[Mesorah] Shalsheleth

[Joshua Meisner]

2008/12/1 Noah Witty <nwitty at optonline.net>
>
> replaces the segol
>
>  What's your source? Also, how would one know that the it is a segol that
> the shalsheles is replacing? I think shalsheles is followed each time by a
> pesik (vertical line), which is not the case with a segol.
>

I don't know what sort of primary source would have this information, but
I've seen this idea mentioned in a number of secondary sources.  The line
following the shalsheles may not be a p'sik (I've also been told such about
the line following a munach l'garmeih); the presence of a p'sik, at any
rate, is often (usually?) to separate between words that could be read in a
heretical manner (e.g., Ya'eir HaShem / panav eilecha opposes the potential
reading of that places the Sheim as an object with an implied subject,
rather than as the Subject), and is then unrelated to the grammatical
structure of the passuk.


>
>  within a one-word secondary division
>
>  this I *don't* get: what makes the word on which the shalsheles is
> installed "a secondary division"?
>

I originally didn't want to digress too much on the list, but I provided a
little more information on this concept on my blog (
http://haprozdor.blogspot.com/2008/12/use-of-shalsheles.html ).  To provide
an example of the concepts I described there, take Bereishis 39:8:

"Vayma'ein vayomer el eishes adonav hen adoni lo yada iti ma ba-bayis v'chol
asher yesh lo nasan b'yadi."

The primary division of the passuk, indicated by the esnachta, is after the
word ba-bayis.  The axis of the passuk around which the division is made is
the linkage between the compound statement of Yosef:  yada vs. nasan.  The
secondary divisions of the first half of the passuk, are on the words
vayma'ein, adonav, adoni, and iti.  The tipecha on iti divides prepositional
indirect object of Yosef's statement from the direct object, the zakeif on
adoni divides the subject from the predicate, the zakeif on adonav separates
the lead-up to Yosef's statement to his words, and the shalsheles on
vayma'ein separates between the two verbs of the main part of the verse
(vayma'ein and vayomer).  The only tertiary division within the passuk is
the pashta on vayomer, which separates between the implied subject and verb
of the passuk and the direct object.  It would be easier to understand with
diagrams, I'm sure (and I don't understand the system entirely, myself, to
explain it well).  I've been told that Rav Breuer's /Ta'amei Hamikra
Bekaf-aleph Sefarim Uv'sifrei Eme"t/ is a wonderful resource on the topic.
/Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation/ by Joshua Jacobson has
many examples of the concepts.


that has no room for
a preceding zarka.  Since segol is only used at the head

 Do you mean "end"?
>

A theoretical primary subdivision of a passuk (i.e., before or after an
esnachta) could contain the sequence of secondary disjunctives
segol-zakeif-zakeif-tipecha, with tertiary and quaternary disjunctives and
conjunctives interspersed.

Sorry for the lack of more concrete information, but I hope this sheds more
light on the issues.

- Josh
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