Ě

The grapheme Ě, ě (E with háček) is used in the Czech alphabet.

The letter ě is a vestige of Old-Czech palatalization. The originally palatalizing phoneme /ě/ [ʲɛ] became extinct, changing to [ɛ] or [jɛ], but it is preserved as a grapheme.

This letter never appears in the initial position, and its pronunciation depends on the preceding consonant:

• Dě, tě, ně [ɟɛ, cɛ, ɲɛ] is written instead of ďe, ťe, ňe (analogously to di, ti, ni).
• Bě, pě, vě, fě is written instead of bje, pje, vje, fje. But in some words (vjezd, entry, drive-in, objem, volume), bje, vje is written because –je- is part of the etymological root of the word, preceded by the prefix v- or ob-.
• Mě [mɲɛ] is written instead of mňe. For etymological reasons, mně is written in some words (jemný, soft -> jemně, softly).

See also

• Czech orthography
• Czech phonology

The ISO basic Latin alphabet
Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp	Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz
Letter E with diacritics
Éé	Èè	Ĕĕ	Êê	Ếế	Ềề	Ễễ	Ểể	Ěě	Ëë	Ẽẽ	Ėė	Ȩȩ	Ḝḝ	Ęę	Ēē	Ḗḗ	Ḕḕ	Ẻẻ	Ȅȅ	Ȇȇ	Ẹẹ	Ệệ	Ḙḙ	Ḛḛ	Ɇɇ
ᶒ	ⱸ
Letters using caron sign ( ◌̌ )
Ǎǎ	Čč	Ďď	Ěě	Ǧǧ	Ȟȟ	Ǐ ǐ	J̌ǰ	Ǩǩ	Ľľ	Ňň	Ǒǒ	Řř	Šš	Ťť	Ǔǔ	Žž	Ǯǯ
Related
History Palaeography Derivations Diacritics Punctuation Numerals Unicode List of letters ISO/IEC 646