Zeta

Zeta (uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; _el. Ζήτα IPA| [ziːta] Zita) is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 7. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Zayin .

Unlike the other Greek letters, this letter did not take its name from the Phoenician letter it was derived from; it was given a new name on the pattern of beta, eta and theta.

Zeta has the numerical value 7 rather than 6 because the letter digamma (also called 'stigma' as a Greek numeral) was originally in the sixth position in the alphabet.

Zeta can be said to be the origin of the most common pronunciation of the Roman letter Z.

ymbol

The lower case letter can be used to represent:
*The damping ratio of a spring-system in engineering and physics
*The effective nuclear charge on an electron in quantum chemistry
*The Riemann zeta function in mathematics
*The lag angle in helicopter blade dynamics
*Relative vorticity in the atmosphere and ocean

Pronunciation

The letter ζ represents a voiced alveolar fricative (IPA2|z) in modern Greek.

The sound represented by zeta in Classical Greek is disputed. See Ancient Greek phonology and Pronunciation of Ancient Greek in teaching.

Most handbooks agree on attributing to it the pronunciation IPA| [zd] (like "Mazda"), but some scholars believe that it was an affricate IPA| [dz] (like Italian "mezzo"). The modern pronunciation was, in all likelihood, established in the Hellenistic age and was probably a common, if not exclusive, practice already in Classical Attic, considering that it could count as one or two consonants metrically in the Attic drama.

The arguments in favour of IPA| [zd] :

# IE *"zd" becomes ζ in Greek (e.g. *"sísdō" > Polytonic|ἵζω). Contra: these words are rare and it is therefore more probable that *"zd" was absorbed by *"dz" (< *"dj", *"gj", *"j").
# Without IPA| [sd] there would be an empty space between IPA| [sb] and IPA| [sg] in the Greek sound system (Polytonic| πρεσβύς, σβέννυμι, φάσγανον ), and a voiced affricate IPA| [dz] would not have a voiceless correspondent. Contra: a) words with IPA| [sb] and IPA| [sg] are rare; b) there was IPA| [sd] in Polytonic|ὅσδε, εἰσδέχται etc.; and c) there was in fact a voiceless correspondent in Archaic Greek (IPA| [ts] > Attic, Boeotian Polytonic|ττ, Ionic, Doric Polytonic|σσ).
# Persian names with "zd" and "z" are transcribed with ζ and σ respectively in Classical Greek (e.g. "Artavazda" = Polytonic|Ἀρτάβαζος / Ἀρτάοζος ~ "Zara(n)ka-" = Polytonic|Σαράγγαι. Similarly, the Philistine city Ashdod was transcribed as polytonic|Αζωτος.
# ν disappears before ζ like before σ(σ), στ: e.g. *Polytonic|πλάνζω > Polytonic|πλᾰ́ζω, *Polytonic|σύνζυγος = *Polytonic|συνστέλλω > Polytonic|σῠστέλλω. Contra: ν may have disappeared before /dz/ if one accepts that it had the allophone IPA| [z] in that position like /ts/ had the allophone IPA| [s] : cf. Cretan Polytonic|ἴαττα ~ Polytonic|ἀποδίδονσα (Hinge).
# Verbs beginning with ζ have Polytonic|ἐ- in the perfect reduplication like the verbs beginning with στ (e.g. Polytonic|ἔζηκα = Polytonic|ἔσταλται). Contra: a) The most prominent example of a verb beginning with στ has in fact Polytonic|ἑ- < *"se-" in the perfect reduplication (Polytonic|ἕστηκα; b) the words with /ts/ > σ(σ) also have Polytonic|ἐ-: Homer Polytonic|ἔσσυμαι, -ται, Ion. Polytonic|ἐσσημένῳ.
# Alcman, Sappho, Alcaeus and Theocritus have σδ for Attic-Ionic ζ. Contra: The tradition would not have invented this special digraph for these poets if IPA| [zd] was the normal pronunciation in all Greek. Furthermore, this convention is not found in contemporary inscriptions, and the orthography of the manuscripts and papyri is Alexandrine rather than historical. Thus, Polytonic|σδ indicates only a different pronunciation from Hellenistic Greek IPA| [z(ː)] , i.e. either IPA| [zd] or IPA| [ʣ] .
# The grammarians Dionysius Thrax and Dionysius of Halicarnassus class ζ with the "double" (Polytonic|διπλᾶ) letters ψ, ξ and analyse it as σ + δ. Contra: The Roman grammarian Verrius Flaccus believed in the opposite sequence, δ + σ (in Velius Longus, "De orthogr". 51), and Aristotle says that it was a matter of dispute ("Metaph". 993a) (though Aristotle might as well be referring to a IPA| [zː] pronunciation).
# Some Attic transcriptions of Asia Minor toponyms (βυζζαντειον, αζζειον, etc) show a -ζζ- for ζ; assuming that Attic value was IPA| [zd] , it may be an attempt to transcribe a dialectal IPA| [dz] pronunciation; the reverse cannot be ruled completely, but a -σδ- transcription would have been more likely in this case. This suggest that different dialects had different pronunciations.
# Some Attic inscriptions have -σζ- for -σδ- or -ζ-, which is thought to parallel -σστ- for -στ- and therefore to imply a IPA| [zd] pronunciation.

