Teamim
Teamim ( Hebrew טַעֲמֵי הַמִּקְרָא, ta'amei ha-mikra or short טעמים te'amim, singular טַעַם, ta'am emphasis, Yiddish טראָפּ trop , in German also trope ) are stress marks, punctuation marks and symbols for melisms , i.e. melodic motifs in liturgical recitation , which are notated with their respective articulation marks and are also called cantillation . The signs appear in the masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible , in addition to consonants and vowel signs , and determine the musical performance in Jewish worship. Teamim, the accentuations and the corresponding signs , were determined by the Masoretic scholars in the early Middle Ages . Some of these signs were also used in the medieval Mishnah manuscripts .
Time of origin
The Teamim are missing in the oldest manuscripts, the exact time of their creation is not fully understood, but there are some clues about the dating. Wickes dated the origin of the characters to the second half of the 7th century.
Function as an accent
Most of the Teamim stand directly above the stressed syllable and thus show the main stress as a reading aid. Short words can be linked to longer words with Maqqef and thus form a group of words that is treated as a single long word during reading and cantillation. In the case of multi-syllable words and groups of words, an additional Meteg character appears for secondary stress. In certain cases, a meteg can be replaced by a connecting character before a strong separator, so that in these rare cases two stress marks can appear on a word, the main emphasis being on the second character, which is always a strong separator.
Syntactic function
Teamim originally served as punctuation marks and in this function they are also an aid to understanding the grammatical structure of the text. There are signs that indicate separation and signs that indicate togetherness. This shows the logical (syntactic) relationships in the sentence, similar to commas, semicolons and periods. In some cases, this is accompanied by a change in the accentuation and pronunciation of the word next to it, which is also fixed in writing, for example through elongated vowels in strongly separating teamim. These forms are called pause forms , as the changes result from pauses in speech, for example at the end of a sentence. Sometimes the same characters are used both as separators and connectors and are referred to differently, sometimes both uses are given the same name, so that there are several different ways of counting the number of characters without any difference in content.
There are two different systems for Teamim. The poetic system is used in the Psalms , the Book of Proverbs, and the middle section (3: 1 to 42: 6) of the Book of Job ; H. in the Sifre emet (ספרי אמ״ת), the prose system used throughout the remainder of the Hebrew Bible. Because these also contain poetic books such as the Song of Songs and the Lamentations , some authors simply differentiate the “3 books” from the “21 books”. The two systems differ in the stock of the teamim used (depending on the method of counting about 25 with 10 common, so a total of about 40) and also in the way the entire verse is divided.
Musical function
In addition to their syntactic meaning, the teamim also have a musical function similar to neumes . Each Ta'am represents a specific sequence of tones in the cantillation. The musical execution varies between different groups of Judaism, although there are still different sub-groups within the three most important traditions, the Ashkenazi, the Sephardic and the Oriental tradition. Within the various groups there are still some who have different cantillation modes for individual books and for certain groups of books. Esters and Lamentations are such books with their own ways; one such group is e.g. B. Ruth, Preacher and Song of Songs, another group the books of the Torah and the books of the prophets still another group. There are also Jewish groups who use two different cantillations for the Torah. One mode is for ordinary Sabbath services, the other is only used for certain chapters on the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Each of the different modes of cantillation represents a different melodic system that differs from all the others, but with all the differences there are certain identical parts that indicate a common origin for all these systems. Usually Hebrew words are stressed on the last or penultimate syllable, so the same symbol can be used differently. The number of syllables in a word varies; depending on the number of syllables, additional starting notes can be inserted. Another possibility of variation of the characters results from the position before or after some other characters, whereby the beginning and the end can be changed for better connection, or even the entire tone sequence can be shifted up or down.
