Gimel
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- Gimmel redirects here, for the musical group, see Gimmel (music group).
| ← Bet Gimel Dalet → | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenician | Hebrew | Aramaic | Syriac | Arabic |
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ג |  |
ܓ | ﺟ,ﺝ |
| Phonemic representation: | ɡ, ɣ | |||
| Position in alphabet: | 3 | |||
| Numerical (Gematria/Abjad) value: | 3 | |||
Gimel is the third letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ג, Syriac ܓ and Arabic ǧīm ﺟ (in abjadi order; 5th in higa'i order). Its sound value in the original Phoenecian and in all derived alphabets save Arabic is a voiced velar plosive [ɡ]; in Arabic, it represents a voiced postalveolar affricate [ʤ] in the standard language, though this varies (with [ɡ] and [ʒ] being the most common) from dialect to dialect.
The word is most likely derived from the Phoenician word for "camel". (The word for camel in hebrew is "gamal")
In its Proto-Canaanite form, the letter was likely named after a "throwing stick, boomerang," 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 (Γ) and the Latin C and G and Cyrillic Г.
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[edit] Hebrew Gimel
| Phoenician alphabet (ca. 1050–200 BCE) |
| 𐤀 𐤁 𐤂 𐤃 𐤄 𐤅 |
| 𐤆 𐤇 𐤈 𐤉 𐤊 𐤋 |
| 𐤌 𐤍 𐤎 𐤏 𐤐 |
| 𐤑 𐤒 𐤓 𐤔 𐤕 |
| Semitic abjads · Genealogy |
| Hebrew alphabet (1000 BCE–present) |
| א ב ג ד ה ו |
| ז ח ט י כך |
| ל מם נן ס ע פף |
| צץ ק ר ש ת |
| History · Transliteration Niqqud · Dagesh · Gematria Cantillation · Numeration |
| Syriac alphabet (200 BCE–present) |
| ܐ ܒ ܓ ܕ ܗ ܘ |
| ܙ ܚ ܛ ܝ ܟܟ ܠ |
| ܡܡ ܢܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ |
| ܨ ܩ ܪ ܫ ܬ |
| Arabic alphabet (400 CE–present) |
| ﺍ ﺏ ﺕ ﺙ ﺝ ﺡ |
| ﺥ ﺩ ﺫ ﺭ ﺯ س |
| ﺵ ﺹ ﺽ ﻁ ﻅ ﻉ |
| ﻍ ﻑ ﻕ ﻙ ﻝ |
| ﻡ ﻥ ه ﻭ ﻱ |
| History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration |
[edit] Variations
| Orthographic variants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script |
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| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
| ג | ג | ג |  |
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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. Gimel represents, in some Sephardi areas, /ɡ/ or /ʒ/ when with a dagesh, and /ɣ/ without a dagesh.
See Bet, Daled, Kaph, Pe, and Taf.
[edit] Significance
In gematria, 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: gimel directly precedes dalet in the Hebrew alphabet, and this which signifies a poor/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.
[edit] Syriac Gomal/Gamal
In the Syriac alphabet, the third letter is ܓ — Gomal in western pronunciation, Gamal in eastern pronunciation (ܓܡܠ). It is one of six letters that represents two associated sounds (the others are Bet, Dalet, Kaph, Pe and Taw). When Gomal/Gamal has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ) it is a [ɡ]. When Gomal/Gamal has a soft pronunciation (rûkkāḵâ) it is traditionally pronounced as a [ɣ]. The letter, renamed Jomal/Jamal, is written with a tilde/tie either below or within it to represent the borrowed phoneme [dʒ], which is used in Garshuni and some Neo-Aramaic languages.
[edit] Arabic ǧīm
The associated Arabic letter is named ǧīm, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Initial | Medial | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form of letter: | ج | جـ | ـجـ | ـج |
The letter ǧīm is matched only by qaf among Arabic consonants in the number of pronunciations applied to it dialectically. As noted above, Modern Standard Arabic has the voiced postalveolar affricate IPA: [ʤ] as its standard pronunciation of the letter, but in Egyptian Arabic, the letter is pronounced as the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ (as in Hebrew and the other Semitic languages), in Levantine Arabic as the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, in Kuwaiti Arabic a palatal approximant /j/, and still others (particularly among Bedouins) as a palatalized voiced velar plosive, /ɡʲ/, the most common reconstruction from Classical Arabic.
Many Arabs pronounce ﺝ as /ʒ/ when speaking in MSA, considering this to be standard, rather than /ʤ/. This pronunciation is very common for many East Arabic dialects.
[edit] External links
- The website of Gamal in the United Kingdom, born in London, England.
- The Mystical Significance of the Hebrew Letters: Gimel
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