# Why did the Ancient Greek script invented the letter  ξ ?



## franknagy

Was the pronunciaton of κ+σ different from that of  ξ  or the meeting of κ+σ is so frequent that the introduction of a new single letter ξ seemed reasonable?


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## apmoy70

Hi Frank,

Greek kas indeed many [ks] --> ξ (and [ps] --> ψ) clusters.
Ξξ is the combination of either κ + σ or χ + σ.
E.g. verbs with thematic present stem [-k-] form future stem [-ks-], which is the thematic stem + the future tense suffix *«-σω» -sō*: 
*«διώ-κ-ω» dĭṓkō* --> _I pursue, chase/am pursuing, chasing_ > *«διώ-κσξ-ω* *dĭṓksō*--> _I will pursue, chase_ 
 The same with stem [-kʰ-]:
*«Τρέ-χ-ω» trékʰō* --> _I run/am running_ > *«τρέ-χσξ-ω»* *tréksō* --> _I will run_.
The letter ξ appears relatively late, as the Cretan also known as green alphabet did not have specific symbol for [ks], Cretans used *KϺ* for ξ (Ϻ here is the letter San).


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## lebevti

i love this letter.  probably one of my favorites


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## Αγγελος

There is a conjecture, that maybe the existence of a special character for _xa _in the Cypriot syllabary induced those who first adapted the Phoenician alphabet to Greek to adopt a Phoenician letter (the _samech_) for the consonant cluster x. This would make sense if this adaptation first took place on Cyprus, where Greeks and Phoenicians were in intimate contact. But there is no indication that this is where the adaptation took place, and in fact, the Cypriots kept using their syllabary well into the 4th century BC, despite the obvious advantages of the alphabet.


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## ianis

Just saw in an  interview, with Professor Bambiniotis, this was a process that affected several letters, as χ and Φ were once κη and πη and ξ and ψ, κσ and πσ, they say it was a process of simplification by requiring only one letter, τσand τζ appeared too late for the same phenomenon to take place.


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## Αγγελος

ianis said:


> Just saw in an interview this was a process that affected several letters, as χ and Φ were once κη and πη and ξ and ψ, κσ and πσ, from what I understand it was process of simplification by requiring only one letter and τσ appeared too late for the same phenomenon to take place.


ΚΗ and PH were distinct phonemes, and it made sense for distinct letters to be developed for them, particularly as there already was a distinct letter (Θ, from Phoenician _tet) _for TH. Indeed, it is conjectured that X and Φ developed from Θ (which originally looked like ⊕) by respectively dropping the circle and the horizontal stroke. KS and PS were not phonemes, they were just consonant clusters, for which there was no _ a priori _reason to have single letters.


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## ianis

Thanks Αγγελος, wasn't understanding very well the relation between Θ, X and Φ which he also mentions. BTW  he makes the same separation you do in his explanation starting at 14'45" (the question is introduced at 13'42").


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## Linnets

The letter ξ is also useful to distinguish words with the prefix εκ(σ)- from those with the prefix εξ-: thus ἔκστασις (note also English _ecstasy_ with -_cs_-), not *ἔξτασις; however I don't know if there was a difference in pronunciation between εκ(σ)- and εξ- but I think they were pronounced the same and there was only a spelling difference.


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## Perseas

Just to add that in ancient Greece /ks/ was represented not only by Ξ but also by X. The eastern alphabets used the first one and the western alphabets used the second one, the ancestor of the Latin X.
In this map the blue colour represents the regions where the eastern alphabets were used and the red colour the regions where the western alphabets were used (Wikipedia):


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