Negem

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Negem et negil et theil arabice gramen ut apud Serapionem.


Apparatus:

Negen efp | Negẽ AC | Negel B j | Negem scripsi (Wilf Gunther)
theil AC j | thel B fp | tel ms. e
ut om. j


Translation:

Negem and negil and theil are Arabic words for Latin gramen {"grass"} and they are mentioned in Serapion.


Commentary:

Wehr (1976): ﻧﺠﻢ /nağm/ i.a. "herbs, herbage, grass"; ﻧﺠﻴﻞ /nağīl/ "a variety of orchard grass (Dactylis; bot.); herbage". Siggel (1950: 70): ﻧﺠﻢ /nağm/; ﻧﺠﻴﻞ /nağīl/ = ﺛﻴﻞ /ṯīl/ Triticum repens L. (Gram.), Quecke {i.e. "couch grass"}, now generally referred to as Elymus repens (L.) Gould [[1]].

A vocalisation closer to Simon’s is found in Vocabulista, ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 202): … ﻧﺠﻢ /nağm/ Herba, stella, [[2]], but (1871: 413) : … ﻧﺠﻢ /nağam/ HERBA [[3]]. This seems to indicate that at least in Andalusi Arabic both pronunciations, i.e. /nağm/ and /nağam/ were found.

Palacios (1943: 137) has excerpted a similar statement: 264: GRAMA – grama de España o común: ﺛﻞ ﻭﻳﺴﻤﻰ ﺑﻠﻌﺠﻴﺔ ﻏﺮﺍﻣﺔ... ﻭﺑﻠﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ ﺍﻟﻨﺠﻢ ﻭﺍﻟﻨﺠﻴﻞ ﺍﺿﺎ /ṯayl wa-yusammā bi-l-ʕağamīyah ġarāma . . . wa-bi-l-ʕarabīyah al-nağm wa-l-nağīl ayḍan/ {only vowels in bold print are marked in the original Arabic} - “/ṯayl/ is called in /ʕağmīyah/ {i.e. Romance of Spain} /ġarāma/ and in Arabic /al-nağm/ and /al-nağīl/ as well”.

For /ġarāma/ cf. Spanish grama as in < Latin gramen, cf. Spanish, Galician, Poruguese grama, Catalan (a)gram. Asín Palacios identifies it with grama de España or grama común, which is Cynodon dactylon Persoon “dog’s tooth grass”, probably originally a native of India or the Middle-East, but now an invasive species over much of the globe [[4]].

Simon is referring to (Goehl) Serapion: Gramen. 115. (118.) Negem id est thel id est negil id est gramen.
Also: {Available online} 1531 print: In hoc volumine, etc., p. 94: DE GRAMINE. CXIX Vegen, id est, thel, id est, negil, id est, gramen. [[5]].
N.b. For Vegen read: Negen.

WilfGunther (talk) 28/12/13

See also: Teil


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