Geresh
| Geresh | ||
|---|---|---|
| diacritic, punctuation mark |
׳ | וכו׳ |
| cantillation mark | ֜ or ֝ | הָאָ֜רֶץ |
| compare with apostrophes | ||
| 'וכו׳', 'הָאָ֜רֶץ' | ||
| Hebrew punctuation |
|---|
Geresh (׳ in Hebrew: גֶּרֶשׁ or גֵּרֶשׁ [ˈɡeʁeʃ], or medieval [ˈɡeːɾeːʃ]) 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.