svare

[srutavega]

priya vidyaaratna,
tatrabhavadiiyavapra´snadvaye 'nna.m naasti, yata.h:
(1) the regular form of 'Ablaut' You refer to, did neither originate in the
Panjab with the Old IndoAryan speakers, nor with the still older *Harias in
the mountains of Afghanestaan or the steps of the Aral area. It's simply
Indoeuropean heritage, as the same morphonological changes do occur in Old
Greek etc., known since F. Bopps 'Ueber das Conjugationssystem ... in the
early 18oos.
(2) Old IndoAryan or Vedic accent was definitely not a stress accent, but as
we all know it described in the Praati´saakhyas, a tonal one (comparable to
the Chinese tones). That's also the reason why it left absolutely no traces
in the MIA languages.
bhadraa´si.sa aa´saasaana.h saadhayati ´srutavega.h.
(Prof. Chlodwig H. Werba, IndoIranian Studies
Dptm. of South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies
University of Vienna).

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk]Im Auftrag von Madhav
> Deshpande
> Gesendet am: Donnerstag, 30. Januar 2003 22.50
> An: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Betreff: Accents of Sanskrit, signs of change?
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
>          I am wondering if there are signs of change in the
> nature of Sanskrit accent in the following way.  Alternations
> like asti versus santi, and naumi versus nuva.h are linked to
> shifts of accent from the root to the suffix.  If these sorts of
> shifts indicate that an unstressed vowel gets contracted, or at
> worst deleted, can one infer that the accent of Sanskrit in its
> formative stages was stress accent, rather than pitch accent as
> it get represented in Vedic traditions?  Would pitch accent cause
> the same sort of contractions of vowels?  My second question is
> this.  While the correlation of vowel contractions with accent
> shifts is visible in verb forms and certain nominal paradigms,
> why is it that there is no similar effect left in the formation
> of Sanskrit compounds?  Consider the accent difference between a
> Tatpuru.sa versus a Bahuvriihi.  There are no vowel alternations
> similar to naumi versus nuva.h between Tatpuru.sa and Bahuvriihi.
>  Is it likely that the nature of accent changed from the stage
> when forms like naumi/nuva.h originated to the stage when
> compounds emerged?  Some food for thought.
>
>
>                          Madhav Deshpande
>
>
>
>