Language study is that area of knowledge where the ancient Indians have contributed toa commendable extent. The early speculations about the nature of language are to betraced as early as in the Vedic period. The language was considered to be of divine origin.The Ṛgveda (ṚV 8.100.11) (circa 2000 BCE) the earliest form of sacred literaturementions:devī́ṁ vā́cam ajanayanta devā́s tā́ṁ viśvárūpāḥ paśávo vadanti |sā́ no mandréṣam ū́rjaṁ dúhānā dhenúr vā́g asmā́n úpa súṣṭutaítu ||“The gods created this divine speech which is spoken in by various beings. Let thatcow, who is well-praised bestowing vigour and strength approach us.”For the ancient Vedic ṛṣis (seers) language was much more than a simple means ofcommunication. Speech or language, for them, was of divine origin and they sought togain the grace of the speech. The seers considered it to be an effective means of gratifyingthe deities in the nature like Agni (fire), Indra (thunderbolt), Marut (winds), etc.Subsequently, prime importance was given to the accurate usage of speech without even asmallest variation in a letter, accent or length. It was strongly believed that a mantra ifuttered erroneously would bring harm to the performer as it would not convey theintended meaning. The compound indraśatru can be dissolved in two ways based on theaccent as indrasya śatruḥ, the slayer of Indra and indraḥ śatruḥ yasya, one whose slayeris Indra.
Joshi et al. (Mon,) studied this question.