Form of teamim, position in the word, coding
| Biblical stress marks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sof pasuq | ֽ ׃ | Paseq | ׀ | |
| Etnachta | ֑ | Segol | ֒ | |
| Schalschelet | ֓ | Zakef katan | ֔ | |
| Zakef gadol | ֕ | Tipcha | ֖ | |
| Rewia | ֗ | Zinnorite | ֘ | |
| Pashta | ֙ | Jetiw | ֚ | |
| Tewir | ֛ | Geresch | ֜ | |
| Geresch muqdam | ֝ | Gerzhayim | ֞ | |
| Qarne para | ֟ | Telisha gedola | ֠ | |
| Pazer | ֡ | Atnach hafuch | ֢ | |
| Munach | ֣ | Mahpach | ֤ | |
| Mercha | ֥ | Mercha kefula | ֦ | |
| Darga | ֧ | Qadma | ֨ | |
| Telisha qetanna | ֩ | Jerach ben jomo | ֪ | |
| Ole we-Jored | ֫ ֥ | Illuj | ֬ | |
| Dechi | ֭ | Zarqa | ֮ | |
| Rewia gadol | ֗ | Rewia mugrasch | ֜ ֗ | |
| Rewia qaton | ֗ | Mahpach legarmeh | ֤ ׀ | |
| Azla legarmeh | ֨ ׀ | Kadma we-asla | ֨ ֜ | |
| Maqqef | - | Meteg | ֽ | |
The Teamim all have one of the following shapes:
- a single diacritical mark on a letter of the word,
- a single diacritical mark at the beginning or end of a word (i.e. before the first or after the last letter),
- two identical diacritical marks, one at the beginning or end of a word, the other inside the word,
- two different diacritical marks or
- a diacritical mark inside the word and a separate character after the word.
The stress of the word can be concluded in the following cases:
- In cases 1, 3 and 5, the letter with the character inside the word is the consonant of the stressed syllable.
- In case 2, the syllable next to the accent is stressed in the case of Jetiv and the accents in which case 3 can also occur (Pashta, Telischa Gedola and Telischa Qetana). Otherwise (Segol, Sarqa, Zinnor, Dechi) one cannot infer the stress in case 2.
- In case 4 the syllable is stressed at the back character.
Unicode
In Unicode , the Hebrew characters are accommodated in the Hebrew Unicode block . There the characters U + 0591 to U + 05AE designated as "Hebrew accent ..." are the above-mentioned diacritical marks, which individually, in pairs or combined with other characters form the Teamim. In addition to these 30 characters, the following four characters play a role for the Teamim:
- Sof Pasuq (U + 05C3) denotes the end of a Bible verse and appears in Unicode under the punctuation marks.
- Meteg (U + 05BD), a short vertical line under a letter as a diacritical mark, is the other component of the Sof Pasuq accent to denote the dispatch. In this function he is called Silluq and is in the stressed syllable. Otherwise it stands in one of the syllables before the tone syllable and denotes a secondary tone.
- Maqqef (U + 05BE) is the hyphen (also in modern Hebrew). In texts with Teamim, it is used to closely connect words which together only have one accent, whereas otherwise every word usually has one.
- Paseq (U + 05C0) is a vertical line that plays a role in the presentation and which sometimes forms a separating accent together with a connecting accent in front of it. In the latter capacity, he is called Legarmeh .
Ambiguous characters
Since only the form of a character is coded in Unicode, but not its meaning, the same Unicode character can mean different things depending on the context. Often these meanings also have different names. So never rely on the "official" names of the Unicode characters, but at least consult the explanations under the Unicode table, which also contain the other names. Characters that have the same shape but different meanings depending on the context are ambiguous or otherwise confusing regardless of Unicode:
Paseq - Legarmeh
- It is not always clear whether the character Paseq (U + 05C0) stands for itself or is combined with a preceding connecting accent to form a separating accent. In the prose system, Paseq is combined with Munnach (U + 05A3), in the poetic system with Qadma (U + 05A8) or Mahpach (U + 05A4) and in both systems with Schalschelet (U + 0593), with Schalschelet only without Paseq occurs in the poetic system.
Silluq - Meteg
- Silluq is always the last diacritical mark in a verse, Meteg never. Silluq is always used together with Sof pasuq, which is the last character at the end of the sentence. In rare cases, the last word in a sentence contains a meteg and a silluq at the same time, in this case the first is a meteg, the second a silluq.
Tipcha - Tarcha - Meajla
- The sign Tipcha (U + 0596) is a strong separating accent in the prose system, but a connecting accent in the poetic system under the name Tarcha. In the Sephardic tradition, the name Tarcha is used for both. Meajla denotes Tipcha, if it is exceptionally in the same word or the same chain connected with Maqqef as the subsequent emperor.
Mercha - Jored
- The character Mercha (U + 05A5) is a common connecting accent in both systems. Jored, the second component of Ole we-Jored, has the same shape - and thus the same code in Unicode - the strongest separating accent in the poetic system except for Sof Pasuq. The problem is that its first component, Ole, is occasionally omitted: one must then infer Jored from a previously occurring Zinnor or from other evidence.
