Portal:Poetry/Language Corner archive/June 2006

The pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit, or Vedic accent for brevity, is traditionally divided by Sanskrit grammarians into three qualities, udātta "raised" (acute accent), anudātta "not raised" (grave accent) and svarita "sounded" (circumflex). In the Rigveda, svarita is marked with a small upright stroke above a syllable and anudātta with a horizontal line below the syllable, while udātta remains unmarked.