Dagesh

The dagesh (Hebrew: דָּגֵשׁ) is a diacritic that is used in the Hebrew alphabet. It takes the form of a dot placed inside a consonant. A dagesh can either indicate a "hard" plosive version of the consonant (known as dagesh qal, literally 'light dot') or that the consonant is geminated (known as dagesh ḥazaq, literally 'hard dot'), although the latter is rarely used in Modern Hebrew.

Dagesh
ּ‎
Usage
Writing systemHebrew alphabet
TypeAbjad
Language of originHebrew
Phonetic usage
  • Biblical
  • ḥazaq: [ː] (gemination), qal: [β]→[b], [ɣ]→[ɡ], [ð]→[d], [x]→[k], [ɸ]→[p], [θ]→[t]
  • Modern
  • [v]→[b], [x]~[χ]→[k], [f]→[p]
Unicode codepointU+05BC
History
Development
  • ּ‎
SistersMappiq, shuruk
Transliteration equivalents
  • Biblical
  • ḥazaq: doubled consonant, qal: none
  • Modern
  • v→b, kh→k, f→p
Other
Other letters commonly used with ב‎ bet, ג‎ gimel, ד‎ dalet, כ‎ kaf, פ‎ pe, ת‎ tav

The dagesh was added to Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points).

Two other diacritics with different functions, the mappiq and the shuruk, are visually identical to the dagesh but are only used with vowel letters.

The dagesh and mappiq symbols are often omitted when writing niqqud (e.g. בּ‎ is written as ב‎). In these cases, dagesh may be added to help readers resolve the ambiguity. The use or omission of such marks is usually consistent throughout any given context.

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