en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esh_(letter)
1 correction found
Latin language, Serer language
Esh did not originate in the Latin language or in Serer. The letter is documented in Isaac Pitman’s English Phonotypic Alphabet in the 1840s, and the capital form Ʃ is classified by Unicode as an African-language Latin letter later used in African orthographies.
Full reasoning
Available historical references point to English phonotypic spelling reform and later African orthographies, not to the Latin language or Serer, as the origin of esh.
- A Unicode proposal on the English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA) says the EPA "was developed by Isaac Pitman ... and Alexander Ellis" and explicitly discusses the "EPA 1847" version. That places the letter's early documented use in an English phonotypic alphabet, not in Latin or Serer.
- Unicode's names list for U+01A9 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ESH describes it as used for "African languages" and pairs it with U+0283 ʃ. That supports later African orthographic use, but not an origin in the Latin language or specifically Serer.
- Serer is therefore better understood as one later language that uses the letter, not a language where the letter originated.
So the infobox's "Language of origin" field is misleading: it confuses later usage with historical origin.
2 sources
- Second Revised Proposal to encode characters for the English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA) in the UCS
The EPA is an extension of the Latin alphabet ... It was developed by Isaac Pitman ... and Alexander Ellis ... The proposal intends to include ... the aforementioned versions "EPA 1847", "EPA 1855", "EPA 1856", and "EPA 1868".
- Unicode Nameslist: Latin Extended-B
01A9 Ʃ Latin Capital Letter Esh • African languages • lowercase is 0283 ʃ ... ↓ 0283 ʃ latin small letter esh.