  We investigate the light quarkonium spectrum using a covariant
Dyson-Schwinger-Bethe-Salpeter-equation approach to QCD. We discuss splittings
among as well as orbital angular momentum properties of various states in
detail and analyze common features of mass splittings with regard to properties
of the effective interaction. In particular, we predict the mass of sbars
exotic 1-+ states, and identify orbital angular momentum content in the
excitations of the rho meson. Comparing our covariant model results, the rho
and its second excitation being predominantly S-wave, the first excitation
being predominantly D-wave, to corresponding conflicting lattice-QCD studies,
we investigate the pion-mass dependence of the orbital-angular-momentum
assignment and find a crossing at a scale of $m_\pi$ ~ 1.4 GeV. If this
crossing turns out to be a feature of the spectrum generated by lattice-QCD
studies as well, it may reconcile the different results, since they have been
obtained at different values of $m_\pi$.
