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This gesture is the one left-handed gesture that needs no reconstruction: tifha ("hand-breath, span of four fingers"). Nevertheless, the written sign (curved in
Letteris and Ginsburg, straight in manuscripts and most printed editions) is given different names in prosody and
psalmody (by the Masorah and the early
treatises) according to its grammatical placement in a verse and its placement on a word. Once again, one musical sign with one
musical value accounts suffices to account for all the functions alleged for
tifha by the Masoretes and later grammarians.
In psalmody the written sign normally falls after the vowel-point on the syllable carrying the main stress. However,
it may also appear at the beginning of a word on the syllable carrying the secondary stress, and before the vowel-point.
This positioning denotes a rhythmic syncopation
on the word so marked. |
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Updated July 23, 2010 |
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