Materials for Understanding the PASEQ

Classical Hebrew morphology and syntax, aspect, linguistics, discourse analysis, and related topics
Forum rules
Members will observe the rules for respectful discourse at all times!
Please sign all posts with your first and last (family) name.
Post Reply
markofcain
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:58 am
Location: Sarasota, FL USA
Contact:

Materials for Understanding the PASEQ

Post by markofcain »

Can someone point me to a resource which covers the use of the PASEQ punctuation mark in the MT?

It is the "pipe" symbol (actually unicode point u+05C0) that is found occasionally in the MT such as in Ruth 1:2

וְשֵׁם֩ אִשְׁתּ֨וֹ נָעֳמִ֜י וְשֵׁ֥ם שְׁנֵֽי־ בָנָ֣יו ׀ מַחְל֤וֹן וְכִלְיוֹן֙

I have a digital copy of "The Note-Line in the Hebrew Scriptures Commonly Called Paseq, or Pesiq" by James Kennedy written in 1903. However, I was curious if there are additional resources readily available that might be more up to date.


If anyone is interested in the resource I have, it is freely available at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=0WdBAAAAYAAJ

Thank you for your time.
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
kerenhapuk
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:31 am

Re: Materials for Understanding the PASEQ

Post by kerenhapuk »

See:

Israel Yeivin. Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah. Scholars Press, SBL, IOMS 1980, pp. 215-218.

William Wickes. Two Treatises on the Accentuation of the Old Testament. New York: Ktav 1970 (reprint), pp. 120-129.

See also:

P. R, M. S. Etude Critique des Paseq des Livres en Prose a la Lumiere des Nouvelles eories sur les Chaines de la
Cantilation. IOMS v (1983).

F Z. Before the Masora. Lanham, New York, Oxford: University Press of America 2001.

With regard to Ruth 1:2 - this is not a pasēq, but a comound accent "mūnaḥ legarmēh".

Petr Tomášek
markofcain
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:58 am
Location: Sarasota, FL USA
Contact:

Re: Materials for Understanding the PASEQ

Post by markofcain »

Thank you for indicating these additional materials for the understanding of the PASEQ.

I have been able to locate PDFs of Wickes two works:
  • A Treatise on the Accentuation of the Three so-called Poetical Books of the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job
    A Treatise on the Accentuation of the Twenty-One so-called Prose Books of the Old Testament
I see that Wickes' works predate Kennedy's work by about 2 decades.
  • Kennedy (1903)
    Wickes Prose (1887)
    Wickes Poetical (1881)
In regard to Ruth 1:2 Wickes posits that the combination of PASEQ with Munah creates the accent known as L'garmeh (although I think I remember reading somewhere(?) that L'garmeh required a following Rebia). From a purely technological view, the two marks (PASEQ and Legarmeh) are identical being represented by the same Unicode glyph or character code (u+05C0). Thus, visually, at this time, one could not argue for a distinction. Kennedy argues against the designation of Legarmeh posited by Wickes as Kennedy sees the Note-line or PASEQ predating the accents such as Munah and Rebia and thus the designation of Legarmeh is an obfuscation (my word; his view -- cf Kennedy p 17 ff). As such, Wickes does not list any occurrences of the PASEQ in Ruth (seeing them all as an example of Legarmeh) while Kennedy cites 6 occurrences.

Your comment has been very helpful. I hope to obtain more of the materials you cite to further my understanding. I am now considering making these free PDFs available on my website as a collection on the topic.

Thank you.
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
Post Reply