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Zinor and Zarqa Accents


Bielikov

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Keep in mind that I am a complete beginner and it is just as likely that I am doing something wrong. I did a search on Remote Prince Segolta accents and the Dr. Fuller rule about Segolta having a near subordinate of Zarqa and remote subordinate of Rebia seems instead to show a Zinor instead of Zarga almost every time in Isaiah. I'm not sure, once again, if this is a true error in Accordance or simply something I am doing incorrectly. See Isaiah 16:14, 18:2; 20:2; 27:13; 29:8; 29:11; 44:19; 50:2; 51:13; and finally 53:12. There are about four more instances but these are missing the Rebia. Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks, Gregorio

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  • 2 weeks later...

שָׁלוֹם לְךָ 
I was blessed to learn about the importance of the accents from that same session! I have been reading through the end of Drs. Fuller & Choi's Syntax to learn about the accents. I am just getting to the dukes right now.
From what I can see from Accordance's Characters palette, the sinnorit symbol and the zarqa symbol are the same. The only difference between the two is their placement relative to the word. The zarqa is always post-positive (to the left of its word, regardless of which syllable receives the stress), whereas the sinnorit is over the stressed syllable. Also, the latter is used for the poetic books (mostly), whereas the zarqa is used for the rest of the Tanakh.

I did a search for the zarqa, and it brought up the verses you listed in Isaiah. So, I don't understand what the problem is. Can you re-state the issue?

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  • 1 month later...

I agree with most of what @Iconoclaste says above. I can't speak to the particular behaviors of search in Accordance, but here's my summary of the terminology. Terminology for accents is sometimes confusing or even contradictory, but in my communities and my references:

  • Zarqa is a post-positive accent only appearing in the 21 books.
  • On words with zarqa, some texts may also have a "zarqa helper" mark indicating stress, when the stressed syllable is not final. This "zarqa helper" has the same shape as zarqa but its placement is impositive (centered) rather than post-positive. (Such "helpers" may also be used with the other 3 post-positives of the 21 books: pashta, segolta, and telisha qetana.)
  • Tsinnor is a post-positive accent only appearing in the (3) poetic books (the sifrei emet) (Job, Proverbs, & Psalms). Tsinnor has the same shape as zarqa, and its placement is post-positive, just like zarqa.
  • Tsinnorit is an impositive (centered) accent only appearing in the (3) poetic books. Tsinnorit has the same shape as zarqa but its placement is impositive (centered) rather than post-positive. AFAIK no texts use a "tsinnor helper" so there is no possibility of confusion.

To summarize:

  • All four marks (zarqazarqa helper, tsinnor, & tsinnorit) have the same shape.
  • zarqa and tsinnor not only have the same shape, they also have the same placement: post-positive.
  • zarqa helper and tsinnorit not only have the same shape, they also have the same placement: impositive (centered).
  • zarqa helper is always, as its name suggests, a helper to zarqa, whereas tsinnorit is an accent on its own.

Be aware there is a grave error in the name of the Unicode code point used to represent zarqa helper and tsinnorit. It is called HEBREW ACCENT ZARQA. The name of the Unicode code point used to represent zarqa and tsinnor is ZINOR, which only has a small error in that, according to the romanization used for other Hebrew code points, it should be called TSINOR (TS not Z).

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Wow! What an impressive answer. This is very helpful.

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Benjamin, I took your recommendation and got The Art of Cantillation. Any particular chapter you would recommend to begin with?

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3 hours ago, Benjamin Denckla said:

BTW AFAIK the best English-language reference on accents in the 21 books is Chanting the Hebrew Bible, Second Edition: The Art of Cantillation | The Jewish Publication Society (jps.org).

