Baṛī ye

Baṛī ye (Urdu: بَڑی يے, Urdu pronunciation: [ˈbəɽiː ˈjeː]; lit. 'greater ye') is a letter in the Urdu alphabet (and other Indo-Iranian language alphabets based on it) directly based on the alternative "returned" variant of the final form of the Arabic letter ye/yāʾ (known as yāʾ mardūda) found in the Hijazi, Kufic, Thuluth, Naskh, and Nastaliq scripts. It functions as the word-final yā-'e-majhūl ([eː]) and yā-'e-sākin ([ɛː]). It is distinguished from the "choṭī ye (چھوٹی يے; "lesser ye")", which is the regular Perso-Arabic yāʾ (ی) used elsewhere. In Punjabi, where it is a part of the Shahmukhi alphabet, it is called waḍḍī ye (Punjabi: وَڈّی یے) with the Gurmukhi equivalent ਏ.

Baṛī ye بَڑی يے
ے
ۓ‎
Usage
Writing system	Arabic abjad Urdu alphabet Shahmukhi (Punjabi) Saraiki alphabet Balochi Standard Alphabet Kashmiri alphabet Burushaski alphabet Khowar alphabet
Type	Abjad Alphabetic
Language of origin	Urdu
Sound values	/eː/ /ɛː/ /eɪ/
In Unicode	U+06D2
Alphabetical position	38
History
Development	ي ی ے
Time period	~1200 to present
Descendants	ݺ ݻ ◌ެ
Sisters	I J Ι Ї י 𐤉 ܝ 𐡉 ◌ۦ ◌ۧ See also: Yodh
Transliterations	Ē Ai (digraph) Ei (digraph)
Variations	ۓ‎
Other
Writing direction	Right-to-left

It is also used in the Pakistani Pashto alphabet, with the Afghan equivalent being ی.

History

The baṛī ye is based on the stretched, horizontal, "returned" form of the Arabic yā’, originating in the Kufic and Hijazi script and also used occasionally in Thuluth, Naskh, and Nastaliq calligraphy. The form began to be used in this manner for Classical Persian in India, for example کسی kasē ("someone") was often written as کسے.

Forms

Baṛī ye is written multiple ways depending on its position:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Naskh glyph form: (Help)	ے‎	ـے‎	ـے‎	ے‎
Nastaʿlīq glyph form:	ے	ــــے	ــــے	ے

There are also medial (ـیـ) and initial (یـ) forms, but they are not encoded on Unicode and are generally represented by the regular ye.

In Balochi, baṛī ye (or cappi yà as it is known as) has the forms ⟨ࢩـ ـࢩـ ـے ے⟩.

Diacritical variants

In Urdu, only the hamza can be applied to baṛī ye:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Naskh glyph form: (Help)	ۓ‎	ـۓ‎	ـۓ‎	ۓ‎
Nastaʿlīq glyph form:	ۓ	ــــۓ	ــــۓ	ۓ

In Kashmiri, there is a letter that is visually a baṛī ye with a small v sign above, known as the nīmü yāyūk:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Naskh glyph form: (Help)	ےٚ‎	ـےٚ‎	ـےٚـ‎	ےٚـ‎
Nastaʿlīq glyph form:	ےٚ	ــــےٚ	ــــےٚــــ	ےٚــــ

Burushaski

In Burushaski, there are 3 baṛī ye's: ے, ݺ, and ݻ.

One of the additional letters is a baṛī ye with the Arabic–Indic digit 2 (۲).

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Naskh glyph form: (Help)	ݺ‎	ـݺ‎	ـݺـ‎	ݺـ‎
Nastaʿlīq glyph form:	ݺ	ــــݺ	ــــݺــــ	ݺــــ

It is used to represent the short vowel /e/.

Another letter has a 3 (۳) above it. Unlike ݺ, which represents a shorter sound than the regular baṛī ye, it represents the same long vowel (/eː/) but with primary stress (e.g. /ˈeː/).

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Naskh glyph form: (Help)	ݻ‎	ـݻ‎	ـݻـ‎	ݻـ‎
Nastaʿlīq glyph form:	ݻ	ــــݻ	ــــݻــــ	ݻــــ

Character encoding

Character information

Preview	ے
Unicode name	ARABIC LETTER YEH BARREE
Encodings	decimal	hex
Unicode	1746	U+06D2
UTF-8	219 146	DB 92
Numeric character reference	ے	ے