Gimel (letter)
Encyclopedia
Gimel is the third letter
of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic
, Hebrew
, Syriac
and Arabic
(in alphabetical order; 5th in spelling order). Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all derived alphabets, save Arabic, is a voiced velar plosive
ɡ; in Modern Standard Arabic, it represents d͡ʒ
In its unattested Proto-Canaanite form, the letter may have been named after a weapon that was either a staff sling or a throwing stick
, ultimately deriving from a Proto-Sinaitic glyph based on the hieroglyph
below:
T14
The Phoenician
letter gave rise to the Greek
gamma
(Γ), the Latin
C
and G
, and the Cyrillic
Г.
Hebrew spelling:
Some theorize that the letter comes from a camel, called a "gamal" in Hebrew. http://www.meru.org/letteressays/gimel.html The letter may be the shape of the walking animal's head, neck, and forelegs.
The letter gimel is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, Gimel, Daled, Kaph
, 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. In the Temani pronunciation, Gimel represents /ɡ/, /ʒ/, or /d͡ʒ/ when with a dagesh, and /ɣ/ without a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, the combination ג׳ (gimel followed by a geresh
) is used in loanwords and foreign names to denote d͡ʒ.
, gimel represents the number three.
It is written like a vav
with a yud
as a "foot", and it resembles a person in motion; symbolically, a rich man running after a poor man to give him charity, as in the Hebrew alphabet
gimel directly precedes dalet
, which signifies a poor or lowly man, from the Hebrew word dal.
The word gimel is related to gemul, which means 'justified repayment', or the giving of reward and punishment.
Gimmel is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah
. See shin
, ayin
, teth
, nun
, zayin
, and tsadi
.
in Modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of gimel, out of all the letters, is 1.26%.
In the Syriac alphabet
, 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
, Pe
and Taw
). When Gamal/Gomal has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ) it represents ɡ, like "goat". When Gamal/Gomal has a soft pronunciation () it traditionally represents ɣ , or Ghamal/Ghomal. The letter, renamed Jamal/Jomal, is written with a tilde
/tie either below or within it to represent the borrowed phoneme
d͡ʒ , which is used in Garshuni
and some Neo-Aramaic languages
to write loan and foreign words from Arabic or Persian.
Modern Standard Arabic has d͡ʒ as the standard pronunciation of the letter. Differences in pronunciation occur, because speakers of Modern Standard Arabic often pronounce words in accordance to their spoken variety of Arabic. In such varieties, cognate words will have consistent differences in pronunciation of this sound:
Egyptians always use the letter to represent ɡ, as well as in loanwords, such as 'golf'. However, it isn't incorrect to use it in Egypt for transcribing ʒ~d͡ʒ (normally pronounced ʒ).
In Perso-Arabic script
, it is called jīm.
In Egypt, when there is a need to transcribe ʒ or d͡ʒ, both are approximated into ʒ using .
And in Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, etc, represents the sound t͡ʃ.
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Syriac
Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC . It is one of the Semitic abjads directly descending from the Aramaic alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic, and the traditional Mongolian alphabets.-...
and Arabic
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
(in alphabetical order; 5th in spelling order). Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all derived alphabets, save Arabic, is a voiced velar plosive
Voiced velar plosive
The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called "opentail G" , though the "looptail G" is...
ɡ; in Modern Standard Arabic, it represents d͡ʒ
In its unattested Proto-Canaanite form, the letter may have been named after a weapon that was either a staff sling or a throwing stick
Throwing Stick
The throwing stick or throwing club is one of the first weapons used by early humans and cultures all around the world. In essence, it is a short stave or wooden club thrown as a projectile to hunt small game such as rabbits or waterfowl. In flight, it rotates rapidly cracking the target with one...
, ultimately deriving from a Proto-Sinaitic glyph based on the hieroglyph
Throw stick (hieroglyph)
The Throw stick hieroglyph of Ancient Egypt is an old hieroglyph that dates from the Predynastic Period; it is from the assemblage of hieroglyphs used on the ornamental, or ceremonial cosmetic palettes...
below:
The Phoenician
Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...
letter gave rise to the Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
gamma
Gamma
Gamma is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Gimel . Letters that arose from Gamma include the Roman C and G and the Cyrillic letters Ge Г and Ghe Ґ.-Greek:In Ancient Greek, gamma represented a...
