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 śataṅg śṛṇuyāma, 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 “aṅgu” 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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Dominik A. Haas, BA MA
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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@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): śataṃ śṛṇuyāma → "śataṅg śṛṇuyāma".

Quite similar to how Germans - in the majority of cases - pronounce French nasalizations, e.g. "Kartong" for "carton"

However, the pronunciation when reciting Saṃhitā texts replaces the articulation of Anusvāra with a spoken "guṃ". So "tā guṃ haitām ..." for tāṃ 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@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@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.

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. 

 

Harry Spier

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