Vedic Accent and Lexicography

24 Pages·2017·7.82 MB·English

by  Felix Rau

Vedic Accent and Lexicography
Felix Rau
University of Cologne – Lazarus Project
VedicAccentandLexicography
LazarusProject:CologneSanskritLexicon,ProjectDocumentation2
FelixRau orcid.org/0000-0003-4167-0601
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 In-
ternationalLicense.
cite as: Rau, Felix 2017. Vedic Accent and Lexicography. Lazarus Project:
Cologne Sanskrit Lexicon, Project Documentation 2. Cologne: Lazarus Project.
doi:10.5281/10.5281/zenodo.837826
LazarusProject(CologneSanskritLexicon)
UniversityofCologne
http://www.cceh.uni-koeln.de/lazarus
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/
1 Introduction
Thispaperisapreliminaryinvestigationintotheproblemstherepresentationoftheac-
centsofVedicSanskritposestoSanskritlexicography. Thepurposeistoassesstheprin-
ciplesappliedinvariouslexicographicworksintherepresentationofVedicaccentsand
itsrelationtotheunderlyinglinguisticcategoryaswellastraditionsofaccentmarkingin
differenttexts. SincethefocusisonSanskritlexicography,weignorethecomplexityof
accentmarkinginmanuscriptsandthediversityofaccentmarkingacrossdifferentIndic
scriptsthatwereusedtowriteSanskritovertheages.Wewillrestrictourselvestoaccent
markinginDevanagariandLatinscriptinprint,asthesetwoaretherelevantsystemsfor
virtuallyallofmodernphilologicalSanskritlexicography.
The complex nature of accent marking in Vedic Sanskrit derives from several facts.
Besides the intricacies of the linguistic phenomenon itself (see Kiparsky, 1973, among
others), thecomplexityarisesfromthefactthatdifferenttextualoreditorialtraditions
employstructurallydifferentsystemsformarkingVedicaccent. Thesituationisfurther
complicatedbythefactthatthelimitedinventoryofaccentmarkerscanhavemultiple
functionsinamarkingsystemoracrossdifferentsystems.
Accent marking is a challenge to Sanskrit lexicography in particular, because accent
marking is manuscript, edition, text, and script speci(cid:976)ic in Vedic Sanskrit, while lexico-
graphicworkabstractsawayfromtheseparticularitiesoftextualtraditionsandconcen-
tratesinformationaboutlexicologicalunitsinverydenseentries. Theselexicalentries
containvarioustypesofinformation. Thisincludesphonologicalinformationaboutthe
prosodicstructureofthelexicalunit,inparticularthelocationofthemainlexicalaccent,
butalsoexamplesofusagetakenfromvarioustextualsourceswithstructurallydifferent
systemstomarkaccentsanddifferenttypographicdevicesemployedinthesesystems.
1.1 The Accent of Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is generally analysed to have a free pitch accent – see Kiparsky (1973),
Lubotsky(1988)amongmanyothers. IntheSouthAsiangrammaticaltraditionpitchac-
centorsvaraisdescribedusingthecategoriesudātta,anudāttaandsvarita. Sincetradi-
tionalaswellasmodernaccentmarkingsystemsforVedicSanskritaregenerallyphrased
usingthesethreecategoriesasthemainreferencepoints,theywillbecentraltoourdis-
cussion.
Theudātta(Skt.‘elevated,raised’)accentisgenerallyassociatedwithhighpitch,while
anudātta(Skt.‘non-elevated,non-raised’)isassociatedwithloworunmarkedpitch,while
svarita(Monier-Williamsgives‘sounded’)isseenasfallingpitch(Whitney,1869-1870,
p.27).Kiparsky(1973)analysestheaccentinmoredetailandwithafocusondiachronic
changes.Theudāttaaccentisgenerallyanalysedastheactualpitchaccentinthewestern
tradition,withtheanudāttaaccentsbeingseenastheunmarkedsyllablesandsvaritaasa
secondaryphenomenonoccurringinthesyllablefollowingtheprimaryaccent.However,
3
1 Introduction
thereisacategoryofsvaritaaccents,calledindependentsvarita(jātyasvaritaornityas-
varita)whichoccurwithoutaprecedingudāttaaccent.Thistypeofsvaritaaccentsarises
whentheudāttasyllableprecedingasvaritasyllableislost,normallywhenthesyllable
bearingvowelisreducedtoaglide. Independentsvaritascannotbepredictedandthus
needtobetreatedsimilartoudāttaaccents. Thepredictablesvaritaaccentsarecalled
dependentorencliticsvaritas.
