The
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
of
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...
, or Vedic accent for brevity, is traditionally divided by
Sanskrit grammar
The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminati ...
ians into three qualities, ''udātta'' उदात्त "raised" (
acute accent, high pitch), ''anudātta'' अनुदात्त "not raised" (from अ(न्)- (
negative prefix) + उदात्त) (unstressed, or low pitch,
grave accent) and ''svarita'' स्वरित "sounded" (high falling pitch, corresponds to the Greek
circumflex accent). It is most similar to the
pitch-accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
system of modern-day
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
.
Accents
In Vedic Sanskrit, most of the words have one accented syllable, which is traditionally called ''udātta'' ("raised") and written with an
acute mark in the transcription. The position of that accent in inherited words generally reflects the position of
Proto-Indo-European accent
Proto-Indo-European accent refers to the accentual (stress) system of the Proto-Indo-European language.
Description
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is usually reconstructed as having had variable lexical stress: the placement of the stress in a word ...
, which means it was ''free'' and so not phonologically predictable from the shape of the word. Some words (
finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...
s of
main clause
An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself.
Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
s,
vocative
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numer ...
s that do not occur sentence initially, and certain pronouns and particles) do not have an accented syllable, consisting entirely of unaccented syllables.
Unaccented syllables are called ''anudātta'' ("not raised") and are not marked in the transcription. Phonetically, accented Rigvedic syllable was characterized by height (rather than prominence) as a "high tone", immediately falling in the next syllable. The falling tone in the post-tonic syllable is called ''svarita'' ("sounded"). For example, in the first
pada of the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...
, the transliteration
:' अग्निम् ईळे पुरोहितं (classical: अग्निम् ईडे पुरोहितं)
:"
Agni
Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...
I praise, the
high priest."
means that the eight syllables have an intonation of
:A-U-S-A-A-U-S-A (where A=anudātta, U=udātta, S=svarita),
or iconically,
:
' ईळे (classical: ईडे) is a finite verb and thus has no ''udātta'', but its first
syllable is ''svarita'' because the previous syllable is ''udātta''.
Vedic meter
Vedic metre refers to the poetic metre in the Vedic literature. The study of Vedic metre, along with post-Vedic metre, is part of Chandas, one of the six Vedanga disciplines.
Overview
In addition to these seven, there are fourteen less frequent ...
is independent of Vedic accent and exclusively determined by syllable weight, so that metrically, the pada reads as
: (the second half-pada is
iambic).
When the
Vedas
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...
were composed, ''svarita'' was not phonologically relevant. However, linguistic changes in
oral
The word oral may refer to:
Relating to the mouth
* Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid
**Oral administration of medicines
** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or or ...
transmission of the
samhita before it was written down, mostly by the loss of syllabicity of high vowels when followed by a vowel, the tone has become relevant and is called an ''independent svarita''. In transcription, it is written as a
grave mark . Such ''svarita'' may follow an ''anudātta''. For example, in RV 1.10.8c,
:' जेषः सुवर्वतीर् अप
:U-S-U-S-A-A-A-U
:
became
:'
:U-S-S-A-A-A-U
:
Independent svarita is caused by
sandhi
Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...
of adjacent vowels. There are four variants of it:
*' (= "