Zinnor = Zarqa - Zinnorite
- The two are actually unmistakable: Zinnorite before the tone syllable on top of a letter; Zarqa (called Zinnor in the poetic system) at the top after the entire word. But they have been confused in different codes, and consequently also in Unicode. The official names Zarqa and Zinor cannot be trusted: U + 05AE is correct for Zarqa = Zinnor and U + 0598 for Zinnorite.
Galgal = Jerach ben Jomo - Atnach hafuch
- These two connecting accents are often perceived as the same, as in the BHS and also in Unicode, until a separate character for Atnach hafuch (U + 05A2) was introduced there in version 4.1.0 (2005). Atnach hafuch only appears before Jored in the poetic system.
Pashta - Qadma
- If Pashta is repeated (case 3 above), the character inside the word looks like connecting Qadma (U + 05A8) and is also encoded in Unicode that way.
Segol, Geresch and Gereshayim
- Segol , Geresch and Gerschajim are both names of Teamim and of vocalization marks or punctuation marks. The characters of the same name each look similar, but have nothing to do with each other.
Teamim with multiple names
| Etnachta | Atnach |
| Segol | Segolta |
| Sarqa | Zinnor |
| Tipcha | Tarcha |
| Qarne para | Paser gadol |
| Qadma | Asla |
| Mahpach | Mehuppach |
| Galgal | Jerach ben Jomo |
Some Teamim have more than one name. Sometimes there are differences in tradition ( Ashkenazi / Sephardic / Yemeni ), sometimes, depending on the prose and poetic system, one or the other term is preferred, or both play a role. In the adjacent table there are two names in one line, both of which occur in German literature, on the left the Ashkenazi and those used in the prose system. The two names are often interchangeable, only the name Asla can designate two different accents: on the one hand the connecting accent Qadma (alone or as the first part of the accent Asla Legarmeh) and on the other hand the separating accent Geresch, if it follows a Qadma (the combination is then called Qadma we-Asla ).
Different transcriptions according to German or English conventions and differences b / v / w, k / ch / kh, p / f / ph (see Dagesch ) and similar minor differences are not listed.
Big and small
Some Teamim have names that contain the words gadol (large) or qatan / qaton (small), often reproduced in German in older German literature, e.g. B. Groß-Telischa for Telischa gedola . These additions have very different meanings: Saqef qaton and gadol are different accents with a similar function; Telischa gedola and qetanna and Schalschelet gedola and qetanna are each a separating and a different connecting accent; Paser gadol is another name from Qarne para; and Revia qatan is the separating accent Revia in a special position (namely before Ole we-Jored without another separating accent in between).
Separating and connecting accents
The strongest separating signs are the "emperors" ( Sof pasuq with Silluq at the end and Atnach in the middle). Sof Pasuq ends every verse, Atnach divides the verse into two half-verses and at the same time into two sections of meaning. Sof Pasuq only ever occurs once, Atnach usually occurs once, very rarely more than once. Pausal forms are often combined with these two signs. The two half-verses can be of different lengths. The middle of the two half-verses, if further divided, is denoted by "kings". The resulting parts are further subdivided by separators at each level up to parts consisting of one or two words. On the last level, two individual words can be combined using connectors; a separator usually only has one or two words assigned to a connector. The longer the verse, the more levels there can be. The separating effect of the separators becomes weaker with each additional level, while the importance of the stronger separators increases with each additional level. In long verses, therefore, the meaning of an atnachs or a king can correspond to a point.
Hierarchy of separating accents
The separating accents are also referred to as "gentlemen" and the connectors as "servants". There are four ranks that such "masters" can have:
- An emperor (Hebrew qeisar קיסר) ends or divides the verse. The territory of an emperor begins after the previous emperor or at the beginning of the verse and ends with the word that has the emperor as an accent.
- A king (Hebrew melech מלך) divides the last part of the territory of an emperor, namely that which does not already belong to the territory of another king. The front half up to the word that has the new king as an accent forms the area of the new king; it can be divided by a duke. The rear half remains under the direct responsibility of the next emperor and can be divided by another king.
- A duke (hebr.mixמשנה) divides the last part of a king's territory in exactly the same way. The front half can then be divided by a count, the back half by another duke.
- A Count (Hebrew. Schalisch שליש) divides the last part of the area of a Duke in exactly the same way. The front half can then no longer be divided by a separating accent, but the back half can be divided by another count.
So it is always the case that the area of one of these gentlemen begins behind the area of the last preceding gentleman of the same or higher rank and ends with the word that has the accented Lord. The next accent accent can only be one rank higher. Of several successive accents of the same rank (except for the emperors), the front ones are the ones with the stronger separating function.
