Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Henry Churchyard" <churchh AT usa.net>]

> Subject: double trope, ten commandments?
> From: decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca (Vincent DeCaen)
> Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 10:18:01 -0500 (EST)

> is anyone aware of a treatment of the two accent scannings of the
> ten commandments? looks like a really interesting problem,
> especially for any generative theory of the
> accents/cantillation. ;-)

The basic principle behind the double accentuation isn't particularly
mysterious -- if you take the stronger accent on each word, you get a
parse that follows the orthographic _soph-pasuq_ marks, while if you
take the weaker accent, you get a division into exactly ten verses.
By the way, the double reading isn't only strictly accentual -- BHS
shows both _raphe_ and _dagesh_ on the _taw_ of _tirs.ah._ in Exodus
20:13, etc.

--
Henry Churchyard   churchh AT usa.net   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/