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2 Systems of Marking Vedic Accent
There is a large number of systems to mark the pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit. Only a
veryrestrictedsubsetofsystemsrelevantfortherepresentationofVedicaccentinlexi-
cographicworkswillbediscussedhere. Witzel(1974)describesthehugevarietyofsys-
temsfoundinprintsandmanuscriptsofVedicSanskrittextsandclassi(cid:976)iesthesesystems
accordingtowhethertheyexplicitlymarktheprimary(i.e.udātta)accentornot. Scharf
(2007)presentsadescriptionofavarietyofmarkingsystemstakenandadaptedfrom
Mīmāṁsaka(1964).
IthastobenotedthatseveralofthesystemsformarkingaccentinVedicSanskritrep-
resentphonetic-prosodicsubtletiesthatgobeyondthealreadyveryelaboratethreeac-
centsystemoftraditionalSanskritgrammartheory.Thesesubtletiesseemtoderivefrom
particular phrasal or other syntagmatic arrangements in speci(cid:976)ic passages and are not
incorporatedinanylexicographicwork.
2.1 R̥gveda System
TheR̥gvedaaccentmarkingsystemisusedinthetexttraditionoftheR̥gveda,theAthar-
vaveda, andseveralothertexttraditions(seeScharf,2007, formoreinformation). Itis
probablythebestknownaccentmarkingsysteminDevanagariscript. Thesystemispe-
culiarfromalinguisticpointofviewinthatitexplicitlymarksallsvaritaaccents–whether
independentornot–andsomeanudāttaaccents,butnottheprimaryaccent,theudātta.
Thediacriticusedtomarksvaritaaccentisaverticalstrokeoverthecentralglyphofthe
syllable .1 Anudāttaismarkedbyadiacriticunderscore .
क॑ क॒
Whileinprincipleallsvaritaaccentsaremarked,onlytheanudāttaaccentspreceding
the(cid:976)irstudāttaorindependentsvaritaofastanzaarealwaysmarked.Afterthe(cid:976)irstudātta
orindependentsvaritaonlyananudāttaimmediatelyprecedinganudāttaismarked. A
syllablethatfollowsanudāttaaccentismarkedasanudātta,ifitisagainfollowedbyan
udāttaaccent. Whileitwouldbemarkedassvaritaaccentotherwise.2 MacDonell(1916,
p.449)elaboratesthepeculiaritiesofthisaccentmarkingsystemandgivesexamplesfor
itsapplication.
Inthefollowing,the(cid:976)irststanzaoftheR̥gveda(RV1.1.1)isgiveninDevanagariwith
accentsmarkedaccordingtotherulesoftheR̥gvedaaccentmarkingsystemandwiththe
twodiacriticsusedinthissystem. Theline(1b)givesthesamestanzainRomantranslit-
eration, but with accents marked according to the R̥gveda accent marking system and
diacriticssimilartotheonesusedinDevanagari.Line(1c)givesthestanzainindological
(ISO15919)transliterationwiththeudāttaaccentsmarked.
1WearefollowingtheconventionofpresentingtheDevanagaridiacriticsinrelationtothesyllable ka.
क
2MacDonell(1916, p.449)illustratesthiswiththepassageRV1.1.6 tavettatsa̲tyam(távéttát
तवे(cid:485)(cid:277)स॒(cid:277)यम
satyám),inwhichthesyllable sawouldbemarkedassvarita,ifthefollowingsyllablewouldnotbean
स
udāttaaccent. HoweveraccordingtoMacDonell(1916,p.449)theencliticsvaritaaccent“isoustedbythe
Anudātta,whichisrequiredtoindicatethatthefollowingsyllabletyamhastheUdātta.”
5
2 SystemsofMarkingVedicAccent
(1) a.
अ॒ि(cid:264)नमी॑ळे पु॒रो(cid:543)ह॑तंय॒(cid:88)(cid:293)य॑दे॒वमृ॒ि(cid:277)वज॑म्।होता॑रंर(cid:277)न॒धात॑मम्॥
b. a̲gnimıḹ̀epu̲rohìtaṃya̲jñasyàde̲vamr̲̥tvijàm।hotà̄raṃratna̲dhātàmam॥
c. agnímīḷepuróhitaṃyajñásyadevámr̥tvíjam hótāraṃratnadhá̄tamam
। ॥
2.2 Sāmaveda System
The Sāmaveda accent marking system is used in the Sāmaveda. It is not discussed by
Witzel(1974)onthegroundsthatitis“basedonmusicalreproductionofthetexts”(Witzel,
1974,p.473). Thesystemitselfisquitecomplex,butthecrucialpartforourpurposes
hereis,thatitexplicitlymarksudātta,anudātta,andsvaritaaccentwithsmallDevanagari
numeralsabovetherespectivesyllables.
