Beta (letter)
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Beta (uppercase Β, lowercase β and internal ϐ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 2. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Beth Image:Phoenician beth.png. Letters that arose from Beta include the Roman B and the Cyrillic letters Б and В.
In Modern Greek, it represents a voiced labiodental fricative /v/, but in Ancient Greek, it represented a /b/.
The Modern Greek name of the letter is IPA: [ˈviˑta]. The American pronunciation is IPA: /ˈbeɪtə/, whereas the British pronunciation is /ˈbiːtə/. See: American and British English pronunciation differences.
In high-quality print, a variant of the letter is sometimes used that does not have a descender except at the beginning of a word: “βίβλος” is written “βίϐλος”.
[edit] Use as a symbol or name
Beta is often used to denote a variable in mathematics and physics, where it often has specific meanings for certain applications, such as representing beta particles, and beta radiation.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Greek minuscule beta denotes a voiced bilabial fricative.als:Β ar:بيتا (حرف إغريقي) arc:Β ast:Beta br:Beta (lizherenn) ca:Beta cy:Beta (llythyren) da:Beta de:Beta el:Βήτα es:Β eu:Beta (greko) fr:Bêta ga:Béite gd:Beta gl:Beta ko:Β id:Beta (huruf Yunani) it:Beta (lettera) he:בטא ka:ბეტა (ასო) sw:Beta ht:Β ku:Beta la:Beta hu:Béta ms:Beta nl:Bèta (letter) ja:Β no:Beta nn:Beta nds:Beta pl:Beta pt:Β ru:Бета (буква) sk:Beta (grécke písmeno) sl:Beta fi:Beeta sv:Beta th:บีตา tr:Β zh:Β
