Resh
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| Resh | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Syriac | Hebrew | Aramaic | Phoenician |
|
ﺭ |
ܪ | ר |  |
 |
| Phonemic representation (IPA): | r / ɾ / ʁ / ʀ | |||
| Position in alphabet: | 20 | |||
| Gematria/Abjad value: | 200 | |||
Resh is the twentieth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ר and Arabic alphabet rāʼ ﺭ. Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants: usually IPA: [r] or /ɾ/ but also /ʁ/ or /ʀ/ in Hebrew.
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 similarity led to the variant spellings of the name Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadrezzar.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Rho (Ρ), Etruscan r 
, Latin R, and Cyrillic Р.
[edit] Origins of Resh
Resh is usually assumed to have come from a pictogram of a head (in modern Hebrew rosh; in Arabic, ra's). The word's East Semitic cognate, riš, was one possible phonetic reading of the Sumerian cuneiform sign for "head" (SAG 𒊕) in Akkadian.
[edit] Resh in Hebrew
| Hebrew alphabet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| א ב ג ד ה ו | |||||
| ז ח ט י כך | |||||
| ל מם נן ס ע פף | |||||
| צץ ק ר ש ת | |||||
| History · Transliteration Niqqud · Dagesh · Gematria Cantillation · Numeration |
|||||
| Arabic alphabet | ||||||
| ﺍ || ﺏ || ﺕ || ﺙ || ﺝ || ﺡ || ﺥ | ||||||
| ﺩ || ﺫ || | ||||||
| ﺽ || ﻁ || ﻅ || ﻉ || ﻍ || ﻑ || ﻕ | ||||||
| ﻙ || ﻝ || ﻡ || ﻥ || هـ || ﻭ || ﻱ | ||||||
| History · Transliteration Diacritics · hamza ء Numerals · Numeration |
||||||
| Syriac alphabet | |||||
| ܐ | ܒ | ܓ | ܕ | ||
| ܗ | ܘ | ܙ | ܚ | ܛ | ܝ |
| ܟܟ | ܠ | ܡܡ | ܢܢ | ܣ | ܥ |
| ܦ | ܨ | ܩ | ܪ | ܫ | ܬ |
In Hebrew, Resh represents a rhotic consonant that has different realizations for different dialects:
- In modern Hebrew, a voiced uvular fricative (IPA: [ʁ]).
- In Ashkenazi pronunciations, either an alveolar approximant [ɹ] (as in English) or sometimes a uvular trill [ʀ].
- In Mizrahi pronunciaitons, either an alveolar trill [r], or flap [ɾ].
Resh, along with Ayin, Aleph, He, and Heth, cannot receive a dagesh.
Resh in gematria represents the number 200.
Resh as an abbreviation can stand for Rabbi (or Rav, Rebbe, Rabban, Rabbenu, and other similar constructions).
Resh is used in an Israeli phrase: after a child will say something false, one might say "B'Shin Qoph, Resh" (With Shin, Qoph, 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."
