Ͷ

See also: ͷ, и, 𐑍, 𐐥, and И

Ͷ	U 0376, Ͷ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PAMPHYLIAN DIGAMMA

← ͵
[U 0375]

Greek and Coptic

ͷ →
[U 0377]

Ancient Greek

Etymology 1

A glyph development from the Phoenician letter 𐤅 (w, “waw”) in several epichoric alphabets, wherein Ͷ, ͷ (V, v) denoted the archaic phoneme /w/, which was elsewhere denoted by Ϝ, ϝ (W, w, “digamma”). In the Pamphylian Greek dialect, /w/ gained the allophone [v]; consequently, Ϝ, ϝ (W, w) was adopted to mark the distinction (albeit inconsistently), with Ͷ, ͷ (V, v) denoting the original [w] and Ϝ, ϝ (W, w) denoting the novel phone [v].

Pronunciation

(Pamphylian, hypothesised) IPA^(key): [w]

Letter

Ͷ • (V) (upper case, lower case ͷ)

(Pamphylian) digamma, denoting a voiced labio-velar approximant, and sorted between epsilon and zeta

Etymology 2

An alteration of Ϻ, ϻ (Ś, ś, “san”); it occurred in the Arcadocypriot Greek dialect of Mantinea in Arcadia, wherein it is believed that it denoted a reflex of the Proto-Greek phoneme */kʷ/, intermediate between it and the later Arcadocypriot /sː/.

Pronunciation

(Arcadocypriot, hypothesised) IPA^(key): /t͡s/

Letter

Ͷ • (Ś) (upper case, lower case ͷ)

(Arcadocypriot) tsan, denoting an voiceless alveolar affricate; its sorting order is not known

Synonyms

(Arcadocypriot tsan): Σ̱ (S̱)

Etymology 3

Applied due to the resemblance of the Melian glyph to the Unicode reference glyph shared by the Pamphylian digamma and Arcadocypriot tsan.

Letter

Ͷ • (B) (upper case, lower case ͷ)

(nonstandard) an allograph of Β occurring in inscriptions from the isle of Melos