Figure2.1:AccentmarkingintheSāmaveda
Thebasicsystemisstraightforward, butthewholesystemistooelaboratetobedis-
cussedherecomprehensively. Scharf(2007,p.19)describesthesysteminmoredetail.
TheSāmavedamarkingsystemisbasedonthefollowingprinciples: TheDevanagarinu-
meralone indicatesudāttaaccent ,thenumeraltwo markssvaritaaccents ,anda
१ क꣡ २ क꣢
numeralthree aboveasyllableindicatesanudāttaaccent . Figure2.1givesapassage
३ क꣣
fromtheSāmavedaSaṃhitāKauthumarecension(SV4.9.3.8.2)withtheaccentsmarked
accordingtotheSāmavedaaccentmarkingsystem. Thetextisrepeatedin(2a)andthe
sametextisgiveninRomantransliterationin(2b),butwithaccentsmarkedaccordingto
theSāmavedaaccentmarkingsystemandwithacuteaccentforudāttaandgraveaccent
forallsvaritaaccents(dependent).Example(2c)givesthesametextwithudāttaaccents
accordingtoISO15919.
(2) a.
ते꣡षां꣢वोअ꣣ि(cid:264)न꣡नु꣢(cid:281)नाना꣣(cid:556)म�꣡(cid:349)ो꣢हतं ु꣣व꣡रं꣢वाराम्
b. téṣà̄ṃvoa̲gnínùnnānā̲míndròhantu̲ váràṃvaram
c. téṣāṃvoagnínunnānāmíndrohantuváraṃvaram
Howard(1986,p.228-229)3describestheSāmavedasystemasfollows:
Numbers1[ ]and3[ ]alwaysrepresentudāttaandanudātta,respectively.
१ ३
Number2[ ]indicatessvarita,butitdenotesalsoanudāttasyllablefollowed
२
byanudātta. Whentwoormoreudāttasyllablesappearinsuccession,only
the(cid:976)irstismarkedwith1[ ],butthesign2r[ ]isplacedabovethefollow-
१ २र
ingsvarita. If,however,ananudāttafollows,2u[ ]isplacedabovethe(cid:976)irst
२उ
udāttasyllableandtherestareleftundesignated. Inaseriesofanudāttasyl-
lablesatthebeginningoftheline,onlythe(cid:976)irstismarkedwith3[ ]. Anin-
३
dependentsvaritahasthesign2r[ ],andtheprecedinganudāttaismarked
२र
3TakenfromEversonandScharf(2007,p.3).
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2 SystemsofMarkingVedicAccent
3k[ ]. Pracaya4syllableshavenomarkings. [AdditionofDevanagarichar-
३क
actersmineF.R.]
2.3 Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa System
The accent marking system of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa is very minimalistic and exclu-
sivelyutilisesthediacriticalunderscore .Despitetheminimalinventoryofaccentmark-
क॒
ers, researchers have interpreted the system in different ways. Whitney (1889, p. 88)
dismisses it as “scanty and imperfect” and does not discuss it at all. MacDonell (1916,
p.451)interpretsthediacriticunderscoreasamarkerforudāttaaccentinthesyllable
itisplacedunder. Incaseofmorethanonesuccessiveudāttaaccentonlythelastsylla-
bleismarked. Inthisinterpretation,theŚatapathaBrāhmaṇasystemmarksexclusively
udāttaaccentandanindependentsvaritaisindicatedbymarkingtheprecedingsyllable
as udātta accent. Hoffmann (1956), (English translation in Witzel, 1974, p. 475, n17),
reinterpretsthesystemandconsidersthediacriticalunderscore amarkerforsvarita
क॒
accents,whichisplacedonthesyllableprecedinganysvaritaaccent,encliticorindepen-
dent. Hoffmann’sinterpretationoftheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇasystemiscurrentlythegen-
erallyacceptedview.ThefollowingpassagefromtheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇa(Weber,1849)
demonstratesthemarkingsystem.5
Figure2.2and2.3givetwopassagesfromtheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇa. Thehighlighted
passagescanalsobefoundinpartasquotationsinBöhtlingkandRoth(1855-1875)and
arerepeatedinexample(3)and(4).TheyaregiveninDevanagariwiththeaccentsmarked
accordingtotheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇasystemin(3a)and(4a),atransliterationmimick-
ingtheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇasysteminplacingthediacriticalunderscoreinthepositions
foundintheDevanagarioriginal(3b)and(4b),andin(3c)and(4c)transcriptionsaccord-
ingtoISO15919aregiven.