(Γ), the Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
C
C
Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets...
and G
G
G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,...
, and the Cyrillic
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
Г.
Variations
| Orthographic Orthography The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography... variants |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script Rashi script Rashi script is a semi-cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet. It is named for the author of the most famous rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, Rashi, and is customarily used for printing his commentaries. The typeface is based on 15th century Sephardic semi-cursive... |
||
| Serif | Sans-serif Sans-serif In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without".... | Monospaced | ||
| ג | ג | ג |  |
 |
Hebrew spelling:
Some theorize that the letter comes from a camel, called a "gamal" in Hebrew. http://www.meru.org/letteressays/gimel.html The letter may be the shape of the walking animal's head, neck, and forelegs.
The letter gimel is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, Gimel, Daled, Kaph
Kaph
Kaph is the eleventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Kaf , Arabic alphabet , Persian alphabet...
, Pe
Pe (letter)
Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
, and Taf
Taw (letter)
Taw, Tav or Taf is the twenty-second and last letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Taw and Arabic alphabet .Its original sound value is ....
. Three of them (Bet, Kaph
Kaph
Kaph is the eleventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Kaf , Arabic alphabet , Persian alphabet...
, and Pe
Pe (letter)
Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
) 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. In the Temani pronunciation, Gimel represents /ɡ/, /ʒ/, or /d͡ʒ/ when with a dagesh, and /ɣ/ without a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, the combination ג׳ (gimel followed by a geresh
Geresh
Geresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.#An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter :...
) is used in loanwords and foreign names to denote d͡ʒ.
Significance
In gematriaGematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...
, gimel represents the number three.
It is written like a vav
Waw (letter)
Waw is the sixth letter of the Northwest Semitic family of scripts, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic ....
with a yud
Yodh
Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Yud , Syriac and Arabic...
as a "foot", and it resembles a person in motion; symbolically, a rich man running after a poor man to give him charity, as in the Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
gimel directly precedes dalet
Dalet
Dalet is the fourth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic...
, which signifies a poor or lowly man, from the Hebrew word dal.
The word gimel is related to gemul, which means 'justified repayment', or the giving of reward and punishment.
Gimmel is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah
Sefer Torah
A Sefer Torah of Torah” or “Torah scroll”) is a handwritten copy of the Torah or Pentateuch, the holiest book within Judaism. It must meet extremely strict standards of production. The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Torah reading during Jewish services...
. See shin
Shin (letter)
Shin literally means "Sharp" ; It is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Aramaic/Hebrew , and Arabic ....
, ayin
Ayin
' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet...
, teth
Teth
' is the ninth letter of many Semitic abjads , including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Tet , Syriac and Arabic ; it is 9th in abjadi order and 16th in modern Arabic order....
, nun
Nun (letter)
Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . It is the third letter in Thaana , pronounced as "noonu"...
, zayin
Zayin
Zayin is the seventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Aramaic , Hebrew , Syriac and Perso-Arabic alphabet...
, and tsadi
Tsade
' is the eighteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ' and Arabic ' . Its oldest sound value is probably , although there is a variety of pronunciation in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects...
.
in Modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of gimel, out of all the letters, is 1.26%.
Syriac Gamal/Gomal
| Gamal/Gomal |
|---|
| Madnḫaya Gamal |
| Serṭo Gomal |
| Esṭrangela Gamal |
In the Syriac alphabet
Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC . It is one of the Semitic abjads directly descending from the Aramaic alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic, and the traditional Mongolian alphabets.-...
, 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
Bet (letter)
Bet, Beth, Beh, or Vet is the second letter of many Semitic abjads, including Arabic alphabet , Aramaic, Hebrew , Phoenician and Syriac...
, Dalet
Dalet
Dalet is the fourth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic...
, Kaph
Kaph
Kaph is the eleventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Kaf , Arabic alphabet , Persian alphabet...
