Syllables and Stress

I have received a couple of request now for information about accent or stress in Pali pronunciation. This is a poorly covered area - and I have to add I'm not an expert. But from reading mainly Sanskrit guides and guides to Pali Prosody (poetry & metre) I think there are a few things to be aware of.

First, Pali tends towards time duration rather than accent or stress. So in pronunciation, a short vowel is half the length of a long vowel. Vedic Sanskrit has a musical 'pitch accent' that I believe did not transfer to Pali.

Heavy & Light syllables in Pali

Vowels are classed as either short or long, but syllables in Pali are classed as heavy & light. So lets talk syllables.

Splitting Syllables

Syllables end at a space, another vow, or single consonant, so inside a word, they tend to break between a vowel & consonant, v-Cv,  for example:

e-vaṃ  me  su-taṃ
e-kaṃ  sa-ma-yaṃ  bha-ga-vā
sā-vat-thi-yaṃ  vi-ha-ra-ti  je-ta-va-ne

But notice not always, as in the last line...  Ānandajoti gives the following two rules:

1. a syllable followed by another vowel or by a single consonant is divided after the vowel,
   vi-ha-ra-ti
2. a syllable followed by a double consonant is divided after the first consonant,
   añ-ña-ta-rā, sā-vat-thi-yaṁ

For more examples see Ānandajoti's syllable guide...

Classifying Syllables

Now a syllable is heavy (¯) if the vowel is long, or followed by a consonant cluster or an anusvāra:

• long vowel [ā, ī, ū, e, o],
• [a, i, u] + ṃ,
• or  [a, i, u] + CC

And likewise, a syllable is light (͝ ) if it contains a short vowel [a, i, u] not followed by a consonant cluster or anusvāra.

• short vowel [a, i, u] + Cv

Returning to our examples:

aṭṭatarā
¯	͝	͝	¯
aṭ	-ṭa	-ta	-rā

sāvatthiyaṃ
¯	¯	͝	¯
sā	-vat	-thi	-yaṃ

See Warder pg357. And Ānandajoti's Prosody guide Sec 1.1...

Heavy syllables are emphasized/stressed (drawing out the long vowels), while one passes rapidly over light ones. - You'll find more information in articles on Prosody generally.
Also see 'An Introductory Reader and Grammar' By Rune E. A. Johansson pg14.

For a discussion on this subject see:
https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/correct-pali-pronunciation-differentiating-long-and-short-vowels-and-syllables/11126

Stress Accent

Finally, there is also  'stress accent' where stress is placed on the last heavy syllable of the word, but not the last syllable itself. So stress tend to fall on the penultimate syllable (if heavy) or one further back.


I hope this is of some help ;-)