Talk:փակ

Semitic

@Vahagn Petrosyan Is it too daring to compare with this word for a lock Arabic فَكّ‎ (fakk, “jaw”), Classical Syriac ܦܟܐ (pakkā, “jaw”) ^(CAL), Jewish Babylonian Aramaic פַּגָּא (paggā, “jaw”) ^(CAL). I think it is easy to liken a lock to a jaw – also the meaning “outstretched tooth” in Syriac is close much to the meaning “bolt”. Then the verb فَكَّ (fakka, “break open, untie etc.”) is of high frequency – thus seen the lock is not called after its being slotted but after its being opened. There is something to say about lock technology passing from Aramaic all around, see قُفْل (qufl), سُكَّار (sukkār), إِقْلِيد (ʔiqlīd), apart from various other things I do not reconstruct now from my memory – {{R:ar:Diem-Türschlösser}} was also very enlightening. Fay Freak (talk) 18:34, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

@Fay Freak: Thanks for the interesting parallels, but unless we find the meaning ‘to close’ or ‘a lock’ in Semitic, the comparison is very speculative. In Old Armenian, the verb փակեմ (pʻakem, “to close”) is more common than the noun ‘lock’ or the adjective ‘closed’. The noun and the adjective perhaps developed from it. There are the similar sounding կափ- (kapʻ-) and խուփ- (xupʻ-, “to close”). I think all of these are sound-symbolic. The Wikipedia article on Sound symbolism has the following sentence: "As for finals in Old Chinese, Schuessler points out, "Words that signify movement with an abrupt endpoint often end in *-k," and "Words with the meaning 'shutting, closing' ... tend to end in final *-p."" --Vahag (talk) 06:52, 2 July 2020 (UTC)