Editing Gamma (section)

==History==
{{further|History of the Greek alphabet}}
The Greek letter Gamma Γ is a grapheme derived from the [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician letter]] {{Script|Phnx|𐤂}} (''gīml'') which was rotated from the [[right-to-left script]] of Canaanite to accommodate the Greek language's writing system of left-to-right. The Canaanite [[grapheme]] represented the /g/ phoneme in the [[Canaanite language]], and as such is cognate with ''[[gimel]]'' ג of the [[Hebrew alphabet]].

Based on its name, the letter has been interpreted as an abstract representation of a [[camel]]'s neck,<ref>{{cite book|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|title=A history of western philosophy|year=1972|publisher=Touchstone book|location=New York|isbn=9780671314002|edition=60th print.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern00russ}}</ref> but this has been criticized as contrived,<ref>{{cite book|last=Powell|first=Barry B.|author-link=Barry B. Powell|title=Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZ2Gr3d9X2UC&pg=PA182|year=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-29349-2|page=182}}</ref> and it is more likely that the letter is derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph representing a club or [[throwing stick]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Gordon James|title=The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdANAAAAYAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Catholic Biblical Association of America|isbn=978-0-915170-40-1|pages=53–6}}</ref>

[[File:NAMA Alphabet grec.jpg|thumb|left|The alphabet on [[black-figure pottery]] with a [[lambda]]-shaped gamma]]
In [[Archaic Greece]], the shape of gamma was closer to a classical [[lambda]] (Λ), while lambda retained the Phoenician [[L]]-shape ({{Script|Phnx|𐌋}}).

Letters that arose from the Greek gamma include [[Old Italic script#Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan (Old Italic)]] 𐌂,  [[Latin alphabet|Roman]] [[C]] and [[G]], [[Elder Futhark|Runic]] ''[[kaunan]]'' {{Script|Runr|ᚲ}}, [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]] ''geuua'' {{Script|Goth|𐌲}}, the [[Coptic alphabet|Coptic]] Ⲅ, and the [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] letters [[Ge (Cyrillic)|Г]] and [[Ge with upturn|Ґ]].<ref name="rapidtables">{{cite web | url=http://www.rapidtables.com/math/symbols/greek_alphabet.htm | title=Greek Alphabet Symbols | publisher=Rapid Tables | access-date=25 August 2014}}</ref>