Dimitry:
>Stress/emphasis - where it is placed in Pali words?
In the old grammars rules governing stress are only given for verse, not
for prose. The main source is the Vuttodaya by San.gharakkhita, but the
rules are too long for me to summarize in an e-mail. I suggest that you
consult one of the following:
Vuttodaya, A Study of Pali Metre. R. Siddharatha. Calcutta 1929 (there is
also a very cheap reprint by Sri Satguru Publications, New Delhi, 1981).
Pali Metre. A.K. Warder (PTS 1967)
If you read Russian then look out for a copy of "Yazyk Pali" by Tatiana Y.
Elizarenkova & Vladimir N. Toporov (USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow 1976).
Its chapters on phonemics and versification cover about the same ground as
Warder's book for a fraction of the cost.
As for the accent in prose passages, here are the views of two modern scholars:
"Regarding accent it is difficult to state anything definite about its
phonological significance on the basis of surviving Pali texts because they
are not written in scripts that show accents. We can only confine ourselves
to informed hypotheses established chiefly on diachronic data. On this
basis Pali can reasonably be viewed as having lost the tonal system that
was characteristic of Old Indian, but retaining the original placing of the
accent. This (along with the expiratory character of Pali stress) is often
indicated by changes in the vocalism of the unstressed (from the point of
view of Old Indian) syllables in Pali."
(Yazyk Pali, Elizarenkova & Toporov)
"Nothing has been handed down to us about the nature of the Pali accent. It
is, however, improbable, that the ancient Indian accent was still in force.
It is more likely that, as Jakobi has suggested for Prakrit, the Sanskritic
accent was the rule in Pali. This is suggested by the change in vocalism in
Pali, such as the weakening of a vowel after the accented syllable (in the
Skt form) or its strengthening in the main accented syllable."
(Pali Grammar, Wilhelm Geiger)
If Geiger is correct that "the Sanskritic accent was the rule in Pali",
then stress should be placed on:
1) Long penultimates:
tiracchAAna
2) Ante-penultimates (whether long or short) followed by a short syllable:
anAAlayo
3) The fourth syllable from the end (whether long or short) when two short
syllables follow:
uppAAdayati
Of course there are many exceptions to these rules, so to get the full
picture you would need to consult a Sanskrit grammar or one of the online
Sanskrit courses.
As for the modern pronunciation of Pali (i.e. by Thai, Sinhalese and
Burmese scholars when reading a Pali passage) there isn't any
universally accepted convention governing stress. The Sinhalese, so I'm
told, place the stress according to the same rules that govern Sanskrit, as
I have given them above.
Thais, on the other hand, when reading a Pali text will intone the words
according to the same tonal rules that govern the Thai language, but place
the stress wherever they feel like it. But when chanting Pali, both tone
and stress will depend on which style of chanting they are following; there
are several of them in use. As for the Burmese, I've no idea what they do.
Best wishes,
Robert