Latin epsilon

Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino to represent the pronunciation of the "open e" (the letter e pronounced as the open-mid front unrounded vowel) in the Italian language; this use of the letter has since become the standard in IPA notation. Since the 20th century, the letter also occurs in the orthographies of many Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Ewe, Akan, Lingala, Dinka and Maasai, for the vowel or, and is included in the African reference alphabet.

In the Berber Latin alphabet currently used in Algerian Berber school books, and before that proposed by the French institute INALCO, it represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Some authors use Ƹ|ƹayin $\langleƹ\rangle$ instead; both letters are similar in shape with the Arabic ʿayn $\langleع\rangle$.

Use in phonetic alphabets
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:
 * represents the open-mid front unrounded vowel
 * represents the rhotacized open-mid central vowel
 * represents the open-mid central rounded vowel (shown as on the 1993 IPA chart)

The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the Latin epsilon:

Niger-Congo
Akan, Bambara, Baule, Dagbani, Dogon, Douala. Ewe, Fante, Frafra, Fon, Ga, Jula, Kabiye, Kpelle, Kuya, Lingala, Loma, Mende, Moore, Soninke, Twi, Vai.

Nilo-Saharan
Dinka, Maasai, Nuer, Songhai, Zarma.

Unicode
Latin epsilon is called "Open E" in Unicode.