[INDOLOGY] Anusvara plus nasal

[jacob at fabularasa.dk]

Dear Franco,

Elisa Frechi and Tyler Williams have suggested the same to me off-list, 
i.e. that the use of anusvara before a nasal stop indicates the 
nasalization of the preceeding vowel.

Tyler Williams further suggests that it is likely due to "the influence 
of the phonology and orthography of the vernaculars". This would fit 
well with the "vernacularized" (Gujarati/Rajastahani) circumstances in 
which I have come across the most examples.

Best,
Jacob

Franco skrev den 2014-06-10 10:15:
> Dear Dominik,
> This is improbable. The additional anusvaras occur far too often and
> also in manuscripts that are very carefully written. I once toyed with
> the idea that this reflects the actual pronunciation in a certain area
> in a certain time, that is, that vowels before nasals were nasalized.
> I never found any evidence for such an assumption.
> Best wishes,
> Eli
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On 10.06.2014, at 08:36, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Without evidence to the contrary, I would normally put this down to
>> scribal carelessness.
>> 
>> Dominik Wujastyk
>> 
>> On 9 June 2014 17:56, <jacob at fabularasa.dk> wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear list,
>>> 
>>> I wonder if anyone could explain the occurence in some Sanskrit
>>> manuscripts (possibly influenced by vernacularisms) of adding an
>>> anusvara before a nasal. I have attached three examples containing
>>> the following readings:
>>> 
>>> Ex. 1: तंन् (तंम् before sandhi)
>>> Ex. 2: महाश्मशांने
>>> Ex. 3: दांन
>>> 
>>> Any suggestions or clarifications would be greatly appreciated.
>>> 
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Jacob
>>> 
>>> Jacob Schmidt-Madsen
>>> Assistant Teacher
>>> Department of Indology
>>> University of Copenhagen
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>>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>>> http://listinfo.indology.info [1]
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