History
In Ancient Greek, ⟨Χ⟩ and ⟨Ψ⟩ were among several variants of the same letter, used originally for /kʰ/ and later, in western areas such as Arcadia, as a simplification of the digraph ⟨ΧΣ⟩ for /ks/. In the end, more conservative eastern forms became the standard of Classical Greek, and thus ⟨Χ⟩ (Chi) stands for /kʰ/ (later /x/). However, the Etruscans had taken over ⟨Χ⟩ from western Greek, and it therefore stands for /ks/ in Etruscan and Latin.
The letter ⟨Χ⟩ ~ ⟨Ψ⟩ for /kʰ/ was a Greek addition to the alphabet, placed after the Semitic letters along with phi ⟨Φ⟩ for /pʰ/. (The variant ⟨Ψ⟩ later replaced the digraph ⟨ΦΣ⟩ for /ps/; omega was a later addition.) There has been much mostly fruitless debate about the origins of these added letters.
| Greek Chi | Etruscan X |
|---|---|
Read more about this topic: X
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