Can you help breakdown 言わん?
彼女は当たり前と言わんばかりに答えた
She answered as if it was a matter of fact.
Are these incorrect, have different meanings?
彼女は当たり前と言うばかりに答えた
彼女は当たり前なことばかりに答えた
彼女は当たり前なんだとばかりに答えた
Do you know another way of saying "as if to say"?
Answer
Edit: In light of Tsuyoshi's comments below, I am changing my etymological explanation.
To answer your first question: 言わんばかり was originally 言わむばかり. This can be broken down into two parts: 言わむ, which is the classical form of 言おう, and ばかり, which here is being used in the sense of something just about to happen. So 言わんばかり might be literally translated as ‘as if [he] wanted to say’.
As for your alternatives:
彼女は当たり前と言うばかりに答えた
This is somewhat ungrammatical, but would probably be interpreted as the exact opposite: ‘She answered just saying “of course”.’ If we change it to 「彼女は当たり前と言ったばかりに答えた。」 it would mean, ‘She answered just because it was said to be obvious.’
彼女は当たり前なことばかりに答えた
This would probably be interpreted like the above: ‘She answered just because it was obvious.’
彼女は当たり前なんだとばかりに答えた
This means the same thing as the original sentence, but is more emphatic. The なんだ can (should?) be omitted.
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