 

Wow, what a wonderful book. And it is very readable with lots of examples from the Hebrew Bible. I did not inherit any musical skills from either my Jewish or Chilean parents, but the great majority of the book will be of great help in the dividing of verses using the various accents, and so on. I was thrilled with p. 344 on the errors of the scribes who were offended by the original text of the Hebrew Bible and I can't wait to really get into this book, soon. You made my day. You know, ever since I attended Professor Fuller's seminar, I have used various reference books on accents to increase my understanding and there is not a day that goes by where I am not grateful for the role of the accents in understanding syntax. I feel I am cheating a bit, with the accents, as they make everything so much easier. May the Lord bless you and many thanks.

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Wow it seems like you got the Adobe Digital Editions rather than the paper since you were able to dive in so quickly! I am glad you are enjoying it and I hope it proves to be helpful to you. I don't have any particular recommendations on where to start in it; it really all depends on what your goals are. I really have only used it as a reference book for particular needs: I don't think I've ever read even a whole chapter! So I guess I treat it more like a dictionary or encyclopedia. I see you are particularly interested in Isaiah; though I have drifted to more general work on the Hebrew Bible, some of my initial interests were in Isaiah, not only because of its inspiring prophetic language but also because of the opportunities provided by comparing 4QIsa (perhaps the greatest of the Dead Sea Scrolls) with later Biblical versions of the text. Bendiciones y buena suerte en sus esfuerzos. (I'm hoping that's intelligible Spanish.)

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Excellent Spanish, Benjamín. Muchísimas gracias por toda tu ayuda. Sí, tengo la bendición de haber trabajado para la Universidad de California lo que me permitió descargar el libro. Realmente maravilloso y muy fácil de seguir y entender. Tenemos mucho en común. Me encanta comparar los escritos del Mar Muerto con la Biblia Hebraica. Many blessings to you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am stuck, now, trying to figure the difference between Munach and Legarmeh. For instance, see Ezekiel 34:17 where it is clearly considered a disjunctive by all the translations. But to me, they look identical and I am confused.

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Eze. 34:17 just has a couple of plain munach accents, no legarmeh, as far as I can see: from Sefaria (MAM Hebrew, JPS English):

 

image.png.9ab82e0cad2b38fdb164295edd1af4b2.png

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OK, so I called it a legarmeth because it is used as a disjunctive (your post was helpful, in terms of the vertical line, thanks Benjamin), but this one does NOT have a vertical line, making it a munach, I suppose. BUT, if it was a munach, why the comma between "you, my flock." Why the separation? Do you understand what I am asking, or am I being confusing? In essence, the comma since to be added because the you has a disjunctive accent, or is there a different reason that I am missing? Thanks so much, Benjamin. And also many thanks for reminding me that the legarmeth has the vertical line as a companion to the munach looking symbol.

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I wouldn't expect this comma in English to necessarily correspond to a disjunctive accent. I.e. I don't know enough about Biblical Hebrew to judge one way or the other. Grammatically I think "you, my flock" is called an apposition. It would be interesting to study how appositions are accented in the Bible. I would expect some of them would be "conjoined" like this one.

 

Even in English, a comma in a written apposition may or may not be "pronounced" orally, i.e. may not correspond to a pause, depending on factors linguists have probably studied but I certainly have not. (Native speakers, except when forced by school, don't tend to be analytical about their native language(s)!) And many appositions do not even "merit" a comma in written English. I'm not sure whether linguists even care about the rules for written English, but editors and English teachers may care.

 

Whatever the rules are for appositions in spoken & written English, those rules are probably quite different from the rules in (written) Biblical Hebrew.

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Regarding the question I posed to you I got this answer, "I think the conjunctive accent makes sense, for "As for you, my sheep." It starts a new clause with my sheep, which has a disjunctive accent, after the prior soph pasuq." That, together with what I learned from you tells me that indeed it was a Munach conjunctive. This is indeed above my head regarding the apposition grammar, and look forward to studying that. You have been most helpful.

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20 hours ago, Benjamin Denckla said:

Eze. 34:17 just has a couple of plain munach accents, no legarmeh, as far as I can see: from Sefaria (MAM Hebrew, JPS English):

 

image.png.9ab82e0cad2b38fdb164295edd1af4b2.png

You are correct about the Munach, it took me a while to catch on to that.

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