Accent or intonation? The vocative in Vedic. With an excursus on Greek

Abstract

From the point of view of accentology the Vedic vocative is remarkable for two reasons: In clause-initial position, its first syllable bears an udātta irrespective of word accent. In all other positions, the vocative has anudātta throughout. These striking tonal patterns, however, do not reflect word accent. Rather, they are a means to render intonational patterns like the vocative chant with an initial high boundary tone and a low tone in parentheticals respectively. Similarly, the seeming deaccentuation in finite main clause verbs is a way of marking the low tone associated with the right boundary of assertive utterances. Regarding word level accent, vocatives do not differ from nominatives. The calling contour proposed for Vedic clause-initial vocatives is also attested in Greek, which, however, underwent a change in historic times leading to the introduction of a vocative particle as a host for the chant-initial high tone.