Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/90

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. a. Its chief peculiarity is that it marks only the main accent, che Udatta. This is done by means of a horizontal stroke below the accented syllable; e. g. : puruṣaḥ. If there are two or more successive Udāttas, only the last is marked; e. g. agnir hi vai dhur atha agnir hí vái dhár átha. When, however, an Udatta is thrown back as the result of Sandhi, an immediately preceding Udātta is also marked; e. g. so 'gnim evābhīkṣamāṇaḥ só 'gnim évabhikṣamaṇaḥ, where évabhi stands for evàbhí = evá abhí-. Two successive syllables are also sometimes marked when a compound receives a secondary Udatta; e. g. sprhayad-varnah, for sprhayád-varṇaḥ. b. An independent Svarita is thrown back on the preceding syllable in the form of an Udatta; e. g. manusyesu, that is, manúsyesu for manusyèşu. The Svarita resulting from change to a semivowel (kṣaipra), from contraction (praślista), or elision of a (abhinihita), is similarly treated; e. g. katham nv imam, that is, kathám nv imám for kathám nv ìmám; evaitad, that is, évaitád from evá etád; te 'rcantaḥ, that is, té 'rcantaḥ for té àrcantaḥ. 80 = = When, however, the prepositions á and prá, and final á in the first member of a compound, combine with an unaccented vowel, the contracted syllable retains the Udatta; e. g. éhi (= á ihi); práha (= prá aha); citróti- (-citrá-uti-) bestowing wondrous gifts'. c. Before a pause an accented syllable may lose its Udātta or receive a reduced accent marked with three dots, if the initial syllable after the pause has an Udātta or independent Svarita; e. g. sa bhāgah samsthite, for sá bhagáḥ sámsthite. The penultimate syllable may also be thus reduced; e. g.juhotillatha, for juhóti látha. This may occur even when the following initial syllable is unaccented; e. g. napsulapa, for nápsu || apá. d. Reduplicated forms or long compounds accented on the first syllable or prior member, sometimes receive a secondary accent near the end of the word; e. g. balbalīti, that is bálbaliti for bálbalīti; eka-catvārimśat, that is, éka-catvārimśát for éka-catvārimśat. Sometimes, in such case, the primary accent itself is lost; e. g. eka-saptatih beside éka-saptatih. Somewhat analogous to this double accentuation of compounds is the frequent accentuation of both verbal prefix and verb at the same time; e. g. abhí gopayéd (cp. 109). Finally, the accent occasionally appears on a syllable different from that on which it usually rests. The irregularities mentioned here (d) are much commoner in Books X-XIII than in the earlier Books; they are commonest of all in xıv¹. 85. Normal accentuation of words. As a general rule, every Vedic word is both accented and has one main accent only. The Udatta is the only main accent in the original text of the Rgveda. It is generally found on the syllable which, according to the evidence of Comparative Philology2, bore it in the Indo-European period ³. Sometimes, however, the Udātta is secondary, being a substitute for the independent Svarita (itself the result of an original Udātta). Thus there is already a tendency in the RV. to change a final Svarita into a final Udātta: the vocative dyàus (— diaus) ‘O Heaven', appears as dyáus (VIII. 89²); aryà- (= aría-) ‘kind', occurring only once (1. 123¹), otherwise and very frequently appears as aryá-; thus, too, sván- 'dog', was probably at one time svan- for sian- (Gk. Kúwv), which would explain the For further details, see HAUG, 43-48;| Vedic Udātta shifted, in a few instances, to LEUMANN, Die accentuation des Çatapatha- other syllables in the Brāhmaṇas and in Brāhmaṇa, KZ. 31, 22-51; cp. also WACKER- Pāṇini's system; thus saptá, ŚB., and C. NAGEL I, 252; Bhaşikavrtti, ed. by KIEL-sápla, aștau, C. ástau; AV. VS. ŚB. tilá- HORN IS. 10, 397 ff. 'sesamum', C, tila-; sidati 'sit', C. also sīdáti; AV. gáhvara- 'deep', C. gahvará-. the 2 Cp. BRUGMANN, KG. 45, 1. 3 Under the influence of analogy