Historical Timeline of the Phonetic Sound of “Stigma” (ϛ)

Period	Approx. Date	Symbol(s)	Function	Phonetic Value	Notes
Mycenaean / Archaic Greek	c. 1200–800 BC	Ϝ (digamma)	Letter in the alphabet	/w/ (“w” as in water)	The digamma was an actual consonant representing the “w” sound in early Greek dialects (esp. Homeric Greek). It appears in Linear B and archaic inscriptions before dropping from Attic-Ionic speech. [¹][²]
Classical Greek	c. 800–400 BC	Ϝ (digamma)	Fading letter + numeral	/w/ (in early dialects only)	The “w” sound gradually disappeared; digamma ceased to function as a spoken letter but was retained in the Greek numeral system for the value 6. [³][⁴]
Koine Greek (New Testament Era)	c. 300 BC–AD 300	ϛ (stigma) replaces Ϝ (digamma)	Numeral only	None (silent)	By this time the /w/ sound had vanished completely from spoken Greek. The sign ϛ, visually similar to σ+τ, was used only for 6. [⁵][⁶]
Byzantine / Medieval Greek	c. AD 600–1400	ϛ (stigma as ligature of σ+τ)	Ligature and numeral	/st/ only when part of a word; none when numeric	Scribes began joining σ + τ as a ligature (ϛ) in manuscripts; as a ligature, it sounded “st,” but as a number, it stayed silent. [⁷][⁸]
Modern Greek	c. AD 1500–Present	ϛ (stigma)	Numeral only	None (silent)	Still used today in numbering (e.g., ϛʹ = 6). Modern Greek uses ἕξι / exi for “six,” not stigma. [⁹][¹⁰]

Summary of the Chart

The symbol Ϝ began as a consonant /w/ in early Greek, lost its sound by the Classical era, and survived solely as a numeral for 6.

By the time of Revelation, ϛ (stigma) had no phonetic value; it was a numerical sign, not a spoken letter.

Footnotes

1. Horrocks, Geoffrey. Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), pp. 32–33 — explains early Greek phonology and the /w/ value of digamma.
2. Woodard, Roger D. Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer (Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 180–183 — details Linear B signs for /wa/, /we/, etc. confirming the original sound.
3. Allen, W. Sidney. Vox Graeca: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Greek, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 24–26 — notes the gradual loss of /w/ in Attic-Ionic.
4. Buth, Randall & Pierce, R. Steven. Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics (2008), p. 20 — notes that χ was never “hee” and that extinct letters like digamma no longer had phonetic use in Koine.
5. Porter, Stanley E. (ed.), Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period (Brill, 1997), p. 42 — summarizes Koine letter values and the non-phonetic use of stigma.
6. Stigma (ligature), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigma_%28ligature%29 (accessed Oct 2025) — explains that by the Hellenistic period stigma served only as the numeral 6.
7. Comes, R. “Arabic, Rūmī, Coptic, or Merely Greek Alphanumerical …,” Suhayl Vol. 3 (2005): 47-78 — discusses medieval ligatures and the σ-τ form.
8. Ranocchia, G. “Is Ϝ-Shaped Digamma Attested as a Numerical Sign in Greek Papyri?” Journal of Hellenic Studies 140 (2020): 199-205 — clarifies the evolution of the numeric 6 symbol.
9. Browning, Robert. Medieval and Modern Greek, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 17 — notes modern pronunciation and retention of stigma only as numeral.
10. Greek Numerals, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals (accessed Oct 2025) — lists stigma (ϛ) as the current numeral 6 and explains its silent, numeric function.