Chi (letter)

Template:Redirect Template:Redirect-distinguish Template:Dist Template:Short description Template:Greek Alphabet Chi (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell, also Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref name="Chambers">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:OED</ref> uppercase Χ, lowercase χ; Template:Langx) is the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet.

Greek

File:NAMA Alphabet grec.jpg

The Greek alphabet on a black figure vessel, with a cross-shaped chi

Pronunciation

Ancient Greek

Its value in Ancient Greek was an aspirated velar stop Template:IPA (in the Western Greek alphabet: /ks/).

Koine Greek

In Koine Greek and later dialects it became a fricative (Template:IPA/Template:IPA) along with Θ and Φ.

Modern Greek

In Modern Greek, it has two distinct pronunciations: In front of high or front vowels (Template:IPA or Template:IPA) it is pronounced as a voiceless palatal fricative Template:IPA, as in German ich or like some pronunciations of "h" in English words like hew and human. In front of low or back vowels (Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA) and consonants, it is pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative (Template:IPA), as in German ach or Spanish j. This distinction corresponds to the ich-Laut and ach-Laut of German.

Transliteration

Chi is romanized as Template:Angle bracket in most systematic transliteration conventions, but sometimes Template:Angle bracket is used.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition, in Modern Greek, it is often also romanized as Template:Angle bracket or Template:Angle bracket in informal practice.

Greek numeral

In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 600.

Xi

In ancient times, some local forms of the Greek alphabet used the chi instead of xi to represent the /ks/ sound. This was borrowed into the early Latin language, which led to the use of the letter X for the same sound in Latin, and many modern languages that use the Latin alphabet.

Cyrillic

Chi was also included in the Cyrillic script as the letter Х, with the phonetic value /x/ or /h/.

International Phonetic Alphabet

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Template:Angbr IPA represents a voiceless uvular fricative.

Chiasmus

Chi is the basis for the name literary chiastic structure and the name of chiasmus.

Symbolism

In Plato's Timaeus, it is explained that the two bands that form the soul of the world cross each other like the letter Χ. Plato's analogy, along with several other examples of chi as a symbol occur in Thomas Browne's discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658).

Chi or X is often used to abbreviate the name Christ, as in the holiday Christmas (Xmas). When fused within a single typeface with the Greek letter rho, it is called the Chi Rho and used to represent the person of Jesus Christ.

Math and science

• In statistics, the term chi-squared or <math alt="χ²">\chi^2</math> has various uses, including the chi-squared distribution, the chi-squared test, and chi-squared target model
• In algebraic topology, Chi is used to represent the Euler characteristic of a surface.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The chromatic number of a graph in graph theory<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• In neuroanatomy, crossings of peripheral nerves (such as the optic chiasm) are named for the letter Chi because of its Χ-shape.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• In chemistry, the mole fraction<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and electronegativity<ref>Template:GoldBookRef</ref> may be denoted by the lowercase <math alt="χ">\chi</math>.
• In physics, <math alt="χ">\chi</math> denotes electric or magnetic susceptibility.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• In rhetoric, both chiastic structure (a literary device) and the figure of speech Chiasmus derive from their names from the shape of the letter Chi.
• In mechanical engineering, chi is used as a symbol for the reduction factor of relevant buckling loads in the EN 1993, a European Standard for the design of steel structures.
• In analytic number theory, chi is used for the Dirichlet character.

Unicode

• Template:Unichar<ref>Unicode Code Charts: Greek and Coptic (Range: 0370-03FF)</ref>
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See also

• Chi (disambiguation)
• Х, х - Kha (Cyrillic)

References

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