Figure2.2:AccentmarkingintheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇa
(3) a.
अि(cid:264)न॒द(cid:264)ध(cid:544)मवैषांव॒हंभव(cid:544)त
b. agnid̲ agdhamivaiṣāṃva̲hambhavati
c. agnídagdhamivaiṣāṃváhambhavati
4Thenamepracayaisgiventoasequenceofanudāttasyllableswhicharedescribedashavingudātta-likehigh
pitch.SeeWhitney(1869-1870)foradescriptionofpracayaaccent.
5ThediacriticaldoubleunderscoresfoundinWeber(1849)wereintroducedbyhim,todistinguishtheunder-
scoreheinterpretedasindependentsvaritamarkersfromtheunderscoresheinterpretedasudāttamarkers
(Weber,1849,p.xii-xiii).Thedoubleunderscoresindicateindependentsvaritasandarenotpartofthetra-
ditionalŚatapathaBrāhmaṇasystem,inwhichthesesyllableswouldalsofeatureasimpleunderscore.
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Figure2.3:AccentmarkingintheŚatapathaBrāhmaṇa
(4) a.
ता॒न(cid:296)णयासं॒तृ(cid:281)दि(cid:281)तय॒(cid:495)(cid:296)णयान॒श(cid:262)नुयाद॒(cid:544)पसमी॒चः
b. tā̲nakṣṇayāsa̲ṃtr̥ndantiya̲dyakṣṇayāna̲ śaknuyāda̲pisamı̲̄caḥ
c. tá̄nakṣṇayāsáṃtr̥ndantiyádyakṣṇayānáśaknuyādápisamı̄ć aḥ
2.4 Böhtlingk & Roth System
TheBöhtlingk&RothsystemisusedinthegroßePetersburgerSanskrit-Wörterbuch(Böhtlingk
andRoth,1855-1875)andtheSanskrit-WörterbuchinkürzererFassung(Böhtlingk,1879-
1889). ThissystemisalsousedbyWhitney(1889). OriginallydevelopedforBöhtlingk
andRoth(1855-1875),BöhtlingkandRothfollowindologicalconventionstomarkudātta
and independent svarita. They represent Sanskrit in Devanagari and there is no tradi-
tionalsystemmarkingaccentaccordingtotheseprinciplesthatisusedinprintingDe-
vanagariandasfarasweknowalsonotinDevanagarimanuscripts.TomarkVedicaccent
accordingtothissystem,theyintroduceanewdevice,asmall,raised (Devanagarishort
उ
u)abovethesyllableasadiacritictounambiguouslymarkudāttaaccentsyllables .Fig-
क꣫
ure2.4givesanexampleofthisudāttaaccentmarkingdiacriticastypesetinBöhtlingk
andRoth(1855-1875).
Figure2.4:UdāttaaccentmarkinginBöhtlingk&Roth
Markingudāttaaccentbyaraised isaninnovationbyBöhtlingk,accordingtoWhitney
उ
(1889,p.30). However,araised occursintheSāmavedaaccentmarkingsystem,butit
उ
isnotageneralmarkerofudāttaaccentinthissystem. Witzel(1974,p.485)mentions
asystemusedinSouthIndianGranthamanuscripts. Inthesemanuscripts,udāttaaccent
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2 SystemsofMarkingVedicAccent
ismarkedby“asuperscribedu”–soprobablyaraisedஉ(Granthashortu).6 Whether
Böhtlingk was aware of this South Indian system or whether this striking similarity is
accidentalisunknown.
Independentsvaritaaccentismarkedbyaverticalstrokeabovethesyllable . This
क॑
diacriticisidenticaltotheoneusedtomarkencliticandindependentsvaritaaccentin
theR̥gvedaaccentmarkingsystem. However,whileitmarksindependentsvaritainthe
Böhtlingk & Roth system, it marks all svarita accents in the R̥gveda system unless the
requirementtomarkthesyllableprecedinganudāttaasanudāttasupersedesit.
