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 (letter)...) 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)
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)

[edit] Pronunciation

Can someone please add a sound clip of the 'proper' greek pronunciation, as a (native) english speaker i find this very hard to pronounce from ksi.

You also don't wit the differense between i and I. The letter|staffr csi in Latin is csee in English. Forget the Thewdish k, which should be ah aspirant. -lysdexia 21:19, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I'll add my name to the list of anglophones hoping for a sound clip. --WanderingHermit 01:08, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Two points:
  • the pronounciation guide is (presumably) IPA. I can follow it, but it may be better to have a link in the article.
  • currently there's a note about "US English speakers". I am rewording this to de-emphasise their importance. I assume that "American English speakers" is intended, so I will change this.
—DIV (128.250.204.118 (talk) 07:25, 17 November 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Layout problem in Opera

I'm viewing this article in Opera in Linux, and the "The lower-case letter ξ is used as a symbol for..." section overlaps the "A joined variant of Ξ." image. I've tried several things to get this to stop, but haven't had success.   –Justin Force 15:42, 12 October 2007 (UTC)