Talk:Xi
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[edit] Xi, the VLSI story
Anyone know what Xi has to do with Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) or circuit design? It looks like a language for VLSI design. Fill this in if you know.
[edit] Origin of name Xi
How did the name xi originate?? Georgia guy 22:31, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
- Because... uh... it stands for the sound [ks]? If you're looking for a deeper meaning than that, you're going to be disappointed. Though actually, it's a vaguely sensible question, as xi (unlike, say, alpha, beta, gamma, delta...) isn't named for the Phonecian letter it came from, probably because the Phonecian samekh represents a different sound, namely [s]. It's also probably because it was a slightly later development. 69.140.12.199 00:04, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
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- Well, sigma got its name from samekh. So why did the Greeks make this letter out of samekh and sigma out of shin?? Georgia guy 01:12, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
- short answer: nobody knows. "The problem of the sibilants is created by the existence of too many s sounds in Phoenician and too few in Greek" (Barry Powell, Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet, 46). See Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece p. 32, for one hypothesis (Phoenician Samekh and Shin got mixed up with each other so that the Greeks called Ξ "kshi(n)" and Σ "Samekh", and also coincidentally they mixed up Tsade and Zayin). -leigh (φθόγγος) 02:57, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
- Well, the Greek borrowing of zayin is zeta, which was a new name made in imitation of eta and theta, not a name that indicates it was mixed-up with another letter. Georgia guy 23:11, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
- short answer: nobody knows. "The problem of the sibilants is created by the existence of too many s sounds in Phoenician and too few in Greek" (Barry Powell, Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet, 46). See Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece p. 32, for one hypothesis (Phoenician Samekh and Shin got mixed up with each other so that the Greeks called Ξ "kshi(n)" and Σ "Samekh", and also coincidentally they mixed up Tsade and Zayin). -leigh (φθόγγος) 02:57, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
- Well, sigma got its name from samekh. So why did the Greeks make this letter out of samekh and sigma out of shin?? Georgia guy 01:12, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