2.5 ISO 15919 System
TheISOstandard15919de(cid:976)inesasystemforthetransliterationofIndicscriptsinLatin
script.Aspartofthissystem,itspeci(cid:976)iesasystemtomarkVedicaccentinLatinscript.The
systemfollowstheWesternphilologicaltraditiontomarkudāttaandindependentsvarita.
Rule13(page17)ofthestandardde(cid:976)inestheplacementandformofaccentmarks.
Rule13TheVedicaccentUdattashallbetransliteratedasanacuteaccentover
thetransliteratedvowel,andtheindependentSvaritaasagraveaccentover
thetransliteratedvowel.Inthecaseofthedigraphsai,au,theaccentshallbe
attachedtothesecondvowel.
Thisrulespeci(cid:976)iesthatudāttaaccentisobligatorilymarkedasáoraúandindependent
svaritaismarkedasàoraù. Othersvaritaaccentsshouldnotbemarkedwiththisdia-
criticoranyothermethod. Howeverintherecommendationsection,ISO15919(p. 18)
speci(cid:976)iesanoptionalwaytomarkanudāttaaccent:
WhereitisdesiredtoshowtheVedicaccentAnudatta,itshouldbetranslit-
eratedasanunderscore. Inthecaseofthedigraphsai,au,bothLatinvowels
shouldbeunderscored.
Thus,anudāttaaccentshouldbemarkedasa̲ ora̲u̲7ifrequired.However,linguistically
theobligatorypartofthestandard–themarkingofudāttaandindependentsvaritaaccent
–issuf(cid:976)icienttocomprehensivelymarktheaccentsofVedicSanskrit.
(5) agnímīḷepuróhitaṃyajñásyadevámr̥tvíjam hótāraṃratnadhá̄tamam
। ॥
TransferringtheanudāttamarksfromtheDevanagarieditionsoftheR̥gvedaintothe
ISO15919systemresultsinthefollowingromanisation:
(6) a̲gnímīḷepu̲róhitaṃya̲jñásyade̲vámr̲̥tvíjam।hótāraṃratna̲dhá̄tamam॥
6TheGranthaUnicodeblock(codepointsU+11300toU+1137F)containsdiacriticalglyphsfortheSāmaveda
accentmarkingsystem,paralleltotheonesde(cid:976)inedintheDevanagariextendedblock. Incontrasttothe
Devanagariblockhowever,theGranthablockdoesnotde(cid:976)ineadiacriticalletteru.
7ISO15919isnotexplicitwhichcharactershouldbeusedtoencodethiscombiningunderscore. Thebest
candidatesintheUnicodecharactersetarethecodecodepointsU+0332(cid:264)(cid:276)(cid:274)(cid:263)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:268)(cid:273)(cid:276)(cid:284)(cid:273)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:266)andU+0331
(cid:264)(cid:276)(cid:274)(cid:263)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:268)(cid:274)(cid:262)(cid:264)(cid:279)(cid:276)(cid:275)(cid:263)(cid:266)(cid:273)(cid:276)(cid:284).Inthisdocument,wehaveoptedforU+0332(cid:264)(cid:276)(cid:274)(cid:263)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:268)(cid:273)(cid:276)(cid:284)(cid:273)(cid:270)(cid:275)(cid:266)asthischar-
acterisexplicitlyde(cid:976)inedasanunderscoreintheunicodestandard.
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However,itshouldbenotedthattherecommendationsformarkinganudāttaareless
speci(cid:976)ic than the rules applying to anudātta accents in Indic textual traditions. In the
R̥gvedaaccentmarkingsystemasdescribedbyMacDonell(1916,p.449),allunaccented
syllablesfollowingthestartofahalf-linearemarkedasanudāttaaccent.However,anudātta
accents following a svarita accent remain unmarked unless the anudātta immediately
precedesanudāttaaccent. Incontrast,ISO15919recommendationsdonotdistinguish
anudāttaaccentsbytherelativepositioninthestanzasorinrelationtootheraccents.ISO
15919allowstransferringtheanudāttaaccentfromtheR̥gvedaaccentmarkingsystem
intotheLatintransliteration;asinexample(6)above.However,italsoallowstomarkall
anudāttaaccentsasisdonein(7)oranysubset.
(7) a̲gnímīḷepu̲róhita̲ṃya̲jñásyade̲vámr̲̥tvíjam।hótāra̲ṃra̲tna̲dhá̄tama̲m॥
ThestatusofanudāttaaccentmarkingisclearlyperipheralintheISO15919system.
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