Gimel is the third (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order)letter of theSemitic abjads, includingPhoeniciangīml 𐤂,Hebrewgīmelג‎,Aramaicgāmal 𐡂,Syriacgāmal ܓ andArabicǧīmج‎. It is also related to theAncient North Arabian 𐪔‎,South Arabian𐩴, andGe'ezገ.

Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all derived alphabets, except Arabic (see below), is avoiced velar plosive[ɡ]; inModern Standard Arabic, it represents either a/d͡ʒ/ or/ʒ/ for most Arabic speakers except inNorthern Egypt, the southern parts ofYemen and some parts ofOman where it is pronounced as thevoiced velar plosive[ɡ].

In itsProto-Canaanite form, the letter may have been named after a weapon that was either astaff sling or athrowing stick (spear thrower), ultimately deriving from aProto-Sinaitic glyph based on thehieroglyph below:

ThePhoenician letter gave rise to theGreekgamma (Γ), theLatinC,G,Ɣ andȜ, and theCyrillicГ,Ґ, andҒ.

The Arabic letterج is namedجيمǧīm /jīm[d͡ʒiːm,ʒiːm,ɡiːm,ɟiːm]. It has four forms, and is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

The similarity toḥāʼح  is likely a function of the original Syriac forms converging to a single symbol, requiring that one of them be distinguished as a dot; a similar process occurred tozāy andrāʾ.

In allvarieties 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[d͡ʒ], which was the agreed-upon pronunciation by the end of the nineteenth century to recite theQur'an. It is pronounced as a fricative[ʒ] in most ofNorthern Africa and theLevant, and[ɡ] is theprestigious and most common pronunciation inEgypt, which is also found in SouthernArabian Peninsula. Differences in pronunciation occur because readers of Modern Standard Arabic pronounce words following their native dialects.

Egyptians always use the letter to represent[ɡ] as well as in names and loanwords,^[1] such asجولف "golf". However,ج may be used in Egypt to transcribe/ʒ~d͡ʒ/ (normally pronounced[ʒ]) or if there is a need to distinguish them completely, thenچ is used to represent/ʒ/, which is also a proposal forMehri andSoqotri languages.

The literary standard pronunciations

• [d͡ʒ]: In most of theArabian Peninsula, parts ofAlgeria (Algiers dialect),Iraq, parts ofEgypt, parts of theLevant. This is also the commonly taught pronunciation outside the Arabic speaking countries when Literary Arabic is taught as a foreign language. It is the agreed-upon pronunciation to recite theQur'an and it also corresponds toġ/d͡ʒ/ inMaltese (aSemitic language derived fromSicilian Arabic) as inġar(neighbor) and Arabicجار(neighbor) both pronounced[d͡ʒaːr].
• [ʒ]: In theLevant (especially in the urban centers),Southern Iraqi Arabic, most of theMaghreb, and parts of Algeria (Oran dialect),^[2] and by some speakers in western Saudi Arabia (Hejaz).
• [g]: In Egypt, coastalYemen (West andSouth), southwestern and easternOman.
• [ɟ]: InSudan, parts ofSaudi Arabia, and hinterlandYemen.

Non-literary pronunciation

• [j]: In eastern Arabian Peninsula in the most colloquial speech, though sometimes[d͡ʒ] or[ʒ] in Literary Arabic loan words.
• [j]: In eastern Arabian Peninsula and Iraq but only colloquial speech, for exampleKuwaiti Arabicوايد[waːjɪd] “a lot” vs.Najdi Arabicواجد[waːd͡ʒɪd].
• [ɟʝ]: attested among some bedouin dialects in Saudi Arabia.^[3]

While in most Semitic languages, e.g.Aramaic,Hebrew,Ge'ez,Old South Arabian the equivalent letter represents a[ɡ], Arabic is considered unique among them where theJīm⟨ج⟩ waspalatalized to an affricate[d͡ʒ] or a fricative[ʒ] in most dialects from classical times. While there is variation in Modern Arabic varieties, most of them reflect this palatalized pronunciation except in coastalYemeni andOmani dialects as well as in Egypt, where it is pronounced[g].

