X, the Sütterlin letter x

History

The letter X is the 24th letter of the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents the consonant cluster /ks/ (stop plus fricative), predominantly occurring in classical loanwords and personal names.

Capital X is an upright, symmetrical display majuscule spanning the upper two zones, composed of two opposing crescent curves that touch in the center, flanked by entry and exit flourishes.

While rare in native German vocabulary, x occurs in baptismal names like 'Xaver' and official Latinate record entries like 'Examen', 'Text', and 'Index'.

The Latin X probably came, like B, D and O, which Etruscan did not need, by way of the West Greek spoken in southern Italy.^[1] Its model was the West Greek ksi, which, unlike the East Greek Ξ, was shaped like an X.^[2] That tradition of the sign begins in West Greek around 800 BC.^[3] The sound has a different line, back to the Phoenician samekh,^[4] which still had the value s;^[5] its sign may have shown a supporting pillar or the skeleton of a fish.^[6]