§ 15. The Accents.
On the ordinal accents (see below, e), cf. W. Heidenheim, a
~ymi['J.h; yjeP.v.mi [The Laws of the Accents], Rödelheim, 1808 (a compilation from older Jewish writers on the accents, with a commentary); W. Wickes (see also below),~yrps a¾¾k ym[j [The Accents of the Twenty-one Books], Oxford, 1887, an exhaustive investigation in English; J. M. Japhet, Die Accente der hl. Schrift (exclusive of the bookstÏmÏaÏ ), ed. by Heinemann, Frankf. a. M.1896; Prätorius, Die Herkunft der hebr. Accente, Berlin, 1901, and (in answer to Gregory's criticism in the TLZ. 1901, no. 22) Die Uebernahme der früh-mittelgriech. Neumen durch die Juden, Berlin, 1902; P. Kahle, ' Zur Gesch. der hebr. Accente,' ZDMG. 55 (1901), 167 ff. (1, on the earliest Jewish lists of accents; 2, on the mutual relation of the various systems of accentuation; on p. 179 ff. he deals with the accents of the 3rd system, see above, § 8 g, note); Margolis, art. 'Accents,' in the Jewish Encycl. i (1901), 149 ff.; J. Adams, Sermons in Accents, London, 1906. — On the accents of the Books~¾¾at (see below, h), S. Baer,tma trwt [Accentual Laws of the Bookst¾¾ma ], Rödelheim, 1852, and his appendix to Delitzsch's Psalmencommentar, vol. ii, Lpz. 1860, and in the 5th ed., 1894 (an epitome is given in Baer-Delitzsch's Liber Psalmorum hebr., Lpz. 1861, 1874, 1880); cf. also Delitzsch's most instructive 'Accentuologischer Commentar' on Psalms 1–3, in his Psalmencommentar of 1874, as well as the numerous contributions to the accentual criticism of the text, &c., in the editions of Baer and Delitzsch, and in the commentaries of the latter; W. Wickes,t¾¾ma ym[j [Accents of the Poet. Books], Oxford, 1881; Mitchell, in the Journal of Bibl. Lit., 1891, p. 144 ff.; Baer and Strack, DikdukehatÌeamim , p. 17 ff.
I. The Common Accents.
Preliminary remark. The accents which are marked as prepositive stand to the right over or under the initial consonant of the word; those marked as postpositive, to the left over or under the last consonant. Consequently in both cases the tone-syllable must be ascertained independently of the accent (but cf. below, l). e
f
1. (
2. (
3 a. (
3 b. (
4 a. (
4 b. (
5. (
6. (
7. (
8 a. (
8 b. (
9. (
10 a. (
10 b. (
11 a. (
11 b. (
12. (
13. (
g
14. (
15. (
16 a. (
16 b. (
17. (
18. (
19. (
20. (
[21. (
II. The Accents of the Books
h
1. (
2. (
3. (
4. (
5. (
6. (
7. (
8. (
9. (
10. (
11 a. (
11 b. (
i
12. (
13. (
14. (
15. (
16. (
17. (
18. (
19. (
[20. (
REMARKS ON THE ACCENTS.
I. As Signs of the Tone.
1. As in Greek and English (cf. k
eivmi, andei=mi ,coÃmpact andcompaÃct ) so also in Hebrew, words which are written with the same consonants are occasionally distinguished by the position of the tone, e.g.WnòB' banuà (they built),WnB'ñ baÃnu (in us);hm'q'ñ qaÃma (she stood up),hm'ñq' qamaà (standing up, fem.).
2. As a rule the accent stands on the tone-syllable, and properly on its initial consonant. In the case of prepositives and postpositives alone (see above, e) the tone-syllable must be ascertained independently of the accent. In many MSS. as well as in Baer's editions of the text, the postpositive sign in foretoned words stands also over the tone-syllable after the analogy of l
PasëtÌaÒ (see above, I. 8 a, note); e.g.èWbKè'v.yI é~r<éj, Gn 19:4; so the prepositive sign in cases likeyhiüy>w:û Gn 8:13.
II. As Signs of Punctuation.
3. In respect to this use of the accents, every verse is regarded as a period which closes with m
SilluÖq , or in the figurative language of the grammarians, as a province (ditio) which is governed by the great distinctive at the end. According as the verse is long or short, i.e. the province great or small, there are several subordinate Domini of different grades, as governors of greater and smaller divisions. When possible, the subdivisions themselves are also split up into parts according to the law of dichotomy (see Wickes, The Accents of the Twenty-one Books, p. 29 ff ). — When two or more equivalent accents (ZaÖqeÒph, RebhiÖa ) occur consecutively, the accent which precedes marks a greater division than the one which follows; cf. e.g. theZaÖqeÒph , Gn 1:20 a.
4. In general a conjunctive (Servus) unites only such words as are closely connected in sense, e.g. a noun with a following genitive or a noun with an adjective. For the closest connexion between two or more words n
MaqqeÒph is added (§ 16 a).
5. The consecution of the several accents (especially the correspondence of disjunctives with their proper conjunctives) conforms in the most minute details to strict rules, for a further investigation of which we must refer to the above-mentioned works. Here, to avoid misunderstanding, we shall only notice further the rule that in the accentuation of the books o
~¾¾at , theRebhiÖaº mugraÒsë before Sillùq, and theDehÌiÖ before 'AthnaÖhÌ , must be changed into conjunctives, unless at least two toneless syllables precede the principal disjunctive. For this purposeSèewaÖ mobile afterQamesÌ , Sere, orHÍolem (with Metheg) is to be regarded as forming a syllable. After ‘OÖleÊ weyoÖreÒd the 'AthnaÖhÌ does not necessarily act as pausal (cf. Delitzsch ony Ps 45:6). The condition of our ordinary texts is corrupt, and the system of accents can only be studied in correct editions [see Wickes' two treatises].
6. A double accentuation occurs in Gn 35:22, from p
bkXyw onward (where the later accentuation, intended for public reading, aims at uniting vv. 22 and 23 into one, so as to pass rapidly over the unpleasant statement in v. 22); and in the Decalogue, Ex 20:2 ff.; Dt 5:6 ff. Here also the later (mainly superlinear) accentuation which closes the first verse with~ydb[ (instead ofynp ) is adopted simply for the purposes of public reading, in order to reduce the original twelve verses (with sublinear accentuation) to ten, the number of the Commandments. Thus~yDIb'[] at the end of v. 2 has Silluq (to close the verse) in the lower accentuation, but in the upper, which unites vv. 2–6 (the actual words of God) into a single period, only Rebhia‘. Againynp , regarded as closing v. 3, is pointedyn)'P' (pausalQamesÌ with Silluq), but in the upper accentuation it isyn:oP' withPathahÌ because not in pause. (Originally there may have been a third accentuation requiring~yd+ib'[] andyn)'P' , and thus representing vv. 2 and 3 as the first commandment.) Further the upper accentuation unites vv. 8–11 into one period, while in vv. 12–15 the lower accentuation combines commandments 5–8 into one verse. Cf. Geiger, Urschrift u. Übersetzungen der Bibel, p. 373; Japhet, op. cit., p. 158, and esp. K. J. Grimm, Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ. xix (May, 1900), no. 145.
Footnotes:
2[2] At the same time it must not be forgotten that the value of the accent as a mark of punctuation is always relative; thus, e.g. ‘
4[4] Cf. Delitzsch on Is 40:18.
5[1] All the disjunctives occur in Is 39:2. — The earlier Jewish accentuologists already distinguish between
7[1] If the word in question has the tone on the penultima,