kwaw
This list (with heh as ver punica) is also given in "Syriacae linguae prima elementa". 1971 - there is only a snip view however, so I don't know the context or purpose (could there be a possible syriac explanation for the worm, I wonder.).
Another book I looked at gave "Caninius" as a source for Coph = Simius. Wondering who this Caninius could be led me to Angleo Canini, who had published Institutiones linguae Syriacae, Assyriacae atque Thalsmudicae, una cum Aethiopicae. Atque Arabicae collatione, in 1554, with the table in the above (which maybe a modern reprint of his work, not sure). The book is available as a pdf download from here:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...F_VtpTrEesmUQSg&bvm=bv.59568121,d.d2k&cad=rja
Wiki entry on Angelo Canini:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Canini
The Italian has a little more information:
"In 1554 C. published in Paris his first work on Eastern languages , dedicating to the bishop du Prat : Institutiones linguae syriacae , assyriacae atque thalmudicae , a cum aethyopicae atque arabicae collatione, republished in the same year with the addition of a Novi Testaments multorum locorum historica Enarratio.
"The Institutiones was one of the first ( if not the first ) grammars of Oriental languages to have been printed. In it, C. exposes the naive theory that the original Hebrew language are derived from Syriac , Arabic and Ethiopic, with its four greek dialect distinctions , Latin and the Romance languages. In Enarratio , later reprinted in Antwerp in 1600 under the title De locis S. Scripturae hebraicis A. C. commentarius, C. aims to explain etymologically New Testament passages in which there appears Hebrew terms. Of this work there is a third edition, in London ( 1660) : Disquisitiones leased aliquot Novi Testaments obscuriora ( in Critical Sacred , VII , London 1660 , p. 211 ff.) ."