̃/.

Some examples,
* "język ("language")", pronounced IPA2|ˈjɛ̃zɨk
* "mięso ("meat")", pronounced IPA2|ˈmjɛ̃sɔ
* "ciężki ("heavy", "hard")", pronounced IPA2|ˈtɕɛ̃ʂki

Before all stops and affricates, it is pronounced as an oral vowel + nasal consonant. The nasal consonant may be either "m" (before "p" or "b") or "n" (all other cases). For example,
* "więcej ("more")", pronounced IPA2|ˈvjɛntsɛj rather than IPA| [ˈvjɛ̃tsɛj]
* "sędzia ("judge", "referee")", pronounced IPA2|ˈsɛndʑa
* "głęboki ("deep")", pronounced IPA2|gwɛmˈbɔki

If ę is the final letter of a word, or if it is followed by either "l" or "ł", most Poles will pronounce it simply as IPA|/ɛ/. For example, "będę ("I will (be)")" can be either IPA| [ˈbɛndɛ] or IPA| [ˈbɛndɛ̃] , similarly "dziękuję ("I thank")" can be either IPA| [dʑɛnˈkujɛ] or IPA| [dʑɛnˈkujɛ̃] .

History

Polish ę evolved from short nasal "a" of medieval Polish, which developed into a short nasal "e" in the modern language. This medieval vowel, along with its long counterpart, evolved in turn from the merged nasal *ę and *ǫ of Late Proto-Slavic. Thus,

Alternations

ę often alternates with ą, for example:
* "husband": mąż → mężowie ("husbands"), "snake": wąż → węże ("snakes"), "pigeon": gołąb → gołębie ("pigeons")
* "oak" in nominative: dąb → dębem (instrumental)
* "hands" in nominative: ręce → rąk (genitive)
* "five": pięć → piąty ("fifth")

Audio examples

* ("snakes")
* ("sound")
* ("I can, I am able to")

Other languages

Computer use

ee also

* Ą
* Polish phonology
* Polish alphabet
* Ogonek