Geresh should not be confused with Gares.
| Geresh | ||
|---|---|---|
| diacritic, punctuation mark | ׳ | |
| cantillation mark | ֜ or ֝ | |
| compare with apostrophes | ||
| align=center colspan=3 | ||
Geresh (
׳ in Hebrew: or [1] pronounced as /he/, or medieval pronounced as /he/) is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.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: pronounced as /[dʒ]/ as in judge, pronounced as /[ʒ]/ as in measure and pronounced as /[tʃ]/ as in church. In transliteration of Arabic, it indicates Arabic phonemes which are usually allophones in modern Hebrew: pronounced as /[ɣ]/ is distinguished from pronounced as /[r]/ and pronounced as /[ħ]/ is distinguished from pronounced as /[χ]/. Finally, it indicates other sounds foreign to the phonology of modern Hebrew speakers and used exclusively for the transliteration of foreign words: pronounced as /[ð]/ as in then, pronounced as /[θ]/ as in thin, pronounced as /[sˤ]/; and, in some transliteration systems, also pronounced as /[tˤ]/, pronounced as /[dˤ]/ and pronounced as /[ðˤ]/. 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 transliteration of foreign languages | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Without Geresh | With Geresh | ||||||||
| Symbol | Example | Symbol | IPA | Examples | |||||
| gimel | g | pronounced as /link/ | gap | gimel with a geresh | j (or g) | pronounced as /link/ | Jupiter, George | ||
| zayin | z | pronounced as /link/ | zoo | zayin with a geresh | g, j | pronounced as /link/ | Jacques, beige, vision | ||
| tsadi | ts | pronounced as /link/ | tsunami, cats | tsadi with a geresh | ch | pronounced as /link/ | chip | ||
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.
| Distinction when transcribing foreign names[4] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Without Geresh | With Geresh | ||||||||
| Symbol | Example | Symbol | IPA | Example | |||||
| dalet | d | pronounced as /link/ | door | dalet with a geresh | English voiced th | pronounced as /link/ | then | ||
| tav | t | pronounced as /link/ | tail | tav with a geresh | English voiceless th | pronounced as /link/ | thing | ||
| vav | v | pronounced as /link/ | vote | or (non-standard) | vav with a geresh or double vav | w | pronounced as /link/ | William | |
Some words or suffixes of Yiddish origin or pronunciation are marked with a geresh, e.g. the diminutive suffix Hebrew: לֶ׳ה – Yiddish: -le, e.g. Hebrew: יענקל׳ה – Hebrew: Yankale (as in Yankale Bodo), or the words Hebrew: חבר׳ה – pronounced as /[ˈχevre]/, 'guys' (which is the Yiddish pronunciation of Hebrew Hebrew: חברה pronounced as /[χevˈra]/ 'company'), or Hebrew: תכל׳ס – pronounced as /[ˈtaχles]/, 'bottom-line'.
The geresh is used as a punctuation mark in initialisms and to denote numerals.
In initialisms, the Geresh is written after the last letter of the initialism. For example: the title Hebrew: rtl=yes|גְּבֶרֶת (literally "lady") is abbreviated Hebrew: rtl=yes|גב׳, equivalent to English "Mrs" and "Ms".[6]
A Geresh can be appended after (left of) a single letter to indicate that the letter represents a Hebrew numeral. For example: Hebrew: rtl=yes|ק׳ represents 100. A multi-digit Hebrew numeral is indicated by the Gershayim .
See main article: Geresh (trope). As a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, the Geresh is printed above the accented letter:
ב֜. The Hebrew: 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. As a cantillation mark it is also called Hebrew: Ṭères (Hebrew: טֶרֶס).Most keyboards do not have a key for the geresh. As a result, an apostrophe (', Unicode U+0027) is often substituted for it.
| Appearance | Code Points | Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ׳ | U+05F3 | HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERESH | |
| ֜ | U+059C | HEBREW ACCENT GERESH | |
| ֝ | U+059D | HEBREW ACCENT GERESH MUQDAM |