A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c7.84

v1.c7.84

The opinion I am at present most inclined to is that the presence of the long â is due to the accent of the Sanskrit. Saptan is undoubtedly oxytone, and though I have not been able to find in the dictionaries or other published works any instance in which the accent of saptavinsati is given, yet I have no reason to doubt that, as in Greek, the accent remains in the compound word just as it stood on each member when separate. In Greek the rule which forbids us to place an accent further back than the ante-penultima obscures the analogy; but in Sanskrit we have no such restriction, and sáptavinsáti, with the minor accent on the penultima, and the major on the pre-antepenultima, is quite possible. Assuming this, and seeing that the two last syllables *ati* have disappeared, the word would fall into the form of a paroxytone, and the accent on the syllable *ta* being the only one left, would assume such prominence as to insure its remaining long throughout the ages.