Editing Gimel (section)

===Variations===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! colspan="5" |<small>[[Orthography|Orthographic]] variants</small>
|-
! colspan="3" |<small>Various print fonts</small>
! rowspan="2" |<small>[[Cursive Hebrew|Cursive<br>Hebrew]]</small>
! rowspan="2" |<small>[[Rashi script|Rashi<br>script]]</small>
|-
!|<small>Serif</small> !! <small>[[Sans-serif]]</small> !! <small>[[Monospaced]]</small>
|-
| width="20%" |<span style="font:30pt 'Times New Roman', 'SBL Hebrew', David, Narkisim, 'New Peninim MT', 'Taamey Frank CLM', serif;">ג</span>
| width="20%" |<span style="font:29pt Arial, 'DejaVu Sans Condensed', 'DejaVu Sans', Tahoma, 'Noto Sans Hebrew', Alef, sans-serif;">ג</span>
| width="20%" |<span style="font:30pt 'Courier New', 'Miriam Fixed', 'Miriam Mono CLM', FreeMono, monospace;">ג</span>
| width="20%" |[[File:Hebrew letter Gimel handwriting.svg|class=skin-invert-image|25px]]
| width="20%" |[[File:Gimel (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg|class=skin-invert-image|46px]]
|}

Hebrew spelling: <big>{{lang|he|גִּימֶל}}</big>

[[Bertrand Russell]] posits that the letter's form is a conventionalized image of a camel.<ref>{{cite book|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|title=A history of western philosophy|year=1972|publisher=Touchstone book|location=New York|isbn=0-671-31400-9|edition=60th print.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern00russ}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Tenen|first=Stan|url=http://www.meru.org/letteressays/gimel.html|title=Letter Portrait: Gimel|series=A Matrix of Meaning: Portraits of the Hebrew Letters, in Pictures and Words|website=Meru Foundation|access-date=2011-09-29|archive-date=2022-12-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222153109/https://www.meru.org/letteressays/gimel.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The letter may be the shape of the walking animal's head, neck, and forelegs. [[Barry B. Powell]], 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!)”.<ref>{{cite book|last=Powell|first=Barry B.|title=Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization|date=27 March 2009|publisher=Wiley Blackwell|isbn=978-1-4051-6256-2|page=182|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZ2Gr3d9X2UC&q=Gimel+shaped+like+a+camel%27s+neck&pg=PA182}}</ref>

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 [[Beth (letter)|bet]], gimel, [[Daleth (letter)|daled]], [[kaph]], [[Pe (Semitic letter)|pe]], and [[Taw (letter)|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 [[Yemenite Hebrew|Temani]] pronunciation, gimel represents {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, {{IPA|/ʒ/}}, or {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}} when with a dagesh, and {{IPA|/ɣ/}} without a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, the combination '''{{Script/Hebrew|ג׳}}''' (gimel followed by a [[geresh]]) is used in loanwords and foreign names to denote {{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}.