...
What I noticed is that the uncial Greek forms of sigma and xi are
recognizably derivitive from the paleo-Hebrew alphabet both in form and
pronunciation, and that the use of the xi was used mostly in the same places
as the samekh in Hebrew in the transliteration of Persian names as late as
Ezra and Nehemiah. ...
...
As for the paleo-Hebrew, the samekh was made up of three horizontal lines
with a vertical line tying them together, like a Greek uncial xi with a
vertical line piercing it, though sometimes the vertical line dropped below
the bottom horizontal line. The sin/shin letter looked very similar to a
Greek uncial sigma rotated 90° counter clockwise. They looked very different
from each other, I do not see how their shapes could coalesce.
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