Hebrew punctuation marks

From: Jonathan Rosenne (100320.1303@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Fri Aug 09 1996 - 14:11:24 EDT


Michael Everson wrote:
>What are the following characters used for? What "script independent"
>punctuation characters are they similar to?

Hebrew has an ancient punctuation system that predates the modern punctuation.
Today both systems are in use, sometimes even mixed.

"Similar" can mean in shape and in meaning, I'll try to provide both.

>HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF

It's similar to a hyphen, joining two words so they are pronounced as a single
word.

>HEBREW PUNCTUATION PASEQ

It looks like a vertical bar, separating two words, similar in meaning to the
modern comma.

>HEBREW PUNCTUATION SOF PASUQ

It looks like a colon, only instead of round points they are rhombic. It is
similar in meaning to the modern period when used to end a sentence.

>HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERESH

It looks like an apostrophe, normally used at the end of a word, and means an
abbreviation, similar in meaning to the period in "etc.". It is also used to
qualify the pronunciation of a consonant, similar to the way h is used in EngliSH.

>HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERSHAYIM

It looks like a double quote, normally used between the ultimate and penultimate
letters, indicating it is not a word. It could be an abbreviation, similar to
e.g., (which would thus be e"g) or a foreign word, or a number expressed in letters.

Jonathan Rosenne
JR Consulting
P O Box 33641, Tel Aviv, Israel
Phone: +972 50 246 522 Fax: +972 9 56 73 53
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Jonathan_Rosenne



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