Duployan Letter E

It is a Duployan vowel sign whose sound depends on the shorthand system.

Émile Duployé published the original shorthand in 1860 for French stenography. It was designed for fast, connected speech recording, so this sign belongs to a shorthand writing system, not ordinary Latin spelling.

Later adaptations assigned the vowel different values. Sloan and Perrault use it differently; in British Columbia, Father Jean-Marie-Raphaël Le Jeune adapted Duployan for local languages. In 1890, missionaries considered shorthand because it was easier to draw and could serve across languages. The adaptation became an alternate primary script for Chinook Jargon and several First Nations languages.

Why does Duployan E rotate when letters join?

It turns to fit the consonant before it.

Duployan E is an orienting vowel: its form rotates to match how the preceding consonant enters it. That rotation is a writing rule, not a change to the character’s identity.

Joined Duployan text needs a font with contextual shaping and cursive joining. Without that support, the same text may show a simpler form, so its appearance depends partly on the font.