Changes for Unit III: Changes to Anki Study Verses and Cantilation Marks

  • In Unit II, we split longer verses into two sections; starting with Unit III, we’re going to take it up a notch and have you review the entire study verse in one answer
  • For Unit III, we are also adding Cantillation Marks added to Study Verses
    • These are the marks in addition to vowels and consonants we sometimes see in Hebrew
    • Here is the example we looked at from Genesis:

  • Why do this?
    • When you read from a Tanach, you are much more likely to encounter the complete set of Hebrew accent marks
    • Becoming more comfortable with the Hebrew Bible includes having a basic familiarity with these additional marks
  • Things to keep in mind:
    • There are over 20 different cantillation marks
    • We won’t go into what each one means, but there are plenty of resources on the Internet if you are interested in digging deeper
    • Most often, there is only one cantillation mark per word - where you see the mark is where the accent goes
    • Occasionally, you will see a mark near the front or middle of the word, as well as a mark near the end of a word
      • The first mark is a secondary accent
      • Remember, a primary Hebrew accent can ONLY be on the LAST or SECOND-TO-LAST syllable
  • The vertical line | that can appear between two words can be ignored
  • When in doubt, listen to Izzy’s audio carefully as he reads each verse to determine where the accent goes
  • Trying to read with these marks can be visually distracting and overwhelming at first
    • With practice, you will get used to them
    • Cantillation marks are part of the rich tradition of Biblical Hebrew passed down to us from many centuries ago

Many cantillation marks look like a vowel in the wrong place

  • If you see a mark that is not a vowel you recognize (such as an upside-down wishbone) or in the wrong place (such as a dot directly above a consonant instead of the upper-left, inside or below) it is a cantillation mark.
  • You already know your vowels, so don’t let these marks trick you!

Pausal Forms

  • The above marks are called “major accents”
    • The Silluq looks like a Metheg but isn’t; it is found at the end of a verse
    • The athnach divides a verse in half
    • the zaqueph qatan divides a half-verse
    • In some respects, they are similar to the English period, semi-colon, or comma
      • In fact, when translating, we will usually want to put a period or comma whenever we see one of these accents
  • In Lesson 3, we briefly mentioned “pausal forms”
  • The above accents may cause Pausal forms, and Pausal Forms may change the spelling
    • A Patach, Seghol, or sheva may change to Qamets
      • Example קָטַל becomes קָטָל
    • A sheva may change to a Seghol in the 2ms pronominal suffix (Lesson 19)
      • סוּסְךָ to סוּסֶ֫ךָ
    • Words that are normally accented on the ultima may undergo an accent shift to the penultima with resulting vowel change, for example אֲנִי can become אָ֫נִי

If you see an unexpected vowel, especially a Qamets, look for one of these accents. You may have encountered a pausal form.