Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron Δδ Delta Ππ Pi Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma Ηη Eta Ττ Tau Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon Ιι Iota Φφ Phi Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
History
Archaic local variants Ϝ Ͱ Ϻ Ϙ Ͳ Ͷ tsan digamma Diacritics Ligatures Numerals ϛ (6) ϟ (90) ϡ (900)
Use in other languages
Bactrian Coptic Albanian
Related topics
Use as scientific symbols
Category

Archaic form of Phi

Phi (/faɪ/;^[1] uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; Ancient Greek: ϕεῖ pheî [pʰéî̯]; Modern Greek: φι fi [fi]) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet.

In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th century BC to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive ([pʰ]), which was the origin of its usual romanization as ⟨ph⟩. During the later part of Classical Antiquity, in Koine Greek (c. 4th century BC to 4th century AD), its pronunciation shifted to that of a voiceless bilabial fricative ([ɸ]), and by the Byzantine Greek period (c. 4th century AD to 15th century AD) it developed its modern pronunciation as a voiceless labiodental fricative ([f]). The romanization of the Modern Greek phoneme is therefore usually ⟨f⟩.

It may be that phi originated as the letter qoppa (Ϙ, ϙ), and initially represented the sound /kʷʰ/ before shifting to Classical Greek [pʰ].^[2] In traditional Greek numerals, phi has a value of 500 (φʹ) or 500,000 (͵φ). The Cyrillic letter Ef (Ф, ф) descends from phi.

As with other Greek letters, lowercase phi (encoded as the Unicode character U+03C6 φ GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI) is used as a mathematical or scientific symbol. Some uses require the old-fashioned 'closed' glyph, which is separately encoded as the Unicode character U+03D5 ϕ GREEK PHI SYMBOL.

Use as a symbol

Computing

In Unicode, there are multiple forms of the phi letter:

Character	Name	Correct appearance	Your browser	LaTeX	Usage
U+03A6	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI	${\displaystyle \Phi \,\!}$	Φ	${\displaystyle \Phi }$	Used in Greek texts
U+03C6	GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI	or	φ	${\displaystyle \varphi }$ or ${\displaystyle \phi }$	Used in Greek texts
U+03D5	GREEK PHI SYMBOL	ϕ	ϕ (ϕ)	${\displaystyle \phi }$	Intended for use in modern (monotonic) Greek texts. Used italicized in mathematical and technical contexts when the "straight-line" variant glyph is preferred.[8]
U+0278	LATIN SMALL LETTER PHI		ɸ	${\displaystyle }$	Used in IPA to symbolise a voiceless bilabial fricative

In ordinary Greek text, the character U+03C6 φ is used exclusively, although this character has considerable glyphic variation, sometimes represented with a glyph more like the representative glyph shown for U+03C6 (φ, the "loopy" or "open" form), and less often with a glyph more like the representative glyph shown for U+03D5 (ϕ, the "stroked" or "closed" form).

Because Unicode represents a character in an abstract way, the choice between glyphs is purely a matter of font design. While some Greek typefaces, most notably those in the Porson family (used widely in editions of classical Greek texts), have a "stroked" glyph in this position (), most other typefaces have "loopy" glyphs. This also applies to the "Didot" (or "apla") typefaces employed in most Greek book printing (), as well as the "Neohellenic" typeface often used for ancient texts ().

It is necessary to have the stroked glyph available for some mathematical uses, and U+03D5 GREEK PHI SYMBOL is designed for this function. Prior to Unicode version 3.0 (1998), the glyph assignments in the Unicode code charts were the reverse, and thus older fonts may still show a loopy form ${\displaystyle \varphi }$ at U+03D5.^[8]

For use as a phonetic symbol in IPA, Unicode has a separate code point U+0278, LATIN SMALL LETTER PHI, because only the stroked glyph is considered correct in this use. It typically appears in a form adapted to a Latin typographic environment, with a more upright shape than normal Greek letters and with serifs at the top and bottom.

In HTML/XHTML, the upper- and lowercase phi character entity references are Φ (Φ) and φ (φ), respectively.

In LaTeX, the math symbols are \Phi (${\displaystyle \Phi \,\!}$), \phi (${\displaystyle \phi \,\!}$), and \varphi (${\displaystyle \varphi \,\!}$).

The Unicode standard also includes the following variants of phi and phi-like characters:

See also

• F, f: Ef (Latin)
• Ф, ф: Ef (Cyrillic)
• Psi and phi type figurine
• Փ (Armenian)

References

External links

• The dictionary definition of Φ at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of φ at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of phi at Wiktionary
• Media related to Phi (letter) at Wikimedia Commons