Why is it called an “Icthus” fish symbol?
The word for fish in Greek is “icthus”, and since Greek as the main language of commerce in those days, the fish has continued to be called by its Geek name. Since many people are familiar with the icthus fish symbol and its association with Christianity, the use of the word “icthus” can also be used as a codes word among Christians. What is the proper spelling and pronunciation of “icthus”? You may have seen IXOYE spelled in one of these ways; ixthus, icthus, ichthus, icthuse, icthys, ikhthus or ichthys. How can we end up with so many variations of spelling? The Greek spelling of icthus in the Latin alphabet is IXOYE, the individual characters Iota, Chi, Theta, Upsilon and Sigma. These letters have been translated in various ways into the Latin alphabet to try and help with pronunciation. The problem is that Greek has changed over the years and various dialects pronounce the original characters in different ways. For example, the letter X which is called Chi, has at times been spoken
Related Questions
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