Samaritan Dagesh Mark

It lengthens a consonant in Samaritan pronunciation.

This lengthening is called gemination. The Samaritan pointing system adds signs to consonant-based Samaritan writing to guide pronunciation, especially in religious texts.

The Samaritan script grew from Old Hebrew writing, itself likely descended from Phoenician. The square Hebrew script took a different path through Imperial Aramaic, a widely used ancient script, so the pointing traditions are distinct. Samaritan grammarians used shadd, the Arabic name of the corresponding gemination sign. As of 2026-10-09, no surviving biblical manuscript preserves the earliest Samaritan pointing layer, so the mark’s first appearance cannot be dated.

How do I type the Samaritan dagesh?

Enter the Samaritan consonant first, then the mark.

In a Samaritan word, this combining mark follows the consonant it modifies. By itself it has no consonant to lengthen.

What happens when Samaritan dagesh and occlusion share a consonant?

Occlusion changes the consonant’s sound; dagesh lengthens it.

Enter occlusion first and dagesh after it. When rendered, dagesh sits above the occlusion mark, so the marks keep their separate jobs.