Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c11.244

c11.244

That the accent tends to preserve the individuality of a syllable appears from § 135, and perhaps also from § 142. The accent may also help to account for a single syllable developing into two, and thus the resolution of *-ām* in the gen. pl. may have begun with words like *narám*, *purám*, *apám*, in which that syllable bore originally the circumflex accent. But it does not appear that the Rigveda makes any distinction in this respect between accented and unaccented syllables.