Geresh

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Geresh ("׳", Hebrew: גֵרֵשׁ, [ɡe̞ˈʁe̞ʃ] or medieval [ɡeːɾeːʃ]) is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.

1. 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.
2. Today it usually refers to an apostrophe-like sign (also informally Chupchik^{[citation needed]} (['ʧupʧik]) placed after a letter. It may used:

• as a diacritic which modifies the pronunciation of some letters,
• as a punctuation mark to denote initialisms or abbreviations, or
• to denote a Hebrew numeral.

Contents 1 Usage 1.1 Diacritic 1.2 Punctuation mark 1.3 Denoting a numeral 1.4 Cantillation mark 2 Computer encoding 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Usage

[edit] Diacritic

As a diacritic, the Geresh is written after (i.e. to the left of) the letter whose pronunciation it modifies:

Loanwords, Slang, Foreign Names, and Transliteration of Foreign Languages
Without Geresh					With Geresh
Symbol	Name	Translit.	IPA	Example	Symbol	Name	Translit.	IPA	Example
ג	gimel	g	[ɡ]	gap	ג׳	gimel with a geresh	j (or g)	[ʤ]	jupiter, George
ז	zayin	z	[z]	zoo	ז׳	zayin with a gresh	g, j	[ʒ] (French soft g)	Jacques, beige, vision
צ	tsadi	ts	[ʦ]	tsunami	צ׳	tsadi with a geresh	ch	[ʧ]	chip
Distinction when Transcribing Foreign Names[1]
Without Geresh					With Geresh
Symbol	Name	Translit.	IPA	Example	Symbol	Name	Translit.	IPA	Example
ד	dalet	d	[d]	door	ד׳	dalet with a geresh	English voiced th	[ð]	then
ח	chet	kh, h, or ch	[χ]	Scottish loch chanukah	ח׳	chet with a geresh	Dutch g	[χ]
ת	tav	t	[t]	tail	ת׳	tav with a geresh	English voiceless th	[θ]	thing
ו	vav	v	[v]	vote	וו or ו׳	vav with a geresh or double vav	w	[w] (non standard)[2]	William

There are 6 additional letters in the Arabic alphabet. They are ṯāʼ, ḫāʼ, ḏāl, ḍād, ẓāʼ, and ġayn.

Distinction when Transcribing Arabic[3]
Without Geresh						With Geresh
Symbol	Name	Translit.	Arabic letter	IPA	Example	Symbol	Name	Arabic letter	IPA	Example	Comment
ד	dalet	d	dāl (د)	[d]	door	ד׳	dalet with a geresh	ḏāl (ذ)	[ð]	Dhu al-Hijjah (ذو الحجة)	Also used for English voiced th. Often a simple Dalet (ד) is written.
ח	chet	kh, h, or ch	ḥa (ح)	[χ]	Scottish loch chanukah	ח׳	chet with a geresh	ḫāʼ (ﺥ)	[χ]	Sheikh (شيخ)‎	Also used for Dutch letter g.
ת	tav	t	tā (ت)	[t]	tail	ת׳	tav with a geresh	ṯāʼ (ث)	[θ]		Also used for English voiceless th.
ס	samech	s	none	[s]	sun	ס׳	samech with a geresh	ṣad (ص)	[sˤ]
ר	reish	r	rāʼ (ر)	[r]	rain	ר׳	reish with a geresh	ġayn (غ)	[ʁ]	Ghaja'r
ע	ayin	unrelated				ע׳	ayin with a geresh	ġayn (غ)	[ʁ]	Ghaja'r
ט	tet					ט׳	tet with a geresh	ẓāʼ (ظ)	[ðˁ]	Tanzim (تنظيم)‎	In scientific and professional writing. Transliterated as a regular Zayin (ז) in colloquial writing.
צ	tsadi					צ׳	tsadi with a geresh	ḍād (ض)	[dˁ]	Ramaḍān	In scientific and professional writing. Transliterated as a regular Dalet (ד) in colloquial writing (רמדאן).

[edit] Punctuation mark

To denote initialisms, the Geresh is written after the last letter of the initialism (e.g. "Ms.": "׳בג").^[4].

[edit] Denoting a numeral

A Geresh is sometime appended after (to the left of) a single letter to indicate that the letter represents a number. This is used in the case where a number is represented by a single Hebrew numeral (e.g., 100 → ‫ק׳‬), whereas a number represented by a sequence of two or more Hebrew letters is indicated by Gershayim ("״").

[edit] Cantillation mark

As a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, the Geresh is printed above the accented letter: ב֜. The Geresh Muqdam (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: ב֝.

[edit] Computer encoding

Appearance	Code Points	Name
׳	U+05F3	HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERESH
֜	U+059C	HEBREW ACCENT GERESH
֝	U+059D	HEBREW ACCENT GERESH MUQDAM

Since most keyboards do not have a Geresh key, often an apostrophe ( ', Unicode U+0027) is used to denote a Geresh.

[edit] See also

• Hebrew alphabet
• Gershayim
• Hebraization of English
• Hebrew numerals

[edit] References

1. ^ Rules for the transcription of foreign names into Hebrew, pp. 5–6 (Academy of the Hebrew Language).
2. ^ Transliteration Rules. issued by the Academy of the Hebrew Language states that both [v] and [w] be indistinguishably represented in Hebrew using the letter Vav. Sometimes the Vav is indeed doubled, however not to denote [w] as opposed to [v] but rather, when spelling without niqqud, to denote the phoneme /v/ 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 /u/ or /o/. To pronounce foreign words and loanwords containing the sound [w], Hebrew readers must therefore rely on former knowledge and context, see also pronunciation of Hebrew Vav.
3. ^ Rules for the transcription of Arabic into Hebrew, pp. 5–6 (Academy of the Hebrew Language).
4. ^ Hebrew Punctuation (Academy of the Hebrew Language).

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