Tsinnor ("tube") has the same essential form in manuscripts that zarqa does (see above); and likewise tsinnor and zarqa have identical forms in printed editions. They have the same essential gestural basis (as based on the description of the gesture for zarqa in the Manuel du Lecteur) and the same basic musical meaning. However, tsinnor may differ (according to its position) in melodic resolution from zarqa.

Tsinnor is called tsinnorit by the early treatises when the written sign does not mark the last syllable. As such, it has a more "closed" written form in early manuscripts (though the printed editions make no such distinction). This actually reflects fairly well tsinnor's tendency to resolve on the syllable it marks when it is not found on the last syllable. At any rate, Haïk-Vantoura's "key" treats tsinnor and "tsinnorit" as one ta`am and calls it by one name (tsinnor). As with other te`amim, the two names found in treatises and the slight alterations of form found in manuscripts were evidently intended to give special domains to graphemes which originally transcribed but one and the same thing.

Updated December 27, 2011