PHONOLOGY H3 the vowel qualities a, e, o in a. Consequently this Indo-European alternation has no significance for Sanskrit grammar, and it de- serves brief mention only because the student of the compara- tive grammar of Sanskrit will meet it in the material cited from the related languages. This alternation, like the quantitative alternation is clearly connected with the Indo-European accent. This is evident from the juxtaposition of such forms as Gk. Saipuov, Sat^tovo? on the one hand and 7 Toi/njv, TroipLtvos on the other. The rule is clear that e is the normal grade of a syllable which bears the accent and has always borne the accent (Gk. eon, eiros , Wos, etc.). Accentual changes and the workings of analogy have to some extent contrived to obscure the picture but this central fact remains beyond doubt. An example of the working of analogy may be mentioned ; the termination of the genitive singular appears in some languages in a form that represents IE -es, in others in a form that represents IE -os. Since this termination was sometimes accented and sometimes unaccented, we may reasonably assume that the two forms were originally differ- entiated according to accent. Later in the individual languages one form was generalised, sometimes the -es form and some- times the - os form being chosen. The fact that the IE accent should have two quite different effects is bound up with what has been said above about the accent. The elision of the guna vowel was frequently resisted for morphological reasons, or if eliminated it was restored. Such retained or restored guna vow'd s w r ere then, possibly at a later period, affected in a different way by the accent, so that 0 appears in place of e. Or again the main accent of a word may have changed with the result that the vocalism of the syllable which lost the accent was altered. For instance the numerous words of the type represented by Gk. Salfiojv belong to a class (agent-nouns) which was originally suffixally accented. The type of formative -nop, -pcov, etc., beside older -r^p, -p-jv seems to have come into existence as the result of such an accent shift. §24. Sanskrit and Indo-European Accent The last two sections illustrate the importance of the part played by accent in Indo-European. In dealing with the morphology the accent is an indispensable element, without
