Zarka or zarqa (, with variant English spellings) is a cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is usually found together with the Segol, with a Munach preceding either or both. The symbol for a Zarka is a 90 degrees rotated, inverted S. The Hebrew word translates as "throwing" and the melody is ascending in Moroccan and Sefardic tradition (with two or one retracements respectively) and descending in the Ashkenazic.
Zarka is a third-level disjunctive (sar) which always precedes the Segol. Thus, Zarka is to the Segol what Pashta is to the Zakef katan and Tevir to the Tipcha.
The conjunctives and fourth-level disjunctives which precedes the Zarka are the same as for Pashta. Revia can also precedes the Zarka, as for Pashta, although we cannot find an alternation of Revia and Zarka as it exists concerning the Pashta.
Zarka is also sometimes called tsinnor. Properly speaking, tsinnor is the name it receives when appears on the three poetic books (Job, Proverbs and Psalms, or the books, from their initials in Hebrew), and zarqa the name it gets on the remaining 21 books of the Hebrew Bible (also known as the prosaic books). Both sets of books use a different cantillation system.
Caution must be taken not to confuse this mark with the very similar mark tsinnorit, which has the same shape but different position and use. They differ in the following: