Professor Hans Hock, from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA will be delivering a seminar titled "The History of Vedic Prefix-Verb Compound Accentuation Revisited". 

Abstract

The standard accounts of the accentuation of Vedic finite verbs with multiple prefixes are Pāṇini and Delbrück (1888), the latter apparently informed by Pāṇini and the evidence of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. Both accounts are supported by patterns like [1], with accent alternation between the verb and the immediately preceding prefix, and nonaccentuation of any earlier prefixes.

However, neither account is adequate for earlier Vedic. For instance, the Rig Veda has structures like [2], with accent on more than one prefix or on the leftmost prefix and the verb, and the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa offer a few structures like [3] with alternating accent. Moreover, in structures corresponding to [3] the Taittirīya Padapāṭha places iti after the first and third prefix, but not after the second, a fact that suggests that here, too, there was some kind of prosodic prominence alternation, perhaps with “downstep” on the second prefix. Based on evidence of this sort I argue that the Rig Veda presents the first stage in a process of increasing phonological integration of prefixes and verbs and that along the way a principle of alternating accentuation arose in combinations of verbs with multiple prefixes. I map out further developments and conclude by pointing out the implications.

[1]a. abhyúddharati (P 8.1.28 + 8.1.70) — Main Clause accentuation b. abhyuddhárati (P 8.1.66 + 8.1.70 + 8.1.71) — Dependent Clause accentuation

[2]a. úpa prá yantu … (RV 1.40.1c) b. yátra _ abhí saṁ-návāmahe (RV 8.69.5c)

[3] táṁ … prajā́ abhí sam-ā́-vartante (TB 1.1.5.4)

About the Speaker

Professor Hans Hock is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Professor Emeritus of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Professor Emeritus of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Classics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. His research interests are: Historical and comparative linguistics, language contact, language and ideology, typology, phrasal prosody.