Judge

Paul Wexler
Explorations in Judeo-Slavic Linguistics
p 47, n 201
(discussing interchange of /n/ and /m/ in loans between Hebrew and Slavic)
'... See also OCz Sephyn 'Judges' (late 14th-early 15th c) < He šoft.īm (Schröpfer 1971:358, line 40) vs. B(ela)r(usian) Softim ~ Šoftimъ (1519) (Skaryna's forewords to 1 Kings and 1 Judges respectively). I have no evidence of the confusion of the two nasals from any Jewish source; nor is it clear yet whether the unetymological n or m became lexicalized.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francysk_Skaryna

Isn't it more likely that the OCz Sephyn is related instead to this/these words for "judge"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6ffe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schepen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89chevin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89chevin_(Luxembourg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0epmistr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabino
?

The Semitic root Å¡-p.-t "judge"
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/semham/semet&text_number=1012&root=config
seems to be limited to the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_language
and the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Semitic_languages
which are distantly related, which seems to indicate it's a cultural term. A further relative is found in Chadic
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/semham/wchet&text_number=1009&root=config



Torsten