Pronouciation of XI

Tink16 · #1 10-01-2002, 09:06 PM

I have a question. I know we pronouce Xi as "Z" but then the other day i was looking at the greek letters and pronouciation and it said Xi should be pronouced as "zzeye." Whats the deal? Do some chapters pronouce it as Alpha "Zzeye" Delta and some Alpha "Z" Delta?

Oh yeah and my new member period is going great! we went on retreat this past weekend and had a lot of fun. Last night we serenaded and that was very interesting....hehe

Star · #2 10-01-2002, 09:29 PM

"Xi" is pronounced both "zee" AND "zzeye"! The key is what comes before it. If "Alpha" precedes it, it always pronounced "zee," every other time and it is pronounced "zzeye." This rule also applies to phi, which is why Alpha Phi is "fee" and not Alpha "feye"!

AZ-AlphaXi · #3 10-02-2002, 09:27 AM

Hi Tink ... glad to hear that everything is going well.

Star is correct. It all depends on what the Xi follows. In our case, since it follows alpha (a vowel) it is "Zee". The fraternity, Theta Xi, is Theta "Zeye" since it doesn't follow a vowel.

FuzzieAlum · #4 10-02-2002, 11:20 AM

There have been threads on this before, but what it comes down to is a) fraternity Greek isn't the same as ancient or modern Greek, so it doesn't matter what a Greek scholar tells you b) we've decided to say "zee" so "zee" it is for all AXD chapters.

SoProud2BeAnAlphaXi · #5 10-02-2002, 06:53 PM

...and what I thought your thread was going to ask:

Don't be surprised when you meet with older alums (at Founders Day, for instance) who pronounce it "Ksee." In my experience, almost every alum who was initiated before the '60s will say "Alpha Ksee Delta." Of course, this comes across sounding like "Alf*ck See Delta", which I suspect is why it fell into disuse.