The consecutive division could go so far that there is a division between every two words; then all words would have separating accents. Usually, however, it ends when short phrases of usually one to three related words have been reached; then the words of such a phrase carry unifying accents down to the last.
As an example, the first two verses of the Bible: The words of a phrase, the accents in them and the rank of the last, i.e. the separating accent, with a trailing "(f)" denoting a final accent, i.e. one that up to to the next higher none of the same rank follows. The indentation represents the division by continued bisection.
| Text word by word | Accents in it | rank |
|---|---|---|
| In the beginning | Tipcha | King (noun) |
| created God | Munnach Atnach | Emperor |
| the sky | Mercha Tipcha | King (noun) |
| and-the earth. | Mercha Sof-Pasuq | Emperor (noun) |
| And-the-earth | Revia | duke |
| was chaos | Mercha Pashta | Duke (noun) |
| and confusion | Saqef-Qaton | king |
| and darkness | Tipcha | King (noun) |
| over the primeval tide | Munnach Atnach | Emperor |
| and-the-Spirit of God | Munnach Saqef-Qaton | king |
| floating | Tipcha | King (noun) |
| over the water. | Mercha Sof-Pasuq | Emperor (noun) |
Here every accent is clear: the non-final King Saqef-Qaton, the final King Tipcha, the non-final Duke Revia and the final Duke Pashta, as well as Munnach as servant of non-final and Mercha as servant of final masters. These are the simplest and most common cases, but the actual rules are more complex.
Division into half verses
There are several fixed patterns for the first division of the entire verse, which differ between the two systems:
- In the prose system, the rule is that verses longer than about four words are divided exactly once by Atnach.
- In the poetic system, Sof Pasuq, i.e. the dispatcher, is the only emperor. The first and thus strongest kings are either Atnach alone or Ole we-Jored as first and Atnach as second king; other kings only come to Atnach. Ole we-Jored often separates a psalm heading such as “A pilgrimage song” ( Ps 121.1 EU ) from the rest of the first verse, which is further divided by Atnach. There are also other variations in the poetic system where other teams play these roles.
Segol in the prose system and Ole we-Jored in the poetic system can each be only the first kings of the entire verse; With the exception of the psalm headings mentioned, this is the much rarer variant. Such verses can also be viewed as being divided into three parts by this king and the subsequent Atnach.
Table of all emperors, kings and dukes
The following is a table of emperors, kings, and dukes. Counts appear only very deeply in the nesting and contribute so little to the understanding of the verse; however, the rules for them are complex and would inflate the table very much.
Accents not included in this table are
- Counts, if they consist of a combination of a diacritical mark in the word with a trailing paseq,
- Count if your code point in Unicode is in the range U + 059C to U + 05A1, and
- Servant, that is, connecting accents, in all other cases.
Of these, Count Geresch and the servants Munnach, Mercha, Mahpach, Darga and Qadma are so common that you should know their form if you want to dissect a verse on the basis of Teamim without constantly looking up what the accents mean.
| accent | character | Conditional | rank | position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top level (both systems) | ||||
| Sof Pasuq |
Silluq (U + 05BD) ↓ Sof Pasuq (U + 05C3) ← |
Emperor | Send | |
| Atnach | Etnachta (U + 0591) ↓ | 1 | Emperor | Verse center |
| Atnach | Etnachta (U + 0591) ↓ | 2 | king | Verse center |
| Paser | Paser (U + 05A1) ↑ | 2, 5 | king | instead of Atnach |
| Revia | Revia (U + 0597) ↑ | 2, 6 | king | Verse center |
| Ole we-Jored | Ole (U + 05AB) ↱ Jored (U + 05A5) ↓ |
2 | king | Beginning of verse |
| Asla Legarmeh |
Asla (U + 05A8) ↑ Legarmeh (U + 05C0) ← |
2, 4 | king | instead of Ole we-Jored |
| Segol | Segol (U + 0592) ↖ | 1 | king | Beginning of verse |
| Schalschelet | Schalschelet (U + 0593) ↑ Legarmeh (U + 05C0) ← |
1 | king | instead of Segol |
| Kings and Dukes (prose system or both) | ||||
| Saqef qatan | Saqef qatan (U + 0594) ↑ | 1 | king | before all kings |
| Saqef gadol | Saqef gadol (U + 0595) ↑ | 1 | king | instead of Saqef qatan |
