Contents

Gershayim

פַּרְדֵּ״ס

֞

וּרְד֞וּ

-‎

hyphen

֜‎

֝‎

׳‎

'

apostrophe

֞‎

״‎

"

quotation mark

ֽ‎  

,

comma

׆

[

bracket

׃‎

paseq

׀‎

֑‎

segol

֒‎

֓‎

zaqef qaton

֔‎

֕‎

tifcha/tarkha

֖‎

֗‎

zarqa

֘‎

֙‎

yetiv

֚‎

֛‎

geresh/gerish

֜‎

֝‎

gershayim/shenei gerishin

֞‎

֟‎

telisha gedola/talsha

֠‎

֡‎

atnah hafukh [de]

֢‎

֣‎

mahapakh/shofar mehupakh

֤‎

֥‎

merkha kefula/terei ta’amei

֦‎

֧‎

qadma

֨‎

֩‎

yerah ben yomo

֪‎

֫‎

illuy

֬‎

֭‎

zinor

֮‎

Gershayim (Hebrew: גֵּרְשַׁיִם‎, without niqqud גרשיים‎), also occasionally grashayim^[1] (גְּרָשַׁיִם‎), can refer to either of two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".

Punctuation mark[edit]

Gershayim most commonly refers to the punctuation mark ⟨״⟩. It is always written before the last letter of the non-inflected form of a word or numeral. It is used in the following ways:

• To indicate a Hebrew acronym.^[2] For example: דּוּ״חַ‎ (singular), דּוּ״חוֹת‎ (plural), "report" represents דין וחשבון‎; and מ״כ‎ (masculine), מַ״כִּית‎ (feminine), "squad commander" represents מפקד כיתה‎.
• To indicate a multi-digit Hebrew numeral. For example: י״ח‎ represents 18.^[3]
• To indicate the names of Hebrew letters, differentiating them from any homographs.^[2] Compare הוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִן‎ "he sketched an eye" with הוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִ״ן‎ "he sketched an ayin".
• To indicate Hebrew word roots.^[2] For example: the root of תַּשְׁבֵּצִים‎/taʃbeˈtsim/ "crossword puzzles" is שב״צ‎ (š—b—ṣ); the root of לְהַטּוֹת‎ /lehaˈtot/ "to tilt, to conjugate" is נט״ה‎ (n—ṭ—h); and the root of הִסְתַּנְכְּרְנוּת‎ /histankreˈnut/ "being synchronized" is סנכר״נ‎ (s–n–k–r–n).
• In older texts, to indicate the transliteration of a foreign word. This use corresponds to English's use of italics. For example, in printed works of Rashi, the town of Rashi's birth, Troyes, is spelled טרוי״ש‎.

Cantillation mark[edit]

Gershayim is a disjunctive cantillation accent in the Tanakh (Jewish bible) - ◌֞. It is placed above the stressed syllable, as in וַיִּקַּ֞ח (Genesis 22:3).^[1]

Computer encoding[edit]

Most keyboards do not have a key for the gershayim. As a result, a quotation mark is often substituted for it.

U+05F4

Hebrew Punctuation Gershayim

U+059E

Hebrew Accent Gershayim

See also[edit]

Look up ״ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Hebrew alphabet
• Hebrew diacritics
• Hebrew punctuation

References[edit]

^  Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, §5k ff.

• Shva
• Hiriq
• Tzere
• Segol
• Patach
• Kamatz
• Holam
• Kubutz and Shuruk
• Dagesh
• Mappiq
• Maqaf
• Rafe
• Sin/Shin Dot

• Verbal morphology
• Semitic roots
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Segolate
• Waw-consecutive