Vedic accent
Encyclopedia
The tone accent of Vedic Sanskrit
, or Vedic accent for brevity, is traditionally divided by Sanskrit grammar
ians into three qualities, udātta "raised" (acute accent
, high pitch), anudātta "not raised" (grave accent
, low pitch) and svarita "sounded" (circumflex
, falling pitch).
. In transliteration, therefore, udātta is usually marked with an acute accent
, and anudātta and svarita are unmarked since their positions follow automatically from the position of udātta. For example, in the first pada
of the Rigveda
, the transliteration
means that the eight syllables have an intonation of
or iconically,
In some cases an accented syllable disappeared due to linguistic changes in oral
transmission of the samhita
before it was written down, so that a svarita may be next after an anudātta: this is a so-called "independent svarita". In such cases, the svarita syllable is marked in transcription with a grave accent
.
For example in RV 1.10.8c,
became
Independent svarita is caused by sandhi
of adjacent vowels. There are four variants of it:-
Independent svarita occurs about 1300 times in the Rigveda
, or in about 5% of pada
s.
In Devanagari
editions of the Rigveda samhita:
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
, or Vedic accent for brevity, is traditionally divided by Sanskrit grammar
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 , culminating in the Pāṇinian grammar of the 4th century BC.-Grammatical tradition:The...
ians into three qualities, udātta "raised" (acute accent
Acute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
, high pitch), anudātta "not raised" (grave accent
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
, low pitch) and svarita "sounded" (circumflex
Circumflex
The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
, falling pitch).
The accents
Udātta marks the place of the inherited PIE accentProto-Indo-European accent
Proto-Indo-European accent refers to the accentual system of Proto-Indo-European language.-Description:Proto-Indo-European is reconstructed to have a pitch accent system that is usually described as a free tonal accent...
. In transliteration, therefore, udātta is usually marked with an acute accent
Acute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
, and anudātta and svarita are unmarked since their positions follow automatically from the position of udātta. For example, in the first pada
Pada
Pada may refer to:*Pada , in Sanskrit grammar, and Hindu and Buddhist tradition*Sri Pada or Adam's Peak, a mountain in Sri Lanka*Pada, Estonia, village in Viru-Nigula Parish, Lääne-Viru County, Estonia*Pada River, see List of rivers of Estonia...
of the Rigveda
Rigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...
, the transliteration
- "AgniAgniAgni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...
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,
- _¯\__¯\_
- is a finite verb and thus has no udātta, but its first syllableSyllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
is svarita because the previous syllable is udātta. - Vedic meterVedic meterThe verses of the Vedas have a variety of different meters. They are divided by number of padas in a verse, and by the number of syllables in a pada. Chandas , the study of Vedic meter, is one of the six Vedanga disciplines, or "organs of the vedas".*: 3 padas of 8 syllables-Principles:The main...
is independent of Vedic accent and exclusively determined by syllable weight, so that metrically, the pada reads as
- is a finite verb and thus has no udātta, but its first syllable
- -.--.-.x (viz., the second half-pada is iambic).
In some cases an accented syllable disappeared due to linguistic changes in oral
Speech
Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
transmission of the samhita
Samhita
Samhita may refer to"*the basic metrical text of each of the Vedas**specifically, these texts with sandhi applied *post-Vedic texts known as Samhitas:** Ashtavakra Gita...
before it was written down, so that a svarita may be next after an anudātta: this is a so-called "independent svarita". In such cases, the svarita syllable is marked in transcription with a grave accent
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
.
For example in RV 1.10.8c,
- U-S-U-S-A-A-A-U
- ¯\¯\___¯
became
- U-S-S-A-A-A-U
- ¯\\___¯
Independent svarita is caused by sandhi
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
of adjacent vowels. There are four variants of it:-
- (= "innate") (due to changes within a word, as in for , as in the example above (u becomes v before a vowel)
- (= "caused by quickness") (u becoming v or i becoming y where two words meet, as in for ) (i becomes y before a vowel)
- (= "coalescence") (vowel contraction where two words meet, as in for )
- (= "close contact") (prodelisionProdelisionProdelision is a form of elision in which the latter word loses its first vowels.Example:"Namqu etsi nullum memorabile nomenfemine in poena st, habet haec victoria laudem,extinxisse nefas."...
with avagrahaAvagrahaAvagraha is a Devanāgarī symbol used to indicate prodelision of an . It is usually transliterated with an apostrophe, as in the Sanskrit philosophical expression ‘I am Shiva’. The avagraha is also used for prolonging vowel sounds in modern languages, for example Hindi for ‘Mãããã!’ when...
where two words meet, as in for ).
Independent svarita occurs about 1300 times in the Rigveda
Rigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...
, or in about 5% of pada
Pada
Pada may refer to:*Pada , in Sanskrit grammar, and Hindu and Buddhist tradition*Sri Pada or Adam's Peak, a mountain in Sri Lanka*Pada, Estonia, village in Viru-Nigula Parish, Lääne-Viru County, Estonia*Pada River, see List of rivers of Estonia...
s.
Notation
In Roman alphabet transcription, udātta is marked with an acute accent, independent svarita is marked with a grave accent, and other syllables are not marked with accent.In Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
editions of the Rigveda samhita:
- Svarita is marked with a small upright stroke above a syllable.
- Anudātta is marked with a horizontal line below the syllable, if it is next before an udātta or an independent svarita. If the first syllable in a pada is anudātta, that syllable and all following syllables which are anudātta are marked with the horizontal line, up to and not including the first syllable which is not an anudātta.
- If an independent svarita syllable is next before an udātta syllable, instead of putting the anudātta mark and the svarita mark on the same syllable, a figure 1 (if the svarita vowel is short) or a figure 3 (if the svarita vowel is long) is written between, and that figure has the svarita mark and the anudātta mark.
- Other syllables are unmarked.