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Wikipedia cites Hinge (2001) as reporting the claim that Cretan Greek had [s] as an allophone of /ts/ after a nasal. I’m not a German speaker so I can’t verify this.

The relevant section from the Wikipedia page for Zeta is quoted below (as viewed on the 30th of January 2024)

  1. ν disappears before ζ like before σ(σ), στ: e.g. *πλάνζω > πλᾰ́ζω, *σύνζυγος > σύζυγος, *συνστέλλω > σῠστέλλω. Contra: ν may have disappeared before /dz/ if one accepts that it had the allophone [z] in that position like /ts/ had the allophone [s]: cf. Cretan ἴαττα ~ ἀποδίδονσα (Hinge).

Citing: Hinge, George. “Die Aussprache des griechischen Zeta”, in Die Sprache Alkmans: Textgeschichte und Sprachgeschichte. PhD dissertation. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2001, pp. 212–234 = [1]

I’m really looking for an English translation of Hinge 2001 so I can verify that it does indeed claim this fact.

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    Do you mean the dialect of Ancient Greek, or the dialect of Modern Greek, or the non-Indo-European language that Greek displaced?
    – Draconis ♦
    Commented Jan 30 at 2:45
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    Hinge (2001) is a dissertation on the language of the Spartan poet Alcman (7th century BC), who wrote in the Doric (Laconian) dialect of Sparta, so I wonder how it is connected with Crete. You definitely need to add more details.
    – Yellow Sky
    Commented Jan 30 at 12:18
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    thank you. I have edited this in to the question
    – Tristan
    Commented Jan 30 at 14:13
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    My German is far from fluent, but searching through the linked article for /ts/ and then running those paragraphs through google translate (the fact this is generally more useful that relying on my own translation, shows how far I am from fluent, hence why this is not an answer), it appears that the /ts/ phoneme being discussed is the Proto-Greek /ts/ < first palatalisation of *ty or *tʰy, claiming the earlier [ts] sound of this phoneme persisted late in Cretan, as it was spelt <ζ> in the archaic period and later with <ττ> or <θθ>
    – Tristan
    Commented Jan 30 at 14:24
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    He then cites Cretan -ονσα for Attic -ουσα < Proto-Greek *ontsa < PIE *-ontih2 (the feminine nominative singular of the thematic active present participle) as evidence of a [s] allophone of /ts/ in Cretan. I'm not confident enough in the google translation to say for sure, but he might also be claiming such an allophone in Proto-Greek more generally
    – Tristan
    Commented Jan 30 at 14:24

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