david hamuel's blog
Endangered Languages
New book by Georgetown University Press:
Sustaining Linguistic Diversity
Endangered and Minority Languages and Language Varieties
Edited by Kendall A. King, Natalie Schilling-Estes, Lyn Fogle, Jia Jackie Lou, Barbara Soukup
The Meteg
The meteg (ga’ya) is one of the most common accents in the Hebrew Bible, and it serves two functions: phonetical & musical. It indicates a secondary accent. We said ’accent’, but it is not really an accent.
The meteg is marked by a short vertical stroke under the word, and generally before the stress syllable. It resembles the siluk, but has different functions (both are uni05BD).
Grammatically(1) there are ten different kinds of metegs.
(1). If the phonetical & musical functions are under one umbrella.
The Decalogue
The Cantillation on the Ten Commandments
Exodus 20:2
The Ten Commandments are unique since they are punctuated with two systems of cantillation: upper cantillation marks (ta’am elyon טעם עליון) and lower cantillation marks (ta’am tachton טעם תחתון). While the upper cantillation marks divide the passage into ten Commandments, the lower cantillation marks divide it into twelve verses. What is the reason for having upper and lower cantillation marks? How do we know which mark belongs to the lower cantillation marks and which belongs to the upper cantillation marks?
Upcoming New Book
HarperCollins will be publishing a new book featuring one of my font designs.
