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Resh (IPA: /ɹɛʃ/) is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic rāʾ ر‎, Aramaic rēš 𐡓‎, Hebrew rēš ר‎, Phoenician rēš 𐤓, and Syriac rēš ܪ. Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants: usually [r] or [ɾ], but also [ʁ] or [ʀ] 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, rāʼ has a longer tail than dāl. 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, Glagolitic Ⱃ, and Cyrillic Р.

Origins

Resh is usually assumed to mean head, as in Proto-Semitic *raʾ(i)š- and descendants.

Arabic rāʾ

The letter is named rāʾ راء in Arabic. It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

It ranges between an alveolar trill [r], an alveolar flap [ɾ], and a uvular trill [ʀ] (the last of which is only found in a few modern varieties). It is pronounced as a postalveolar approximant in the traditional dialect of Fes.

Derived letter in other languages

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.

In the Pashto alphabet, a variant of the letter rāʾ uses a ring below for the retroflex consonant [ɭ̆~ɽ] and another uses dots above and below the tail for the voiced fricative [ʐ] or [ʝ]:

Hebrew resh

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
ר	ר	ר

Hebrew spelling: רֵישׁ

In Hebrew, Resh (רֵישׁ‎) represents a rhotic consonant that has different realizations for different dialects:

• In Modern Hebrew, the most common pronunciation is the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ].
• Ashkenazi use sometimes a uvular trill [ʀ] or an alveolar trill [r]. Native English-speakers replace it sometimes with an alveolar approximant [ɹ], as in English.
• Sephardic and Mizrahi use an alveolar trill [r], an alveolar flap [ɾ] or uvular trill [ʀ].

As a general rule, Resh, along with Ayin, Aleph, He, and Het, do not receive a dagesh. There are a handful of exceptions to this rule. 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. 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 , Habakkuk 3:13, Psalms 52:5, Proverbs 3:8, Proverbs 11:21, Proverbs 14:10, Proverbs 15:1, Job 39:9 (?), Song of Songs 5:2, Ezra 9:6, 2 Chronicles 26:10 (?)

In gematria, Resh represents the number 200.

As abbreviation

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.

Spelling out

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."

Character encodings

References

1. Schenker, Alexander M. (1995), The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to Slavic Philology, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 179, ISBN 0-300-05846-2
2. Hachimi, Atiqa (2012-05-23). "The urban and the urbane: Identities, language ideologies, and Arabic dialects in Morocco". Language in Society. 41 (3): 321–341. doi:10.1017/s0047404512000279. ISSN 0047-4045. S2CID 144607607.
3. Allen, Julie D.; Anderson, Deborah; et al. (eds.). The Unicode Standard, Version 6.2 (PDF). Unicode Consortium. p. 265.
4. Book Em laMikra haShalem written by Nisan Sharoni In Chapter 14:7 page 62 of the Ashdod. ספר אם למקרא השׁלם על 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.
5. "Unexpected Dagesh in Reish". Mi Yodeya. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
6. "Tanach Simanim (Hebrew Only)". www.feldheim.com. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
7. "Tanach Simanim (Hebrew Only)". www.feldheim.com. Retrieved 2024-01-02.

External links

• Phoenician alphabet
• Arabic letters
• Hebrew letters
• Urdu letters