What Is the Tevir Trope?
Tevir (תְּבִיר, "broken") is a disjunctive cantillation mark used in the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible. It signals a pause within a verse, dividing a phrase that falls under the Tifcha, and is one of the most common trope marks in the text.
תְּבִ֛יר
Disjunctive (pausal) accentWhat it does in the verse
Tevir is a disjunctive (pausal) accent, meaning it separates words rather than joining them. In the verse's hierarchy it acts as a third-level disjunctive subordinate to Tifcha, dividing the clause that the Tifcha governs within the Tifcha–Etnachta–Sof Pasuk structure. It is typically preceded by conjunctive "servant" notes: the nearest is Darga (when two or more syllables intervene) or Mercha (otherwise), and an earlier second conjunctive may be Munach (when the word is stressed on its first syllable) or Kadma (otherwise). It frequently appears in the well-known Darga–Tevir sequence, and it functionally replaces a Pashta when a Zakef Katan is reduced to a Tifcha in the phrase structure.
What the symbol looks like
Tevir is written below the line, beneath the stressed (accented) syllable of the word. The glyph is a small curved, hook-like stroke under the letter (shown here as ◌֛, e.g. בְּ֛). Because it sits under the word rather than above it, it is a sublinear accent. In Unicode it is encoded at U+059B, "HEBREW ACCENT TEVIR," a nonspacing combining mark in the Hebrew block, added in Unicode 2.0 (1996).
Good to know
Tevir is a workhorse disjunctive rather than a rarity: per Wikipedia's tabulation it occurs about 2,678 times in the Torah (Genesis 623, Exodus 585, Leviticus 417, Numbers 576, Deuteronomy 477), 1,837 times in Nevi'im, and 1,329 times in Ketuvim. Its Hebrew name means "broken" or "broken off," reflecting its melodic character: it is traditionally described as sung on a low tone, descending at the beginning and rising at the end (a general description that varies by community tradition). In some Babylonian manuscripts the letter tav (ת, for "break") was used as a shorthand that stood for both tevir and zaqef, rather than for tevir alone. With TropeTrainer you can hear Tevir chanted and practice the readings in which it appears.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Tevir trope?
Tevir is a disjunctive cantillation mark (trope) in the Hebrew Bible that creates a pause within a verse. It is a third-level disjunctive subordinate to Tifcha and is one of the most common trope marks in the Torah.
What does Tevir mean?
The Hebrew name תְּבִיר (Tevir) means "broken" or "broken off." The name reflects its melodic character, traditionally sung on a low tone that goes downward at the start and upward at the end.
Is Tevir a pause?
Yes. Tevir is a disjunctive (pausal) accent, meaning it separates words and marks a break in the phrase rather than joining words together. It divides the clause governed by the Tifcha.
Where is the Tevir symbol placed on the word?
Tevir is written below the line, under the stressed syllable of the word, as a small curved hook-like stroke (◌֛). In Unicode it is U+059B, "HEBREW ACCENT TEVIR."
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