Zakef Katan ( he, זָקֵף קָטָ֔ן literally 'upright small'; various romanizations), often referred to simply as ''katan'', is a
cantillation
Cantillation is the ritual chanting of prayers and responses. It often specifically refers to Jewish Hebrew cantillation. Cantillation sometimes refers to diacritics used in texts that are to be chanted in liturgy.
Cantillation includes:
* Chant
...
mark commonly found in the
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
,
Haftarah
The ''haftara'' or (in Ashkenazic pronunciation) ''haftorah'' (alt. ''haftarah, haphtara'', he, הפטרה) "parting," "taking leave", (plural form: ''haftarot'' or ''haftoros'') is a series of selections from the books of ''Nevi'im'' ("Pro ...
Pashta
Pashta (Hebrew: ) is a common cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is part of the Katan group. Its mark symbol is identical to that of the Kadma.
While Kadma and Pashta use the same symbol, Pash ...
,
Munach
The Munach (Hebrew: , also spelled ''Munah'' or ''Munakh''), translating to English as ''"to rest,"'' is a common cantillation sound. In Sephardi and Oriental traditions it is often called Shofar holekh. It is marked with a right angle below the c ...
, or Yetiv. It is one of the most common cantillation marks. There is no limit to the number of times the Katan group can appear in a verse, and often, multiple Katan groups appear in succession. The most times in succession the group occurs is four.
The symbol for the Zakef katan is a colon (:). It is placed on the syllable of the word that is accented.
Zakef katan occurs in the Torah 6992 times.
Zakef katan is one of two versions of the ''Zakef'' trope, the other being
Zakef gadol Zakef may refer to:
* Zakef katon, a trope sound from the Katon group
* Zakef gadol, a common independent trope
{{disambiguation ...
.Chanting the Hebrew Bible By Joshua R. Jacobson, page 117
The Katan group
In the Katan group, the trope can appear in the following patterns:
*Mapach Pashta Munach Zakef-Katan
*Mapach Pashta Zakef-Katan
*Pashta Munach Zakef-Katan
*Pashta Zakef-Katan
*Munach Zakef-Katan
*Zakef-Katan
*Yetiv Munach Zakef-Katan
*Yetiv Zakef-Katan