Geresh


Geresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.
  1. An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter:
  2. * as a diacritic that modifies the pronunciation of some letters,
  3. * as a diacritic that signifies Yiddish origin of a word or suffix,
  4. * as a punctuation mark to denote initialisms or abbreviations,
  5. * or to denote a single-digit Hebrew numeral
  6. 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 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.
ט Tet Ŧ z with glottal stop at end ט׳ tet with. ظ

Transliteration of foreign names

;Note

Yiddish origin

Some words or suffixes with Yiddish origin or pronunciation are marked with a geresh, e.g. the diminutive suffix לֶ׳ה – -le, e.g. יענקל׳ה – Yankale, or the words חבר׳ה –, 'guys', or תכל׳ס –, '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 גְּבֶרֶת is abbreviated גב׳, equivalent to English "Mrs" and "Ms".

Denoting a numeral

A Geresh can be appended after a single letter to indicate that the letter represents a Hebrew numeral. For example: ק׳‎ 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: ב֜. The Geresh Muqdam, a variant cantillation mark, is also printed above the accented letter, but slightly before the position of the normal Geresh: ב֝. As a cantillation mark it is also called Ṭères ‎.

Computer encoding

Most keyboards do not have a key for the geresh. As a result, an apostrophe is often substituted for it.
AppearanceCode PointsName
׳U+05F3HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERESH
֜U+059CHEBREW ACCENT GERESH
֝U+059DHEBREW ACCENT GERESH MUQDAM