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I don't know the Ta'amei Emet, the system of markings used in Job, Proverbs, and Psalms, but I'd like to be able to know what syllable to accent when I read words from those books. So, I'm looking for a minimal subset of knowledge of the system of Ta'amei Emet, just enough to know how to determine accented syllable.

paquda
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    Double AA is right (as usual), but my recommendation is just to learn to lein it. It's easier to learn the whole system than to just pick bits and pieces of it. http://kinnor.com/Taamei_Emet/ It's not that hard. I had it down after maybe 1.5 hours listening to the recording (it's not just him leining - he teaches you, in English except for the pesukim) and an hour leining myself, spread over two days. – Heshy Dec 16 '18 at 15:07

1 Answers1

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As with the 21 books, most of the time the accent is on the letter marked and there are a handful that are always at the beginning or end of a word where you have to just know the grammar unless you have a modern printing that duplicates the mark on the accented letter.

This latter group includes Tzinnor (looks like the 21 book Zarka) at the end, Dechi (looks like the 21 book Tipcha) at the beginning, and Revia Mugrash with the Geresh marked at the beginning while the accented syllable is marked by the Revia.

Additionally there is the "Oleh" half of the Oleh veYored (looks like a 21 book Mahpach above the letter followed by a 21 book Merkha under the letter) which, when marked, is always one syllable before the Yored but doesn't indicate an accent.

Finally note Tzinnorit (looks like 21 book Zarka), marked on the correct letter, only ever indicates a word's secondary accent.

You can see all these phenomena in Tehillim 40:15:

יֵ֘בֹ֤שׁוּ וְיַחְפְּר֨וּ ׀ יַחַד֮ מְבַקְשֵׁ֥י נַפְשִׁ֗י לִסְפּ֫וֹתָ֥הּ יִסֹּ֣גוּ אָ֭חוֹר וְיִכָּלְמ֑וּ חֲ֝פֵצֵ֗י רָעָתִֽי׃

Double AA
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    The Oleh veYored thing may sound confusing to someone used to 21-book notes, but as probably the strongest break mark it's imperative you learn to spot it when reading – Double AA Dec 16 '18 at 14:41
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    What about נודה in Ps 79:13, and similar such? – magicker72 Dec 16 '18 at 19:27
  • @magicker there are two accents on that word, much like the word ואהבת in Shema. This is a normal phenomenon in Tanakh. Mahpach and then Merkha is the normal course of connectives leading to a Revia Kattan, like in 135:6 – Double AA Dec 16 '18 at 20:05
  • https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/66386/759 – Double AA Dec 16 '18 at 20:47
  • Also worth mentioning: there are occasions of accents marking secondary stress where the primary stress is simply marked by a meteg (or even unmarked), like Ps 46:4 (marked with a meteg) or 43:1 (unmarked). – magicker72 Jul 24 '23 at 02:20
  • @magic I always assumed those are straight paroxytones. Why assume otherwise? (36:7 is the most relevant example) – Double AA Jul 24 '23 at 02:26
  • Example 1 (marked): ירעשו in 46:4 has a secondary mercha, where mercha never appears in that spot in the sequence (for a word like ירעשו that doesn't take a tsinnorit, you'd have mahpach or kadma). Example 2 (unmarked): לעשות in 40:9 also has a secondary mercha, now with no meteg marking the primary accent; mercha never appears third before atnach (that spot is filled by mahpach or ilui). – magicker72 Jul 24 '23 at 13:10
  • @magicker72 You are saying the chosen conjunctive mark is anomalous, but how does that show it's a secondary accent? – Double AA Jul 24 '23 at 13:42
  • There are plenty of examples of mahpach and mercha used as secondary accents when the primary accent is still present (like נודה in 79:13 that I mentioned above before I knew about this answer), and this gives a more reasonable explanation for these cases as well. And lest you answer like you did above, that there are simply two accents on נודה: it can't be a light meteg upgraded to a second accent mark (like ואהבת) because the syllable נו isn't appropriate for such a meteg (which only appears before a sh'va na or an unaccented syllable); it's more similar to a metiga. – magicker72 Jul 24 '23 at 14:21
  • It's also quasi-regular third before siluq: short words that could take a tsinnorit are marked only with a secondary mahpach, sometimes marked with a meteg, and sometimes not. R. Breuer lists Ps 36:7, 65:9, 67:2, 68:11, 83:9, Job 14:13 as marked, and Ps 43:1, 54:8, Prov 29:13 as unmarked. And in general, this approach explains words with otherwise very weird stress (like ירעשו in 46:4 and לעשות in 40:9). – magicker72 Jul 24 '23 at 14:27