Silbahet

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Silbahet arabice anguilla.


Apparatus:

Silbahet ABC e | Sibahet f

anguilla ef | anguila ABC


Translation:

Silbahet is Arabic for Latin anguilla {"eel"}.


Commentary:

The word is recorded in Vocabulista, ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 242): ANGUILLA ﺳﻠﺒﺎﺣﺔ /silbāḥa/, ﺳﻠﺒﺎﺢ /silbāḥ/, ﻭﺳﻼﺑﺢ /wa-salābiḥ/ [[1]].

Also in Dozy (1877-81: I.671), ﺳﻠﺒﺎﺢ /silbāḥ/, nom d’un. ﺓ, pl. ﺳﻼﺑﻴﺢ /salābīḥ/ et Vocabulista ﺳﻼﺑﺢ /salābiḥ/; au Maghrib, anguille {i.e. "eel"}, quoting i.a. Vocabulista and Pedro de Alcalá as his sources. Also Corriente (1989: 153), s.v. *SLBḤ... .

The word is further mentioned by Karbstein (2002: 269): s.v. 9) Aal {i.e. "eel"} ﺳﻠﺒﺎﺣﺎ ﻋﺠﻤﻴﺔ ﺍﻧﻔﻠﻪ /silbāḥā ʕağamiya anġilla/ - "/silbāḥā/ is in Romance /anġilla/", {cf. Catalan/Spanish anguila "eel"}, proving that it was still in use by the Morisco community as late as the early 17th c.

Simon’s transcription Silbahet seems to represent a regular plural */silbāḥāt/, which is however not attested in any of the literature consulted.

WilfGunther 14:05, 1 September 2014 (BST)

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