I never got why its believed to be the camel's neck rather than the hump.
S. | Homepage | 06.20.06 - 3:50 pm | #

I forgot to include the link to e-hebrew's history of Gimel:

http://www.e-hebrew.com/ history_...y_03_gimel.html

It should help to explain.
Dave | Homepage | 06.20.06 - 4:04 pm | #

Thanks. I'm aware of the various forms, I just don't see why its been assumed that the V or > or any other variation of the shape is meant to refer to the camel's neck, when (it seems to me) equally plausible that this shape represents a camel's hump.

It may well be that in earlier incarnations this letter had nothing do with a camel at all until it reached a position that looks more or less like this: ^

But surely by the time it got its name it did have to do with a camel (or at least that is the dominant theory). If so, why should this shape represent the animal's neck rather than its hump? After all, if we are judging by shape alone it could be a donkey's neck or a horse's neck. The distinguishing feature of a camel is its hump. That's why it seems more likely to me that it was this feature in mind when this letter came to be called a g-m-l.

Of course, maybe I'm missing something. Why is my view dismissed in favor of the camel's neck?
S. | Homepage | 06.20.06 - 7:46 pm | #

My point was only that it didn't originally look like a camel - hump or neck. Although I can see how it looks more like a neck than a hump (originally it looked more like a 7 than a ^ ), there are those who think it was the hump: http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/...ies/ LetterG.htm
Dave | Homepage | 06.20.06 - 8:42 pm | #

Right, I got that. Presumably it wasn't called g-m-l at that early stage, only when it came to resemble something camel-like.

It seems that more sources assume it came from the camel's neck, that's why I questioned it. Of course many discussions on the subject probably just take earlier assertions about it rather than examining it anew.
S. | Homepage | 06.20.06 - 11:29 pm | #

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~gr...llanea/ zed.html says the letter G was invented, according to Plutarch, by one Spurius Carvilius Ruga
Michael Grant | Homepage | 06.23.06 - 11:57 am | #

In Akkadian "gammalu" is like this boomerang or "hunter's 'throwing stick' ."

- E.Y.
exabgen | 06.27.06 - 4:04 am | #

Is Camel Beautiful? by Khaled Ahmad in Lahore, Pakistan's Daily Times.
S. | Homepage | 06.28.06 - 6:45 pm | #