Gimel

Gimel is the third letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Gīml , Hebrew ˈGimel ג, Aramaic Gāmal , Syriac Gāmal ܓ, and Arabic ǧīm ج (in alphabetical order; fifth 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 has many standards including [ɡ], see below.

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:

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek gamma (Γ), the Latin C and G, and the Cyrillic Г.

Hebrew gimel

Variations

Hebrew spelling: גִּימֵל

Bertrand Russell posits that the letter's form is a conventionalized image of a camel. 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!)".

Gimel (disambiguation)

Gimel may mean

Gimel, Switzerland

Gimel is a municipality in the Swiss the canton Vaud, located in the district of Morges.

History

Gimel is first mentioned around 979-993 as Gemella.

Geography

Gimel has an area, as of 2009, of 18.89 square kilometers (7.29 sq mi). Of this area, 6.07 km² (2.34 sq mi) or 32.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 11.66 km² (4.50 sq mi) or 61.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.08 km² (0.42 sq mi) or 5.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km² (7.4 acres) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.1 km² (25 acres) or 0.5% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, 60.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.6% is used for growing crops and 6.7% is pastures and 4.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality was part of the Aubonne District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Gimel became part of the new district of Morges.