Resh

← Qoph Resh Shin →
Phoenician Hebrew ר Aramaic Syriac ܪ Arabic ر
Phonemic representation	r (ɾ, ʁ, ʀ)
Position in alphabet	20
Numerical value	200
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek Ρ Latin R Cyrillic Р

Resh is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Rēsh , Hebrew Rēsh ר, Aramaic Rēsh , Syriac Rēsh ܪ, and Arabic Rāʾ ر. Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants: usually [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 , Latin R, and Cyrillic Р.

Origins

The word resh is usually assumed to have come from a pictogram of a head, ultimately reflecting Proto-Semitic *raʾ(i)š-. The word's East Semitic cognate, rēš-, was one possible phonetic reading of the Sumerian cuneiform sign for "head" (SAG 𒊕, ) in Akkadian.

In Hebrew

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

Hebrew spelling: רֵישׁ

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

• In modern Hebrew: A voiced uvular fricative [ʁ], which is also the most common Resh pronunciation in Hebrew.
• In Ashkenazi pronunciations: Sometimes a uvular trill [ʀ] or alveolar trill [r]. Among English speakers, sometimes an alveolar approximant [ɹ] as in English.
• In Sephardic and Mizrahi pronunciations: Either an alveolar trill [r] or tap [ɾ].

Resh, along with Ayin, Aleph, Hei, and Het, is one of the letters that does not receive a dagesh by convention. In the Yemenite tradition, Resh is treated as most other consonants in that it can receive a dagesh hazak under certain circumstances. And in the most widely accepted version of the Hebrew Bible, there exist 17 cases where Resh is marked with a dagesh.

Resh in gematria represents the number 200.

As an 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 they were 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 will say something false, one might 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 a L-I-E."

Arabic rāʾ

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

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ر‎	ـر‎	ـر‎	ر‎

It ranges between an alveolar trill [r] or a tap [ɾ].

The Unicode standard for Arabic scripts also lists a variant with a full stroke (Unicode character 0x075b: ݛ), suggesting that this form is used in certain Northern and Western African languages and some dialects in Pakistan.^[1]

Character encodings

Character	ר		ر		ܪ		ࠓ
Unicode name	HEBREW LETTER RESH		ARABIC LETTER RA		SYRIAC LETTER RISH		SAMARITAN LETTER RISH
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	1512	U+05E8	1585	U+0631	1834	U+072A	2067	U+0813
UTF-8	215 168	D7 A8	216 177	D8 B1	220 170	DC AA	224 160 147	E0 A0 93
Numeric character reference	ר	ר	ر	ر	ܪ	ܪ	ࠓ	ࠓ

Character	𐎗		𐡓		𐤓
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER RASHA		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER RESH		PHOENICIAN LETTER ROSH
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	66455	U+10397	67667	U+10853	67859	U+10913
UTF-8	240 144 142 151	F0 90 8E 97	240 144 161 147	F0 90 A1 93	240 144 164 147	F0 90 A4 93
UTF-16	55296 57239	D800 DF97	55298 56403	D802 DC53	55298 56595	D802 DD13
Numeric character reference	𐎗	𐎗	𐡓	𐡓	𐤓	𐤓

References

1. Allen, Julie D.; Anderson, Deborah; et al. (eds.). The Unicode Standard, Version 6.2 (PDF). Unicode Consortium. p. 265.

External links