Dagesh
Hebrew point dagesh or mapiq (U+05BC) or shuruq; dagesh falls within consonnants for a “soft” plosive or “hard” geminated pronunciation ; mapiq or shuruk fall within a few letters to distinguish consonnant and vowel sounds
The dagesh (Hebrew: דָּגֵשׁ, romanized: dagésh) 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').
In Modern Hebrew, the dagesh only changes the pronunciation of ב bet, כ kaf, and פ pe: in those letters, it turns a fricative sound (vet, khaf, and fe) into a plosive sound (bet, kaf, and pe), regardless of the dagesh's grammatical/orthographic origin, kal or ḥazaq; gemination itself (lengthening of the consonant) is generally not pronounced in any consonant.
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 shuruq dot, are visually identical to the dagesh but are only used with vowel letters.
The dagesh and mappiq symbols are usually omitted when writing without niqqud (e.g. בּ is written as ב), however, dagesh may be added to words that would be ambiguous without niqqud. The use or omission of such marks is usually consistent throughout any given context.
Dagesh qal
A dagesh kal or dagesh qal (דגש קל, or דגש קשיין, also dagesh lene, weak/light dagesh) may be placed inside the consonants ב bet, ג gimel, ד dalet, כ kaf, פ pe and ת tav.
“Dagesh” enters the record as hebrew point dagesh or mapiq (U+05BC) or shuruq; dagesh falls within consonnants for a “soft” plosive or “hard” geminated pronunciation ; mapiq or shuruk fall within a few letters to distinguish consonnant and vowel sounds. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dagesh, Hebrew and point can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Dagesh” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dagesh, Hebrew and point provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q912265. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Dagesh”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Dagesh primary sources, Dagesh archive and Dagesh research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dagesh”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Dagesh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.