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Gimel is the third letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Gīml , Hebrew Gimel , Aramaic Gāmal , Syriac Gāmal , and Arabic (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order). Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all derived alphabets, except Arabic, is a voiced velar plosive ; in Modern Standard Arabic, it represents either a or for most Arabic speakers except in
Northern Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...
, the southern parts of Yemen and some parts of Oman where it is pronounced as the voiced velar plosive ( see below). In its Proto-Canaanite form, the letter may have been named after a weapon that was either a
staff sling A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone, clay, or lead " sling-bullet". It is also known as the shepherd's sling or slingshot (in British English). Someone who specializes in using slings i ...
or a throwing stick (spear thrower), ultimately deriving from a Proto-Sinaitic glyph based on the hieroglyph below:
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The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek
gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...
(Γ), the Latin C, G, Ɣ and
yogh The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots: ; Middle English: ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular form of the letter ''g''. In Middle English writing, tailed z ...
, and the
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...
Г and Ґ.


Hebrew gimel


Variations

Hebrew spelling: Bertrand Russell posits that the letter's form is a conventionalized image of a camel. The letter may be the shape of the walking animal's head, neck, and forelegs.
Barry B. Powell Barry Bruce Powell (born 1942) is an American classical scholar. He is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of the widely used textbook ''Classical Myth'' and many other books. Trained at ...
, a specialist in the history of writing, states "It is hard to imagine how gimel = "camel" can be derived from the picture of a camel (it may show his hump, or his head and neck!)". Gimel is one of the six letters which can receive a dagesh qal. The two functions of dagesh are distinguished as either qal (light) or hazaq (strong). The six letters that can receive a dagesh qal are bet, gimel,
daled Dalet (, also spelled Daleth or Daled) is the fourth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Dālet 𐤃, Hebrew Dālet , Aramaic Dālath , Syriac Dālaṯ , and Arabic (in abjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value is t ...
,
kaph Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician kāp , Hebrew kāf , Aramaic kāp , Syriac kāp̄ , and Arabic kāf (in abjadi order). The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Lati ...
, pe, and taf. Three of them (bet, kaph, and pe) have their sound value changed in modern Hebrew from the fricative to the plosive by adding a dagesh. The other three represent the same pronunciation in modern Hebrew, but have had alternate pronunciations at other times and places. They are essentially pronounced in the fricative as ג gh غ, dh ذ and th ث. In the Temani pronunciation, gimel represents , , or when with a dagesh, and without a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, the combination (gimel followed by a geresh) is used in loanwords and foreign names to denote .


Significance

In gematria, gimel represents the number three. It is written like a '' vav'' with a '' yud'' as a "foot", and is traditionally believed to resemble a person in motion; symbolically, a rich man running after a poor man to give him charity. In the Hebrew alphabet ''gimel'' directly precedes '' dalet'', which signifies a poor or lowly man, from the Hebrew word ''dal'' (b. ''
Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
'', 104a). The word ''gimel'' is related to ''gemul'', which means 'justified repayment', or the giving of reward and punishment. Gimel is also one of the seven letters which receive special crowns (called '' tagin'') when written in a
Sefer Torah A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tora ...
. See ''
shin Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...
'', '' ayin'', '' teth'', '' nun'', '' zayin'', and '' tsadi''. The letter gimel is the
electoral symbol An electoral symbol is a standardised symbol allocated to an independent candidate or political party by a country's election commission for use in election ballots. Usage Symbols are used by parties in their campaigning, and printed on ballot p ...
for the United Torah Judaism party, and the party is often nicknamed ''Gimmel''. In Modern Hebrew, the frequency of usage of gimel, out of all the letters, is 1.26%.


