Sword

Roy Andrew Miller,
Languages and History: Japanese, Korean, and Altaic, p. 186
"
Some of the Middle Korean words with these initial consonant clusters
[mentioned supra] are, to be sure, somewhat startling, at least when
first encountered. One might be forgiven, for example, for not wishing
to take at face-value the evidence of a Chinese-Korean glossary of
1527 to the effect that NKor. kkul 'a chisel' reverts to MKor. 'pskul.
But in fact the psk- of this 'pskul, first attested in 1439, is no
lexicographer's fantasy. The word, an important and old technical
term, has had an enormously complicated history in Asia, but among the
wide diversity of obviously related forms that attest to the "phonetic
reality" of the initial consonants in MKor. 'pskul are OJ masakari 'a
large axe-like tool, for mutilation-punishments; also a military
weapon', Ainu makara 'axe', Gk. mákaira 'a large knife, dirk, sabre',
and even Heb. meke:ra:(h) 'sword'. The network of detail that ties all
these words together in one way or another is involved in the extreme,
and certain elements of it remain unclear; but enough is known to
demonstrate that MKor. 'pskul was not simply an arbitrary way "to
spell kkul", as some would still insist (1985C).
"

H. Fromm,
Germanisch-Finnische Lehnforschung und germanische Sprachgeschichte
in H. Beck(ed.), Germanenprobleme in heutiger Sicht
"
Die bekannte Opposition got. e: vs. nordgerm./westgerm. a: (le:tan vs.
láta bzw. lâzzan) unterstützt als eine wichtige Isoglosse die heute
mehrheitlich verfochtene Anschauung einer Zweigliedrigkeit des germ.
Sprachgebietes gegenüber der traditionell verfochtenen
Dreigliederigkeit von Nord-, West-und Ostgerm. Die Lehnwörter lassen
mit fi. -ie- (< e:)-Reflex und fi. -a-(< a:) den jeweiligen Lehngeber
noch gut erkennen (vgl. urgerm. *me:kja- > me:keis "Schwert" ~ osfi.
*me:kka > fi. miekka "id" gegen urgerm. *xe:Baz > nwgerm. *ha:Baz >
an. háfr "Fischreuse" ~ sposfi. *haBas > fi. havas "Netzgewebe für
Fischereigeräte").
"

Complicated. Cf. Sue:bi with e: and German Schwaben, Danish
Suavers-lev, 1257 (now Svogerslev), ie the Sue:bi were still at the e:
stage. Perhaps e: loans are from the area of Germanic genesis close to
BValtic-speakers, and a: loans from their later colonization of the
Finnish and Estonian coast.


Torsten