Ͷ

Ͷ U+0376, Ͷ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PAMPHYLIAN DIGAMMA ← ͵ Greek and Coptic ͷ →

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 ; consequently, Ϝ, ϝ (W, w) was adopted to mark the distinction (albeit inconsistently), with Ͷ, ͷ (V, v) denoting the original and Ϝ, ϝ (W, w) denoting the novel phone .

Pronunciation

• (Pamphylian, hypothesised) IPA^(key):

Letter

Ͷ • (V) (upper case, lower case ͷ)

1. (Pamphylian Greek) 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)

1. (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)

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