Buginese vowel sign e

It marks the Buginese vowel transcribed as e in Latin letters.

In Lontara, consonant letters normally carry an unwritten vowel transcribed as a; this sign changes it to the vowel transcribed as e. It attaches to a base consonant. An initial e uses the independent vowel letter ᨕ followed by ᨙ.

Scholars place South Sulawesi writing around 1400; no physical archive from that earliest period survives, so its beginnings are known through later copies. Early manuscripts in Bugis, a South Sulawesi language, prominently recorded genealogies preserving elite descent, status, and claims to rule.

Lontara texts also include chronicles, diaries, treaties, and literature. The script served Bugis, Makasar, and Mandar, and historically the Bima language. A connection to Gujarati writing from western India has been proposed, but the South Sulawesi scripts’ detailed development remains unsettled. Lontara and Old Makasar, also called Jangang-Jangang, were distinct but interacting traditions; related South Sulawesi forms reached the southern Philippines, Bima, and Flores.

Why does ᨙ appear before its consonant?

It is entered after its base but displayed to its left.

Type the consonant first and ᨙ second. Lontara places the vowel sign before its base on the page, so the visible order differs from the character-entry order.

A font or text layout system without the needed Lontara support may place the sign incorrectly or fail to show it. That changes the rendering, not the vowel it represents.