A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.42

v2.c12.42

There is, however, one other possible way of accounting for the peculiarity. This is the influence of the accent.¹ It is vigorously denied by some that the Sanskrit accent has persisted until modern times; but it may be urged that the idea is a new one, not altogether without support in facts, nor in any way *à priori* impossible, and it is not quite fair to dismiss it contemptuously without due consideration.² The influence of the accent is naturally confined to words of the early Tadbhava class, namely to words which have come down uninterruptedly from those times when Sanskrit was spoken, and whose form depends on the ear, not on the eye. This is all that is claimed for it: it is not pretended that the Sanskrit accent has been preserved in words resuscitated from the written language by learned men, centuries after it had ceased to be spoken.