Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/88

 I. Allgemeines und Sprache. 4. Vedic Grammar.

preceding the next accent'. The latter syllable, called sanna-tara 'lower' or antidatta-tara ^ 'more lowered', sinks somewhat belovv this monotone. '

84. Methods of marking the accent. — The accent is maiked in tie Vedic texts in four different ways.

I. The system of the Rgveda is followed also by the Atharvaveda '^, the Taittirlya Sarnhita (along with its Brahmana) and, with only slight devia- tions in the treatment of the Svarita, by the Vajasaneyi Sarnhita. This system is peculiar in not marking the principal accent at all. The explanation is doubtless to be found in the fact that the pitch of the Udatta is in the RV. intermediate between that of the other two tones. Hence the preceding Anudatta, as having low pitch, is marked by a horizontal stroke below the syllable, while the following Svarita, as rising to a higher pitch, is marked by a vertical stroke above the syllable''; e.g. ^ffi^^i agnina = agntna. The presence of successive Udattas at the beginning of a hemistich is recognizable by the absence of all marks till the Svarita which follows the last of them, or the Anudatta which follows the last of them and precedes the next accented syllable; thus (TToiT aiffTf tav a yatam = tav a yatam; tavet tat satyam = tdvet tat satyam. On the other hand, all the unaccented syllables at the beginning of a hemistich are marked; e. g. ^^T'lTW = vaisranaram = vaisvanardm. But all the syllables following a Svarita remain unmarked till the one immediately preceding the next Udatta or Svarita; e. g. ?H flf i!^ JJH^ ^Jl^afrl 'Jfifgr imam me gahge yamune sarasvaii suiudri = i??idm me gaiige yamune sarasvati sittudri^.

a. The hemistich being treated as the unit with regard to accentuation*, the marking of the Anudatta and of the Svarita is not limited to the word containing the Udatta which those accents precede and follow respectively'. Hence the final syllable of one word may be marked with an Anudatta as preceding an Udatta of the next initial syllable; or the initial syllable of one word may be marked with the Svarita following the Udatta at the end of the preceding word; e. g. 'ggfvraifisrfiTT purvebhij- rdbhir = ptlrvebhir fsibhir;. aTniraTTT yajfiam ddhvaram ^ yajndm adhvardm. But if an initial syllable after a final Udatta precedes an accented syllable, it loses the enchtic Svarita and must be marked as Anudatta; e. g. Sg^rffcraiT devam rtvijdm = devdm rtvijam.

b. If an independent Svarita^ precedes an Udatta, it is marked with the numeral (i) when its vowel is short, and with a (3) when it is long, the figures receiving both the sign of the Svarita and that of the Anudatta 9 which precedes an Udatta; e.g. ^rm ^ =apsv antdr; XW'^^ = rayo 'vdnih. The phenomenon is described by the phoneticians with the words kampa

1 See Oldenberg, Prolegomena 485, end.

2 Sanna-tara, APr. I. 43; anudatta-tara in Kasika vrtti on Panini 1. 24°.

3 The Mss. of the AV., however, show considerable variations; see Whitney's Translation p. cxxi ff..

4 In the Kashmir ' Ms. of the RV. the Udatta and the independent Svarita only are marked, the former by a vertical stroke above the accented syllable, the latter by a hook (c) above the accented syllable; see ScHEFTELOWiTZ, Die Apokryphen des Rgveda 48 ff.

5 Cp. Haug, op. cit. 92 f.

6 From the point of view of the sentence accent the Pada is the unit; thus a verb or vocative is always accented at its beginning.

7 In the Padapatha, on the other hand, each word receives its natural accent only, so that where the one text has a Svarita, the other may have an Anudatta; e. g. in I. I-' the Sarnhita has rqyim asnavqt, the Pada rqyhn qsnavqi (the latter word being unaccented has the Anudatta marked under each syllable).

8 Examples of independent Svarita are svar for sum-; kva for kua; viryam for vTriam. 'Independent' Svarita in the above rule is intended to include that which results from change to a semivowel [ksaipra), from contraction {praslisla) and from elision of a (abhitiihitd).

9 The long vowel before the ^ receives the Anudatta stroke as well.