Syriac gamal/gomal

In the
Syriac alphabet The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...
, the third letter is — Gamal in eastern pronunciation, Gomal in western pronunciation (). It is one of six letters that represent two associated sounds (the others are Bet, Dalet,
Kaph Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician kāp , Hebrew kāf , Aramaic kāp , Syriac kāp̄ , and Arabic kāf (in abjadi order). The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Lati ...
, Pe and
Taw Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew Tav , Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also gives ri ...
). When Gamal/Gomal has a hard pronunciation (''qûššāyâ '') it represents , like "goat". When Gamal/Gomal has a soft pronunciation (''rûkkāḵâ '') it traditionally represents (), or ''Ghamal/Ghomal''. The letter, renamed ''Jamal/Jomal'', is written with a tilde/tie either below or within it to represent the borrowed phoneme (), which is used in
Garshuni Garshuni or Karshuni ( Syriac alphabet: , Arabic alphabet: ) are Arabic writings using the Syriac alphabet. The word "Garshuni", derived from the word "grasha" which literally translates as "pulling", was used by George Kiraz to coin the term "gars ...
and some Neo-Aramaic languages to write loan and foreign words from Arabic or Persian.


Arabic ǧīm

The Arabic letter is named ' . It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:


Pronunciation

In all varieties of Arabic, cognate words will have consistent differences in pronunciation of the letter. The standard pronunciation taught outside the Arabic speaking world is an affricate , which was the agreed upon pronunciation by the end of the nineteenth century to recite the Qur'an. It is pronounced as a fricative in most of Northern Africa and the Levant, and is the prestigious and most common pronunciation in Egypt, which is also found in Southern
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
. Differences in pronunciation occur because readers of Modern Standard Arabic pronounce words following their native dialects. Egyptians always use the letter to represent as well as in names and loanwords, such as "golf". However, may be used in Egypt to transcribe ~ (normally pronounced ) or if there is a need to distinguish them completely, then is used to represent , which is also a proposal for Mehri and
Soqotri Soqotri (also spelt Socotri, Sokotri, or Suqutri; autonym: ماتڸ دسقطري, ''mɛ́taḷ di-saḳɔ́ṭri''; , ''al-luḡah al-suquṭriyyah'') is a South Semitic language spoken by the Soqotri people on the island of Socotra and the two ...
languages. ;The literary standard pronunciations: *: In most of the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
, Algeria, Iraq, Levant. This is also the commonly taught pronunciation outside the Arabic speaking countries when Literary Arabic is taught as a foreign language. *: In the Levant, Southern Iraqi Arabic and
Northwestern Africa The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
. *: In Egypt, coastal Yemen ( West and
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
), southwestern Oman, and eastern Oman. *: In
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and hinterland Yemen, as well as being a common reconstruction of the
Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
pronunciation. ;Non-literary pronunciation: *: In eastern Arabian Peninsula in the most colloquial speech, however or sometimes to pronounce Literary Arabic loan words.


Historical pronunciation

While in all Semitic languages, e.g. Aramaic, Hebrew, Ge'ez, Old South Arabian the equivalent letter represents a , Arabic is considered unique among them where the ''Jīm'' was palatalized to an affricate or a fricative in most dialects from classical times. While there is variation in Modern Arabic varieties, most of them reflect this palatalized pronunciation except in coastal Yemeni and Omani dialects, where it is pronounced as due to their
substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...
languages being Old South Arabian languages. The rest of Yemen, as well as Sudan, "preserved" the historical pronunciation of . Historically, till about the nineteenth century, Egyptian Arabic had the North African pronunciation, but it evolved differently to by the Cairo elite, later that spread and became today's prestigious pronunciation . It is not well known when palatalization occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation of ''Qāf'' as a , but in most of the
Arabian peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
(Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and parts of Yemen and Oman) which is the homeland of the Arabic language, the represents a and represents a , except in coastal Yemen and southern Oman where represents a and represents a , which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of to and the pronunciation of the as a as shown in the table below:


Character encodings


See also

The serif form \gimel of the Hebrew letter gimel is occasionally used for the
gimel function In axiomatic set theory, the gimel function is the following function mapping cardinal numbers to cardinal numbers: :\gimel\colon\kappa\mapsto\kappa^ where cf denotes the cofinality function; the gimel function is used for studying the continuum f ...
in mathematics.


References


External links


The Mystical Significance of the Hebrew Letters: Gimel
{{Northwest Semitic abjad Phoenician alphabet Hebrew letters