KATERINA SARRI WEBTOPOS - EARLY ABANDONED LETTERS of the GREEK ALPHABET

SHAPE: It looked like two ΓΓ gamma letters, hence its name 'Digamma' (di- = twice + gamma). Check variations of ancient cities of the Western-Eastern greek alphabet groups.

SOUND: The indoeuropean semiphone /w/ appeared in greek as
1) vowel Y [u] later pronounced [y] and
2) consonant F [v]. [v] was a normal sound of ancient greek that was dropped in some dialects (ionic/attic - the eastern group) quite early, while in others (doric - the western group) it was still functional till hellenistic times. It is said that a northsemitic letter: wa-w in its samaritan version influenced F [v] and by its phoenician sound influenced Y [u].

NAME: ETYMOLOGY/SPELLING: Its hellenistic name when referring to its shape was 'Digamma': di- = twice + gamma, because it looked like two ΓΓ letters. For its sound, it is called [`vav] or [w`aw].

NUMBER: It would have represented number 6. Instead, six is represented either by the final Sigma ς or sigma and tau στ´ which is called stigma στίγμα [`stiγma]

SHAPE: San looks like our own M. The ancient Mu was a bit different. Check variations of ancient cities of the Western-Eastern greek alphabet groups.

SOUND: San was used in some ancient cities to represent /s/ as a Sigma variation. Soon it faded out, and Sigma Σ took over.

NAME: ETYMOLOGY: Its name probably derives from the northsemitic (phoenician) letter: şādhē which sounded like /ts/.

It can be seen on early ancient epigraphs (inscriptions, curved texts).

SHAPE: Consistent in all cities of the Western-Eastern greek alphabet groups.

SOUND: The phoneme /k/ is uttered in greek in two ways: [k] and palatalized [ç]. In the very early greek alphabets the Koppa was used to represent [k] and occurred before O /o/ and Y /y/ while Kappa K [ç] was used before /i/ /e/ and /a/. Today, the two variants /k/ still exist. Only difference is that /k/ becomes [ç] before /i/ and /e/ only. (We do not say [ça] anymore, but [ka].) .

NAME: ETYMOLOGY: From ancient northsemitic (compare to hebrew: qōph).
NAME: SPELLING: It is written with double Pi.

AS NUMBER: The term 'koppa' survives at the greek numerical symbols with this different shape:

´ = 90 or ,

= 90000.

SHAPE: NONE - a symbol was never created for this sound

SOUND: We know that a /j/ sound was present in very early greek but no symbol is known from the ancient times. Of course the sound exists today too. It occurs in some Gamma Γ utterances and Iota I utterances.

NAME: Although there was no symbol that we know of, linguists named its imaginary symbol γιώτ, because /j/ sound was very active indeed: it played a key role in many of the metamorphoses of many words.

symbols and their pronunciation in standard-modern and (if different) in erasmic in I.P.A.				examples of words: mod.gre. word - [modern greek pronunciation] SOUND EXAMPLES in MODERN GREEK eng. word - [english pronunciation]
order - greek number LETTER CAPITAL-small	I.P.A. pronunc. standard erasmic	pronounced as in the word... (english or other)	letter name in greek in english
was 6th at earlier alphabet versions ς´= 6 or στ´= 6 F	was pronounced /v/	comes from Indoeuropean /w/	δίγαμμα ['δiγama] digamma or βαυ /'vav/ waw or vau	Indoeuropean hypothetical root: werg- in old ancient greek, retained:* FEPΓON in ancient and modern greek, dropped: έργoν english: work german:* Werk*