Geresh

Geresh ( in Hebrew: or , or medieval ) is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.

#An apostrophe-like sign (also known colloquially as a ''chupchik'') placed after a letter:
#* as a diacritic that modifies the pronunciation of some letters (only in modern Hebrew),
#* as a diacritic that signifies Yiddish origin of a word or suffix, ( examples below)
#* as a punctuation mark to denote initialisms or abbreviations,
#* or to denote a single-digit Hebrew numeral
# A note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah and other Biblical books, taking the form of a curved diagonal stroke placed above a letter.

Diacritic

As a diacritic, the Geresh is written immediately after (left of) the letter it modifies. It indicates three sounds native to speakers of modern Hebrew that are common in loan words and slang: as in ''judge'', as in ''measure'' and as in ''church''. In transliteration of Arabic, it indicates Arabic phonemes which are usually allophones in modern Hebrew: is distinguished from and is distinguished from . Finally, it indicates other sounds foreign to the phonology of modern Hebrew speakers and used exclusively for the transliteration of foreign words: as in ''then'', as in ''thin'', ; and, in some transliteration systems, also , and . It may be compared to the usage of a following ''h'' in various Latin digraphs to form other consonant sounds not supported by the basic Latin alphabet, such as "sh", "th", etc.

Loanwords, slang, foreign names and transliterations

Transcriptions of Arabic

There are six additional letters in the Arabic alphabet. They are Ṯāʾ, Ḫāʾ, Ḏāl, Ḍād, Ẓāʾ, and Ghayn. Also, some letters have different sounds in Arabic phonology and modern Hebrew phonology, such as Jīm.

Transliteration of foreign names

;Note
:* Both double-vav and vav with geresh are non-standard and inconsistently used. issued by the Academy of the Hebrew Language state that both and be indistinguishably represented in Hebrew using the letter Vav. Sometimes the Vav is indeed doubled, however not to denote as opposed to but rather, when spelling without niqqud, to denote the phoneme at a non-initial and non-final position in the word, whereas a single Vav at a non-initial and non-final position in the word in spelling without niqqud denotes one of the phonemes or . To pronounce foreign words and loanwords containing the sound , Hebrew readers must therefore rely on former knowledge and context, see also pronunciation of Hebrew Vav.

Yiddish origin

Some words or suffixes of Yiddish origin or pronunciation are marked with a geresh, e.g. the diminutive suffix – , e.g. – (as in Yankale Bodo), or the words – , 'guys' (which is the Yiddish pronunciation of Hebrew 'company'), or – , 'bottom-line'.

Punctuation mark

The geresh is used as a punctuation mark in initialisms and to denote numerals.

Indicating initialisms

In initialisms, the Geresh is written after the last letter of the initialism. For example: the title (literally "lady") is abbreviated , equivalent to English "Mrs" and "Ms".

Denoting a numeral

A Geresh can be appended after (left of) a single letter to indicate that the letter represents a Hebrew numeral. For example: represents 100. A multi-digit Hebrew numeral is indicated by the Gershayim .

Cantillation mark

As a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, the Geresh is printed above the accented letter: . The (lit. 'a Geresh made earlier'), a variant cantillation mark, is also printed above the accented letter, but slightly before (i.e. more to the right of) the position of the normal Geresh: . As a cantillation mark it is also called ()‎.

Computer encoding

Most keyboards do not have a key for the geresh. As a result, an apostrophe ( ', Unicode U+0027) is often substituted for it.

See also

* Gershayim
* Hebraization of English
* Hebrew alphabet
* Hebrew numerals

References

{{Hebrew language

Hebrew diacritics
Punctuation