| Tipcha | Tipcha (U + 0596) ↓ | 1 | king | before Atnach or Sof Pasuq |
| Revia | Revia (U + 0597) ↑ | duke | in front of all dukes or Ole we-Jored | |
| Sarqa | Sarqa (U + 05AE) ↖ | 1 | duke | before Segol |
| Pashta |
Pashta (U + 05A8) [↑] Pashta (U + 0599) ↖ |
1 | duke | before Saqef qatan |
| Jetiv | Jetiv (U + 059A) ↘ | 1, 3 | duke | instead of Pashta |
| Tvir | Tvir (U + 059B) ↓ | 1 | duke | before Tipcha |
| Kings and dukes (poetic system) | ||||
| Revia mugrasch | Geresch Muqdam (U + 059D) ↗ Revia (U + 0597) ↑ |
2 | king | to Atnach |
| Schalschelet gedola | Schalschelet (U + 0593) ↑ Legarmeh (U + 05C0) ← |
2 | king | to Atnach |
| Mahpach Legarmeh | Mahpach (U + 05A4) ↓ Legarmeh (U + 05C0) ← |
2, 7 | king | to Atnach |
| Dechi | Dechi (U + 05AD) ↘ | 2 | duke | before Atnach or the King Revia |
| Mahpach Legarmeh | Mahpach (U + 05A4) ↓ Legarmeh (U + 05C0) ← |
2, 7 | duke | instead of Dechi |
| Zinnor | Zinor (U + 05AE) ↖ | 2 | duke | before Ole we-Jored |
accent
- Name of the accent in German transcription
character
- diacritical marks and characters that make up the accent, each with the name of the single character in German transcription, the code point in Unicode and an indication of where this character is placed. The name of the single character is in upright font if it is the same as in Unicode apart from the differences between the German and English transcription, and italics if the single character has a different name in this special context. Position of the sign:
↑ stands above the consonant of the stressed syllable
↓ stands below the consonant of the stressed syllable
[↑] stands above the consonant of the stressed syllable, if the word is not stressed at the final character
↱ stands before the tone syllable in the same or preceding word , can also be missing
↗ is at the top of the word beginning, i.e. before the first letter
↘ is at the bottom of the word, i.e. before the first letter
↖ is at the top of the word, i.e. after the last letter
← is a separate character after the word
Conditions]
- Context conditions for this table row. If they are not fulfilled, the symbol may have a different meaning.
1: only in the prose system
2: only in the poetic system
3: word emphasized on the first syllable
4: first word of the entire verse; otherwise Asla Legarmeh is a count (the last before a duke)
5: the only separating accents after the paser are those marked “after Atnach”; otherwise Paser is a Count
6: there is no Atnach in the verse and no further Revia after that; otherwise Revia is a Duke
7: Mahpach Legarmeh is king after Atnach, duke before kings and count before dukes
Positions
- Beginning of verse, middle of verse, forwarding: see section Division into half-verse
before ...: the next equal or higher accent is the specified one
instead of ...: is used instead of the specified accent if the area of the accent is exactly one word long; otherwise the accent has exactly the same syntactic function as the accent it replaces
after Atnach: comes after Atnach or a König Paser (see condition 5)
Individual evidence
- ^ William Wickes: A treatise on the accentuation of the twenty-one so-called prose books of the Old Testament, p. 8. online
- ^ Wilhelm Gesenius : Hebrew grammar . Completely reworked by E. Kautzsch . 7th reprint edition of the 28th, much improved and enlarged edition Leipzig 1909. Georg Olms, Hildesheim u. a. 1995, ISBN 3-487-00325-2 .
- ↑ אמ״ת (spoken: 'emet , so howאֱמֶת 'Truth' ) is a catchword from the first letters ofאיוב 'Iyov , German ' Job ' ,משלי Mischle , German 'Sprüche' andתהלים Tehilim , German , Prizes (Psalms) ' .
- ↑ Solomon Rosowsky, The cantillation of the Bible, the Five Books of Moses, the Reconstructionist Press, New York, 1957, pp 1-2.
- ↑ Unicode Standard, Character Code Charts, Hebrew, online
- ↑ Unicode Technical Note # 27, Appendix A
- ↑ Unicode 4.1.0, Significant Character Additions, online
- ↑ The presentation in this section is based on the book by Mordechai Breuer : The Teamim in the 21 books and in the books Psalms, Proverbs and Job (Hebrew; title: Ta'amey hammiqra be-21 sfarim uvesifrey eme "t ). Jerusalem 1981 , Pp. 13-30, 211-226
Web links
An introduction to the musical lecture in the synagogue service, which is usual in the Ashkenazi rite, with sound examples can be found at http://bible.ort.org/books/cant4.asp