Resh (IPA: /ɹɛʃ/) is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician rēš, Hebrew rēš, Aramaic rēš , Syriac rēš ܪ, and Arabic rāʾ . Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants: usually pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/, but also pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ in Hebrew and North Mesopotamian Arabic.
In most Semitic alphabets, the letter resh (and its equivalents) is quite similar to the letter dalet (and its equivalents). In the Syriac alphabet, the letters became so similar that now they are only distinguished by a dot: resh has a dot above the letter, and the otherwise identical dalet has a dot below the letter. In the Arabic alphabet, has a longer tail than . In the Aramaic and Hebrew square alphabet, resh is a rounded single stroke while dalet is a right-angle of two strokes.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek rho (Ρ/ρ), Etruscan, Latin R, and Cyrillic Р.
Resh is usually assumed to mean head, as in Proto-Semitic
The letter is named Arabic: راء in Arabic. It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:
It ranges between an alveolar trill pronounced as /link/, an alveolar flap pronounced as /link/, and a uvular trill pronounced as /link/ (the last of which is only found in a few modern varieties). It is pronounced as a postalveolar approximant [<nowiki/>[[Voiced postalveolar approximant|ɹ̠]]] in the traditional dialect of Fes.[1]
The Unicode standard for Arabic scripts also lists a variant with a full stroke (Unicode character U+075b: ݛ), suggesting that this form is used in certain Northern and Western African languages and some dialects in Pakistan.[2]
Hebrew spelling: Hebrew: רֵישׁ
In Hebrew, Resh represents a rhotic consonant that has different realizations for different dialects:
As a general rule, Resh, along with Ayin, Aleph, He, and Het, do not receive a dagesh. There are a handful of exception to this rule.[3] In the Yemenite tradition, Resh is treated as most other consonants in that it can receive a dagesh hazak under certain circumstances. In the most widely accepted version of the Hebrew Bible, there are 17 instances of Resh being marked with a dagesh.[4] The list is: 1 Samuel 1:6, 1 Samuel 10:24, 1 Samuel 17:25, 2 Kings 6:32, Jeremiah 39:12, Ezekiel 16:4 [×2], Habakkuk 3:13, Psalms 52:5, Proverbs 3:8, Proverbs 11:21, Proverbs 14:10, Proverbs 15:1, Job 39:9 (?[5]), Song of Songs 5:2, Ezra 9:6, 2 Chronicles 26:10 (?[6])
In gematria, Resh represents the number 200.
Resh as an abbreviation can stand for Rabbi (or Rav, Rebbe, Rabban, Rabbenu, and other similar constructions).
Resh may be found after a person's name on a gravestone to indicate that the person had been a Rabbi or to indicate the other use of Rav, as a generic term for a teacher or a personal spiritual guide.
Resh is used in an Israeli phrase; after a child says something false, one may say "B'Shin Quf, Resh" (With Shin, Quf, Resh). These letters spell Sheqer, which is the Hebrew word for a lie. It would be akin to an English speaker saying "That's an L-I-E."
ידי ניסן שׁרוני ׀ אשׁדוֹד ׀ תשׁס״א ׀ עמוד
62
In the 7 article of the chapter, the Rav says that the letters ״אהחער״ generally do not take a dagesh.
₪ בּאוֹתיוֹת ״אהחער״ ־לֹא יָבֹא דָגֵשׁ, בְּדֶרֶךְ כְּלָל. ₪ מכלול נז
In the footnote 6 — Not to write it in Hebrew — ; it says: Except in a few cases where there is an exception to the rule… dagesh can be seen in Alef and Reish. See Mesorah haGedolah 43:26 and מכלול נז Minchas Shai 43:26.