Determining Accented Syllable from Ta'amei Emet

Question

I don't know the Ta'amei Emet, the system of markings used in Job, Proverbs, and Psalms, but I'd like to be able to know what syllable to accent when I read words from those books. So, I'm looking for a minimal subset of knowledge of the system of Ta'amei Emet, just enough to know how to determine accented syllable.

Answer 1

As with the 21 books, most of the time the accent is on the letter marked and there are a handful that are always at the beginning or end of a word where you have to just know the grammar unless you have a modern printing that duplicates the mark on the accented letter.

This latter group includes Tzinnor (looks like the 21 book Zarka) at the end, Dechi (looks like the 21 book Tipcha) at the beginning, and Revia Mugrash with the Geresh marked at the beginning while the accented syllable is marked by the Revia.

Additionally there is the "Oleh" half of the Oleh veYored (looks like a 21 book Mahpach above the letter followed by a 21 book Merkha under the letter) which, when marked, is always one syllable before the Yored but doesn't indicate an accent.

Finally note Tzinnorit (looks like 21 book Zarka), marked on the correct letter, only ever indicates a word's secondary accent.

You can see all these phenomena in Tehillim 40:15:

יֵ֘בֹ֤שׁוּ וְיַחְפְּר֨וּ ׀ יַחַד֮ מְבַקְשֵׁ֥י נַפְשִׁ֗י לִסְפּ֫וֹתָ֥הּ יִסֹּ֣גוּ אָ֭חוֹר וְיִכָּלְמ֑וּ חֲ֝פֵצֵ֗י רָעָתִֽי׃