Wikipedia's first sentence called it “twentieth letter of the phoenician and hebrew alphabets”. Today it says “twentieth letter of the semitic abjads”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2005
Resh is the twentieth letter of the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets .1The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Rho , Latin R , and the equivalent in the Cyrillic alphabet . v t e2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17419441.
The opening as it stood in 2010 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
for the town in Nepal see Resh, Nepal Resh (Arabic: reh ) is the twentieth letter of many Semitic alphabets , including Phoenician , Aramaic , Hebrew ר and Arabic alphabet rāʾ ﺭ .Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants : usually or /ɾ/ but also /ʁ/ or /ʀ/ in Hebrew.In most Semitic alphabets, the letter resh (and its equivalents) is quite similar to the letter dalet (and its equivalents).In the Syriac alphabet , the letters became so similar that now they are only distinguished by a dot: resh has a dot above the letter, and the otherwise identical dalet has a dot below the letter.In the Arabic alphabet, rāʼ has a longer tail than dāl .In the Aramaic and Hebrew square alphabet, resh is a rounded single stroke while dalet is a right-angle of two strokes.The similarity led to the variant spellings of the name Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadrezzar .The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Rho (Ρ), Etruscan r , Latin R , and Cyrillic Р .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 356468870.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Resh is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Rēsh , Hebrew Rēsh ר , Aramaic Rēsh , Syriac Rēsh ܪ, and Arabic Rāʾ ر .Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants : usually [ r ] or [ ɾ ] , but also [ ʁ ] or [ ʀ ] in Hebrew. In most Semitic alphabets, the letter resh (and its equivalents) is quite similar to the letter dalet (and its equivalents). In the Syriac alphabet , the letters became so similar that now they are only distinguished by a dot: resh has a dot above the letter, and the otherwise identical dalet has a dot below the letter. In the Arabic alphabet, rāʼ has a longer tail than dāl . In the Aramaic and Hebrew square alphabet, resh is a rounded single stroke while dalet is a right-angle of two strokes. The similarity led to the variant spellings of the name Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadrezzar . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Rho (Ρ), Etruscan , Latin R , and Cyrillic Р .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 663114111.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Twentieth letter of many Semitic alphabets This article is about the Semitic letter. Resh is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Rūsh , Hebrew Rēsh ר , Aramaic Rēsh , Syriac Rēsh ܪ, and Arabic Rāʾ ر . Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants : usually [ r ] or [ ɾ ] , but also [ ʁ ] or [ ʀ ] in Hebrew and North Mesopotamian Arabic . In most Semitic alphabets, the letter resh (and its equivalents) is quite similar to the letter dalet (and its equivalents). In the Syriac alphabet , the letters became so similar that now they are only distinguished by a dot: resh has a dot above the letter, and the otherwise identical dalet has a dot below the letter. In the Arabic alphabet, rāʼ has a longer tail than dāl . In the Aramaic and Hebrew square alphabet, resh is a rounded single stroke while dalet is a right-angle of two strokes. The similarity led to the variant spellings of the name Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchad r ezzar . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Rho (Ρ), Etruscan , Latin R , and Cyrillic Р .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 952277670.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Twentieth letter of many Semitic alphabets This article is about the Semitic letter. Resh is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician rēš 𐤓, Hebrew rēš ר, Aramaic rēš 𐡓, Syriac rēš ܪ, and Arabic rāʾ ر. Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants : usually [ r ] or [ ɾ ] , but also [ ʁ ] or [ ʀ ] in Hebrew and North Mesopotamian Arabic . In most Semitic alphabets, the letter resh (and its equivalents) is quite similar to the letter dalet (and its equivalents). In the Syriac alphabet , the letters became so similar that now they are only distinguished by a dot: resh has a dot above the letter, and the otherwise identical dalet has a dot below the letter. In the Arabic alphabet, rāʼ has a longer tail than dāl . In the Aramaic and Hebrew square alphabet, resh is a rounded single stroke while dalet is a right-angle of two strokes. The similarity led to the variant spellings of the name Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchad r ezzar . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek rho (Ρ/ρ), Etruscan , Latin R , and Cyrillic Р .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175082174.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Twentieth letter of many Semitic alphabets This article is about the Semitic letter. Resh / r ɛ ʃ / is the twentieth letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician rēš 𐤓, Hebrew rēš ר , Aramaic rēš 𐡓, Syriac rēš ܪ, and Arabic rāʾ ر . It is related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪇, South Arabian 𐩧 , and Ge'ez ረ . Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants : usually [ r ] or [ ɾ ] , but also [ ʁ ] or [ ʀ ] in Hebrew and some North Mesopotamian Arabic dialects. In most Semitic alphabets, the letter resh (and its equivalents) is quite similar to the letter dalet (and its equivalents). In the Syriac alphabet , the letters became so similar that now they are only distinguished by a dot: resh has a dot above the letter, and the otherwise identical dalet has a dot below the letter. In the Arabic alphabet, rāʼ has a longer tail than dāl . In the Aramaic and Hebrew square alphabet, resh is a rounded single stroke while dalet is a right-angle of two strokes. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek rho (Ρ/ρ), Etruscan , Latin R , Glagolitic Ⱃ , and Cyrillic Р and Armenian Ռ and Ր .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1292336454. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “twentieth letter of the phoenician and hebrew alphabets”. Today it says “twentieth letter of the semitic abjads”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
twentieth letter of the phoenician and hebrew alphabets
Now
twentieth letter of the semitic abjads
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.