XIV

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

Punctuation mark※

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. 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.
• To indicate the names of Hebrew letters, differentiating them from any homographs. Compare הוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִן‎ "he sketched an eye" with הוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִ״ן‎ "he sketched an ayin".
• To indicate Hebrew word roots. 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※

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

Computer encoding※

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

See also※

• Hebrew alphabet
• Hebrew diacritics
• Hebrew punctuation

References※

This writing system–related article is a stub. You can help XIV by, expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article related to the Hebrew language is a stub. You can help XIV by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e