Hebrew punctuation

Hebrew punctuation
Hebrew-specific marks orthographically similar marks maqaf ־‎ -‎ hyphen geresh ֜‎ ֝‎ ׳‎ ' apostrophe gershayim ֞‎ ״‎ " quotation mark meteg ֽ‎   , comma inverted nun ׆ [ bracket cantillation cantillation Sof passuk ׃   paseq ׀ etnachta ֑   segol ֒ shalshelet ֓   zaqef qatan ֔ zaqef gadol ֕   tifcha ֖ revia ֗   zarqa ֘ pashta ֙   yetiv ֚ tevir ֛   geresh ֜ geresh muqdam ֝   gershayim ֞ qarney para ֟   telisha gedola ֠ pazer ֡   atnah hafukh ֢ munach ֣   mahapakh ֤ merkha ֥   merkha kefula ֦ darga ֧   qadma ֨ telisha qetana ֩   yerah ben yomo ֪ ole ֫   iluy ֬ dehi ֭   zinor ֮

Hebrew punctuation is similar to that of English and other Western languages, Modern Hebrew having imported additional punctuation marks from these languages in order to avoid the ambiguities sometimes occasioned by the relative paucity of such symbols in Biblical Hebrew.

With most printed Hebrew texts from the early 1970s and before, opening quotation marks are low (as in German), and closing ones are high, often going above the letters themselves (as opposed to the gershayim, which is level with the top of letters). An example of this system is „ישראל“‎.

However, this distinction in Hebrew between opening and closing quotation marks has completely disappeared, and today, quotations are punctuated as they are in English (such as "ישראל"‎), with both quotation marks high. This is due to the advent of the Hebrew keyboard layout, which lacks the opening quotation mark ⟨„⟩, as well as to the lack in Hebrew of "smart quotes" as found in Microsoft Word for many other languages.

In addition, the quotation mark is often used for the similar looking but different gershayim mark ⟨״‎⟩, as that too is absent from the Hebrew keyboard.

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