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 ◌ެ [a]
Sisters	I J Ι Ї י 𐤉 ܝ 𐡉 ◌ۦ [b] ◌ۧ [b] See also: Yodh
Transliterations	Ē Ai (digraph) Ei (digraph)
Variations	ۓ‎
Other
Writing direction	Right-to-left
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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.^[1] It functions as the word-final yā-'e-majhūl ([eː]) and yā-'e-sākin ([ɛː]).^{[2][obsolete source]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

It is also used in the Pakistani Pashto alphabet,^{[citation needed]} with the Afghan equivalent being ی.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Forms

Baṛī ye is written multiple ways depending on its position:

There are also medial (ـیـ) and initial (یـ) forms, but they are not encoded on Unicode^{[citation needed]} 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:

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

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).

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/).

Character encoding