Editing Gimel (section)

{{Short description|Third letter of many Semitic alphabets}}
{{Redirect|Gimmel|the music group|Gimmel (music group)|other uses|Gimel (disambiguation)}}
{{for|the municipality in Switzerland|Gimel, Switzerland}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox Semitic letter|letname=Gimel|previouslink=Bet (letter)|previousletter=Bet|nextlink=Dalet|nextletter=Dalet|archar=ج|sychar=ܓ|hechar=ג|amchar=𐡂|gechar=ገ|phchar=𐤂|grchar=[[Γ]]|lachar=[[C]], [[G]], [[Ȝ]], [[Ɣ]]|cychar=[[Г]], [[Ґ]], [[Ғ]]|ipa={{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}, {{IPA link|ʒ}}, {{IPA link|ɡ}}, {{IPA link|ɟ}}, {{IPA link|ɣ}}|num=3|gem=3}}

'''Gimel''' is the third (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order) [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] of the [[Semitic abjads]], including [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] ''gīml'' 𐤂, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''gīmel'' {{Script|Hebr|ג}}, [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] ''gāmal'' 𐡂, [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] ''gāmal'' ܓ and [[Arabic Alphabet|Arabic]] ''ǧīm'' {{Script|Arabic|ج}}. It is also related to the [[Ancient North Arabian]] 𐪔‎, [[Ancient South Arabian script|South Arabian]] {{lang|sem-x-oldsoara|𐩴}}, and [[Geʽez script|Ge'ez]] {{lang|gez|ገ}}.

Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all derived alphabets, except Arabic ([[#Arabic ǧīm|see below]]), is a [[voiced velar plosive]] {{IPAblink|ɡ}}; in [[Modern Standard Arabic]], it represents either a {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}} or {{IPA|/ʒ/}} for most Arabic speakers except in [[Northern Egypt]], the southern parts of [[Yemen]] and some parts of [[Oman]] where it is pronounced as the [[voiced velar plosive]] {{IPAblink|ɡ}}.

In its [[Proto-Canaanite]] form, the letter may have been named after a weapon that was either a [[sling (weapon)#Staff sling|staff sling]] or a [[throwing stick]] (spear thrower), ultimately deriving from a [[Proto-Sinaitic]] glyph based on the [[throw stick (hieroglyph)|hieroglyph]] below:
<div><hiero>T14</hiero></div>

The [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] letter gave rise to the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] [[gamma]] (Γ), the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] [[C]], [[G]], [[Latin gamma|Ɣ]] and [[yogh|Ȝ]], and the [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] [[Г]], [[Ґ]], and [[Ғ]].