, Pe
Pe (letter)
Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
and Taw
Taw (letter)
Taw, Tav or Taf is the twenty-second and last letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Taw and Arabic alphabet .Its original sound value is ....
). When Gamal/Gomal has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ) it represents ɡ, like "goat". When Gamal/Gomal has a soft pronunciation () it traditionally represents ɣ , or Ghamal/Ghomal. The letter, renamed Jamal/Jomal, is written with a tilde
Tilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
/tie either below or within it to represent the borrowed phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
d͡ʒ , which is used in Garshuni
Garshuni
Garshuni or Karshuni are Arabic language writings that use the Syriac alphabet.Garshuni originated in the seventh century AD, when Arabic was becoming the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent, but Arabic script was not yet fully developed and widely read...
and some Neo-Aramaic languages
Neo-Aramaic languages
Neo-Aramaic, or Modern Aramaic, languages are varieties of Aramaic that are spoken vernaculars in the medieval to modern era, evolving out of Middle Aramaic dialects around AD 1200 ....
to write loan and foreign words from Arabic or Persian.
Arabic ǧīm
The associated Arabic letter is named . It is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:Modern Standard Arabic has d͡ʒ as the standard pronunciation of the letter. Differences in pronunciation occur, because speakers of Modern Standard Arabic often pronounce words in accordance to their spoken variety of Arabic. In such varieties, cognate words will have consistent differences in pronunciation of this sound:
- AlgerianAlgerian ArabicAlgerian Arabic is the variety or varieties of Arabic spoken in Algeria. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has a vocabulary mostly Arabic, with significant Berber substrates, and many new words and loanwords borrowed from French, Turkish and...
, IraqiIraqi ArabicIraqi Arabic is a continuum of mutually intelligible Arabic varieties native to the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq as well as spanning into eastern and northern Syria, western Iran, southeastern Turkey, and spoken in respective Iraqi diaspora communities.-Varieties:Iraqi Arabic has two major varieties...
, and several other dialects, pronounce it d͡ʒ. - In the Egyptian dialectEgyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect ....
and some Yemeni dialectsYemeni ArabicYemeni Arabic is a cluster of Arabic varieties spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia, and northern Somalia...
(such as Tihami), it is normally pronounced ɡ (as in Hebrew and the other Semitic languages). - LevantineLevantine ArabicLevantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
and Maghrebi Arabic (save AlgerianAlgerian ArabicAlgerian Arabic is the variety or varieties of Arabic spoken in Algeria. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has a vocabulary mostly Arabic, with significant Berber substrates, and many new words and loanwords borrowed from French, Turkish and...
), pronounce it ʒ. - In Kuwaiti ArabicKuwaiti ArabicKuwaiti Arabic is a Gulf Arabic dialect spoken in Kuwait. Though it shares the majority of its' features with most Gulf dialects, it also exhibits largely phonetic features that are unique to the dialects of Iraq as well.-See also:* Varieties of Arabic...
and Gulf ArabicGulf ArabicGulf Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken around the shore of the Persian Gulf such as in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman...
, it is pronounced j in the most colloquial speech. - In others (particularly among BedouinBedouinThe Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
s) it is pronounced as a palatalized [ɡʲ], a common reconstruction of the pronunciation in the Classical ArabicClassical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
of early Islamic times. - In some dialects of SudaneseSudanese ArabicSudanese Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken throughout northern Sudan. It has much borrowed vocabulary from the local languages . This has resulted in a variety of Arabic that is unique to Sudan, reflecting the way in which the country has been influenced by both African and Arab cultures...
and Yemeni Arabic, it is pronounced ɟ, another common reconstruction of the Classical Arabic pronunciation.
Egyptians always use the letter to represent ɡ, as well as in loanwords, such as 'golf'. However, it isn't incorrect to use it in Egypt for transcribing ʒ~d͡ʒ (normally pronounced ʒ).
In Perso-Arabic script
Perso-Arabic script
The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet is a writing system based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic alphabet was adapted to the Persian language, adding four letters: , , , and . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters...
, it is called jīm.
In Egypt, when there is a need to transcribe ʒ or d͡ʒ, both are approximated into ʒ using .
And in Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, etc, represents the sound t͡ʃ.