[HANASHIR:5134] Re: Trope dates

[BZcantor <BZcantor...>]

As I believe was mentioned here earlier, the Masoretes set the trope
in the 800's along with the vowel system.  There was work going on in
Babylonia at the same time, but that system was not as clear and thus
was not accepted.  The Tiberian system was developed by the family of 
Ben Asher, and is the system in general use today.  It is primarily a way
of indicating punctuation and accentuation, and only secondarily is it a 
system of music (or intonation).  There is a wonderful article on all this 
in the Encyclopedia Judaica, under "Masoretic Accents" in volume 11.

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