First thank you everyone for this discussion. 

1) I've just had a quick look at the first verse of the Rudram, which is  taittirīya-saṁhitā book 4 chapter 5 verse 1 and in addition to before  semivowels, sibilants and h,  it looks like  in taittiriya texts gumkara is sometimes pronounced  before the vowel u and sometimes not?

See these lines from the verse TS 4.5.1

nama'ste astu danv'ane bāhubhyā'm uta te namaḥ |

vi'jyaṁ dhana'ḥ kapardino viśa'lyo baṇa'vā(gum) uta |

ubhābyā'm uta te namo' bāhubhyāṁ tava dhanva'ne |

2) I've also listened to some recordings I have of taittirīya priests from Satara, Maharashtra, reciting.

When they chant gaṇānām tvā gaṇapatim havāmahe as the introductory line to gaṇapati-atharvaśīrṣa-stotram, they pronounce it without the gumkara as: gaṇānām tvā gaṇapatiṁ havāmahe but when they recite the same line as an introductory line to the taittirīya rudram, they do pronounce the gumkara. They chant:   gaṇānām tvā gaṇapatigum havāmahe . When these same priests recite the bhagavadgītā they pronounce anusvara in the non-vedic way without gumkara anywhere.

Thanks,

Harry Spier

On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 3:14 AM Walter Slaje <walter.slaje@gmail.com> 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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