Robert Wheelock wrote:

>Hello again!
>
>The 2 prime marks used in Hebrew should be called
>GARSHEM and GERSHEMIN (Gimel-Re'sh-Shin-Mem, with
>optional final Nun). The *garshem* is used with 4
>letters to produce these phonemes:
>TSADHEH-GARSHEM -- /ch/ -- IPA [tS]
>GIMEL-GARSHEM -- /j/ -- IPA [dZ]
>ZAYIN-GARSHEM -- /zh/ -- IPA [Z]
>`AYIN-GARSHEM -- /ng/ -- IPA [N]
>
>

Actually I think Israelis call it a "chupchik"(*) (that's with the tS
affricate for "ch", not IPA /x/), but that's an informal term. I've
never heard it called GARSHEM; the formal name I heard is GERESH, which
makes sense, since there is an accent called geresh which has a similar
shape (but is placed above letters, not after them). GERSHAYIM is a
dual form of GERESH, and there's an accent that looks like that too.

I've never seen AYIN-GERESH for [N]. In words like /'aNglit/
("English") the N is just spelled with a NUN like always. I've
occasionally seen TAV-GERESH for IPA /T/ (theta) in names (e.g. Margaret
Thatcher), though it's not pronounced like that (since that phoneme
doesn't exist in Hebrew and most Hebrew-speakers don't know how to make it).

The GERSHAYIM is not used for sound-changes; it's strictly an
abbreviation or number marker.

~mark

* See Joel Hoffman's METAFONT source for his hclassic Hebrew font, at
http://shamash.org/computers/hebrew-fonts/hclassic/hclassic.mf and also
http://nfty.org/par/programs/Adonai%20Tsifatai%20Tiftah%20Unifying%20the%20Jews%20Through%20Language%20in%20the%20Diaspora.doc
(check page 4)