ANSI-C Quoting (Bash Reference Manual)

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3.1.2.4 ANSI-C Quoting ¶

Character sequences of the form $'string' are treated as a special kind of single quotes. The sequence expands to string, with backslash-escaped characters in string replaced as specified by the ANSI C standard. Backslash escape sequences, if present, are decoded as follows:

\a: alert (bell)
\b: backspace
\e
\E: An escape character (not in ANSI C).
\f: form feed
\n: newline
\r: carriage return
\t: horizontal tab
\v: vertical tab
\\: backslash
\': single quote
\": double quote
\?: question mark
\nnn: The eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (one to three octal digits).
\xHH: The eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value HH (one or two hex digits).
\uHHHH: The Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the hexadecimal value HHHH (one to four hex digits).
\UHHHHHHHH: The Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the hexadecimal value HHHHHHHH (one to eight hex digits).
\cx: A control-x character.

The expanded result is single-quoted, as if the dollar sign had not been present.