Aranea

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Aranea vocatur grece sphalangion arabice vero rutella.


Apparatus:

sphalangion BH efj | sphalagion AC p
arabice | j͂ {= infra} ms. j
{arabice} uero B efj | vocatur ACH
rutela ACH e | rutella B fj


Translation:

{Latin} Aranea {"spider"} is called sphalangion in Greek and in Arabic rutela.


Commentary:

sphalangion:
For the Greek lemma see Sfalangion, Sphalangion.


rutela:
Cf. Vocabulista, ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 105) [[1]]: ﺭﺗﻴﻠﺔ /rutaila/ Aranea; (1871: 249): ARANEA … ﺭﺗﻴﻠﺔ ﺍﺕ /rutaila ~āt/ [[2]], quoted in Dozy (1877-81: I.509) ﺭﺗﻴﻠﺔ /rutaila/ araignée {i.e. "spider"} with Vocabulista as his source.

Simon's transcription could possibly portray a similar word: cf. Dozy ibid. ﺭﺗﻴﻼﺀ /rutailāʔ/ "phalange (sorte d’araignée) … tarantule" {i.e. "phalangion (a kind of spider) ... tarantula"; also Wehr: ﺭﺗﻴﻼﺀ /rutailāʔ/ "harvestman (Phalangium), daddy longlegs; tarantula".

The Classical Arabic (CA) diphthong /ai/ was and is often changed to /ē/ in regional varieties, i.e. CA /rutaila/ > /rutēla/ or CA /rutailāʔ/ > /rutēlā/ with loss of hamza. Since vowel length was no longer distinctive in the Romance languages Simon most likely did not hear the length and simply transcribed it as rutela.


WilfGunther 10:20, 18 July 2014 (BST)


See also Sfalangion, Sphalangion.


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