Aramaic Letters: Gamal

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The third letter of the Aramaic Alphabet is called Gamal, pronounced GA-mal, a little bit like Ca-mel. Gamal corresponds to the Hebrew letter Gimel in the Hebrew Alphabet. The letters in the Aramaic Alphabet are almost identical to those in Hebrew, but have slightly different names and sometimes slightly different sounds.

Aramaic audio: Listen to the sound of Gamal.

Here is what the Aramaic letter Gamal looks like:

Here is how to write Gamal with an ordinary pen:

Picture showing how to draw the Aramaic letter Gamal

Gamal originally had different pronunciations for the versions with and without the dot. But today, Gamal is always pronounced with a g sound, like the words Gilgal, girl or garden. The word Gamal comes from the Aramaic word gamal, meaning camel, and this word has come down to the English with only a slight change in the pronunciation.

Here is what Gamal looks like with and without the dot:

with the dot, pronounced g

without the dot, pronounced g

Gamal is the third letter of the Aramaic Alphabet, and therefore has the Gematria (numerical value) of 3.

Gamal is one of the four Hebrew/Aramaic letters on the Dreidel, which is a spinning top used for playing games during the festival of Hannukah.

Practise writing Gamal in the grid lines below:

Grid showing how to write the Aramaic letter Gamal

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