It is not well known when palatalization occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation ofQāf⟨ق⟩ as a[ɡ], but in most of theArabian peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and parts of Yemen and Oman), the⟨ج⟩ represents a[d͡ʒ] and⟨ق⟩ represents a[ɡ], except in coastalYemen and southernOman where⟨ج⟩ represents a[ɡ] and⟨ق⟩ represents a[q], which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of⟨ج⟩ to[d͡ʒ] and the pronunciation of the⟨ق⟩ as a[ɡ] as shown in the table below:

Notes:

1. Western and southern Yemen:Taʽizzi, Adeni andTihamiyya dialects (coastal Yemen), in addition to southwestern (Salalah region) and eastern Oman, includingMuscat, the capital.
2. As used in theArabian Peninsula: inSanaa;ق is[ɡ] inSanʽani dialect and also in the literary standard (local MSA), whereas the literary standard pronunciation inSudan is[ɢ] or[ɡ]. For the pronunciation ofج in Modern Standard Arabic, checkJīm.

Note: In Kazakh⟨ج⟩ is pronounced/d͡ʒ/ in some dialects, such as in the south and east.^[4] Hausa⟨ج⟩ is pronounced/d͡ʒ/, in the Hausa of Niger,/d͡ʒ/ is usually pronounced[ʒ].^[5]

A variant letter namedche is used in Persian, with three dots below instead having just one dot below. However, it is not included on one of the 28 letters on the Arabic alphabet. It is thus written as:

Hebrew spelling:גִּימֶל

Bertrand Russell posits that the letter's form is a conventionalized image of a camel.^[6][7] 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!)”.^[8]

Gimel is one of the six letters which can receive adagesh qal. The two functions of dagesh are distinguished as either qal (light) or hazaq (strong). The six letters that can receive a dagesh qal arebet, gimel,daled,kaph,pe, andtaf. 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 theTemani pronunciation, gimel represents/ɡ/,/ʒ/, or/d͡ʒ/ when with a dagesh, and/ɣ/ without a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, the combinationג׳‎ (gimel followed by ageresh) is used in loanwords and foreign names to denote[d͡ʒ].

Ingematria, gimel represents the number three.

It is written like avav with ayud 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 theHebrew alphabetgimel directly precedesdalet, which signifies a poor or lowly man, given its similarity to the Hebrew worddal (b.Shabbat, 104a).^[9]

Gimel is also one of the seven letters which receive special crowns (calledtagin) when written in aSefer Torah. Seeshin,ayin,teth,nun,zayin, andtsadi.

The letter gimel is theelectoral symbol for theUnited Torah Judaism party, and the party is often nicknamedGimmel.^[10][11]

In Modern Hebrew, the frequency of usage of gimel, out of all the letters, is 1.26%.

In theSyriac alphabet, the third letter isܓ — Gamal in eastern pronunciation, Gomal in western pronunciation (ܓܵܡܵܠ). It is one of six letters that represent two associated sounds (the others areBet,Dalet,Kaph,Pe andTaw). When Gamal/Gomal has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ ) it represents[ɡ], like "goat". When Gamal/Gomal has a soft pronunciation (rûkkāḵâ ) it traditionally represents[ɣ] (ܓ݂ܵܡܵܠ), orGhamal/Ghomal. The letter, renamedJamal/Jomal, is written with atilde/tie either below or within it to represent the borrowedphoneme[d͡ʒ] (ܓ̰ܡܵܠ), which is used inGarshuni and someNeo-Aramaic languages to write loan and foreign words from Arabic or Persian.

The serif form${\displaystyle \gimel }$  of the Hebrew letter gimel is occasionally used for thegimel function in mathematics.

• The Mystical Significance of the Hebrew Letters: Gimel