Re: [INDOLOGY] Symbols in Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa text
Dominik A. Haas
dominik at haas.asia
Wed Oct 7 06:13:26 UTC 2020
Not being an expert (especially not with scripts) I have often wondered
about the same questions, and my tentative answers are similar to that
of Richard. Especially in the case of the /anunāsika/, however, I think
a certain “conflict” may have been involved: some reciters (of some
traditions) continued to nasalize the end of the vowel or to pronounce a
uvular nasal [ɴ] (as in Japanese), while others began to speak that
sound as a /ṅ/, which then became /ṅg/ or /ṅk/.
In order to avoid a cluster like /śata*ṅg ś*ṛṇuyāma, /they then added a
vowel, perhaps it even was a /u/ (which to my knowledge was the
successor of final /a/ some Prakrit dialects?). Possibly due to the
influence of another tradition, an attempt was made to reconcile this
“/a//ṅgu/” with the pronunciation of a simple nasalized /a/, and the
result was this odd /g(u)ṁ /sound – the logic being that one didn't dare
to simply drop the velar sound, because this is the way one had learned it.
... So much for my early morning speculations, now I'm looking forward
to hearing more from others!
Best,
Dominik
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Am 06.10.2020 um 23:32 schrieb Richard G. Salomon via INDOLOGY:
> I have occasionally wondered whether the rendering in Vedic recitation
> of anusvāra with an additional syllable /guṃ /is a mnemonic device to
> discourage a weak pronunciation or elision entirely of the anusvāra.
> In fact I even wonder whether the standard modern rendering of
> anusvāra with an echo vowel serves the same purpose. Neither of these
> renditions of anusvāra seem to be phonetically motivated; the normal
> development of final sibilants would I think be > spirantization >
> elision (as in Prakrit, etc.).
>
> I would be interested in hearing the experts' opinion on this.
>
> Rich Salomon
>
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 12:15 AM Walter Slaje via INDOLOGY
> <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
>
> Dear Harry Spier,
>
> according to my limited knowledge, Vājasaneyins pronounce(d)
> Anunāsika before semi-vowels, sibilants and h as "*ṅg*",
> represented in writing by a special sign (as in your edition):
> śata*ṃ* śṛṇuyāma → "śata*ṅg* śṛṇuyāma".
> Quite similar to how Germans - in the majority of cases -
> pronounce French nasalizations, e.g. "Karto*ng*" for "carto*n*"
>
> However, the pronunciation when reciting Saṃhitā texts replaces
> the articulation of Anusvāra with a spoken "guṃ". So "tā *guṃ
> *haitām ..." for tā*ṃ* haitām ..."
>
> Your symbol represents an Anusvāra sign in a particular phonetic
> environment.
>
> Vedicists will know better.
>
> Best,
> WS
>
>
> Am Di., 6. Okt. 2020 um 04:02 Uhr schrieb Harry Spier via INDOLOGY
> <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>:
>
> I pasted an image of a page in the text with the symbols but
> I've been informed off-list that it didn't showup so I'm
> attaching it.
> Thanks,
> Harry Spier
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 5:39 PM Harry Spier
> <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com <mailto:vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> First thank you to Lauren Bausch, Steven Lindquest for the
> information about the editions and Caley Smith who pointed
> me to Weber's edition on archive.org <http://archive.org>.
>
> I've just looked at the Weber's printed text . In the
> first line of the image from the text I've pasted below
> there are two symbols I don't understand and have
> highlighted in red. I've never seen the first. The
> second looks like avagraha but I'm not clear why it is
> where it is between long a and a.
> image.png
> Harry Spier
>
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