Arguments in favour of [dz] are:
# The Greek inscriptions almost never write ζ in words like Polytonic|ὅσδε, τούσδε or Polytonic|εἰσδέχται, so there must have been a difference between this sound and the sound of Polytonic|ἵζω, Ἀθήναζε. Contra: a few inscriptions do seem to suggest that ζ was pronounced like σδ (though it may indeed be a minority pronunciation).
# It seems improbable that Greek would invent a special symbol for the bisegmental combination IPA| [zd] , which could be represented by σδ without any problems. IPA|/ds/, on the other hand, would have the same sequence of plosive and sibilant as the double letters of the Ionic alphabet ψ IPA|/ps/ and ξ IPA|/ks/, thereby avoiding a written plosive at the end of a syllable. Contra: the use of a special symbol for IPA| [zd] is no more or no less improbable that the use of ψ for IPA| [ps] and ξ for IPA| [ks] , and such use of special letters may be justified by the fact that they are the only double sounds that could appear at a word initial.
# Boeotian, Elean, Laconian and Cretan "δδ" are more easily explained as a direct development from *"dz" than through an intermediary *"zd". Contra: a) the sound development "dz" > "dd" is improbable (Mendez Dosuna); b) ν has disappeared before ζ > δδ in Laconian Polytonic|πλαδδιῆν (Aristoph., "Lys". 171, 990) and Boeotian Polytonic|σαλπίδδω (Sch. Lond. in Dion. Thrax 493), which suggests that these dialects have had a phase of metathesis (Teodorsson).
# Greek in South Italy has preserved IPA| [dz] until modern times. Contra: a) this may be a later development from IPA| [zd] or IPA| [z] ; b) even if it is derived from an ancient IPA| [dz] , it may be a dialectal pronunciation.
# Vulgar Latin inscriptions use the Greek letter Z for indigenous affricates (e.g. "zeta" = "diaeta"), and the Greek ζ is continued by a Romance affricate in the ending Polytonic|-ίζω > Italian. "-eggiare", French "-oyer". Contra: whether the prononciation of Polytonic|ζ was IPA| [dz] , IPA| [zd] or IPA| [zː] , "di" would probably still have been the closest native Latin sound.

In summary:
* is attested only in Lesbian and Spartan lyric poetry from the Archaic age and in Bucolic poetry from the Hellenistic Age. Most scholars would take this as an indication that the IPA| [zd] -pronunciation existed in the dialects of these authors.
* The transcriptions from Persian by Xenophon and testimony by grammarians support the pronunciation IPA| [zd] in Classical Attic. On the other hand. The fact that Polytonic|ζ (e.g. Polytonic|ὄζω) and Polytonic|σδ (e.g. Polytonic|ὅσδε) are distinguished in all Classical inscriptions and literary texts indicates a different pronunciation.
* is attested from c. 350 BC in Attic inscriptions, and was the probable value in Koine.
* or IPA| [dz] may have existed in some other dialects in parallel.

ee also

*Z, z - Latin
*З, з - Ze (Cyrillic)

References

*Allen, William Sidney: "Vox Graeca: A guide to the pronunciation of Classical Greek". Cambridge University Press 1987, pp. 56-59.
*Hinge, George: "Die Aussprache des griechischen Zeta", in: "Die Sprache Alkmans: Textgeschichte und Sprachgeschichte" (PhD dissertation), Aarhus 2001, pp. 212-234 = [http://alkman.georgehinge.com/zeta.html]
*Méndez Dosuna, Julián: "On <Ζ> for <Δ> in Greek dialectal inscriptions", "Die Sprache" 35, 1993, pp. 82-114.
*Rohlfs, Gerhard: "Die Aussprache des z (ζ) im Altgriechischen", "Glotta" 8, 1962, pp. 3-8.
*Teodorsson, Sven-Tage: "The pronunciation of zeta in different Greek dialects". In: E. Crespo i.a. (ed.): "Dialectologia Graeca: Actas del II Coloquio Internacional de Dialectología Griega". Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 1993, pp. 305-321.