In Hindostâni, also, as in German and English, the third syllable is generally the limit of the accent, but the influence of the " quantity," as interfering with the receding of the accent, has disappeared; occasionally we meet exceptions of an accent on the fourth syllable, without a secondary accent appearing (as "unanimously" in English, "verständigere" in German): in Hindostâni, however, most of such cases are the more doubtful as it remains undecided whether the short vowels not separately written exist phonetically or not. Oxytones are very frequent in Hindostâni, chiefly on account of the dropping of a terminal syllable formerly existing.' In Tibetan also oxytones occur in geographical names, but the cause is a different one. In Tibetan such words being composed of monosyllabic elements in juxta-position, the accent falls on that of the component part which represents the specific modification.
In general it is most difficult to decide between the proparoxytone and the oxytone, chiefly on account of a secondary accent very frequently existing, particularly if the word is a compound one. Generally we found ourselves best guided by getting the words placed in a sentence and having them pronounced moderately fast. Where the terminal vowel has disappeared, the accent becomes somewhat undefined. Words composed with " pur," as "Indrapur," generally have the accent on. the specific part of the name nearly as well marked as on "pur." If the penultimate is long and otherwise accentuated, it happens that words terminating in "ur" also become paroxytones, e. g. "Sultânpur."
Though not assisted by precedent observers in the use of the phonetic accent, it was not found so difficult as was at first expected to decide its position. Native pronunciation in general allows one to hear very distinctly which are the accentuated syllables, whilst the quantity of the syllables and even the vowels themselves show a tendency to much greater personal and dialectic variations.
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