Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/138

 The general rules of accent, then, may be thus stated:

317. In the declension of monosyllabic stems, the accent falls upon the ending in all the weak cases (without distinction of middle and weakest): thus,, , , ; , , ,.

a. But some monosyllabic stems retain the accent throughout: thus,, ,. For such cases, see below, 350, 361 c, d, 372, 390, 427. And in the acc. pl. the stem is even oftener accented than the ending, some words also admitting either accentuation.

318. Of polysyllabic stems ending in consonants, only a few shift the accent to the ending, and that in the weakest (not the middle) cases. Such are:

a. Present participles in or : thus, from,  and  and ; but  and.

b. A few adjectives having the form of such participles, as,.

c. Stems of which the accented final loses its syllable character by syncopation of the vowel: thus,, , (from  etc.: 423).

d. Other sporadic cases will be noticed under the different declensions.

e. Case-forms used adverbially sometimes show a changed accent: see 1110 ff.

319. Of polysyllabic stems ending in accented short vowels, the final of the stem retains the accent if it retains its syllabic identity: thus, and  from ;  and  from ; and also, , and so on. Otherwise, the accent is on the ending: and that, whether the final and the ending are combined into one, as in, , , , and so on; or whether the final is changed into a semivowel before the ending: thus, , , , , etc.

a. But of the gen. pl. from stems in  and  and  may, and in the older language always does, take the accent, though separated by  from the stem: thus,, ,. In RV., even derivative -stems show usually the same shift: thus,. Of stems in, only numerals (483 a) follow this rule: thus, ,.

320. Root-words in and  as final members of compounds retain the accent throughout, not shifting it to any of the endings. And in the older language there are polysyllable words in long final vowels which follow in this respect as in others the analogy of the root-declension (below, 355 ff.). Apart from these, the treatment of stems in derivative long vowels is, as regards accent, the same as those in short vowels — save that the tone is not thrown forward upon the ending in gen. plural.