I'll invoke my own armillary principle and say that anything represented more than once has evoked the same loose association in more than one of us, and is therefore made-up and to be discarded. Thus

-- a, f: a small shot-glass by any other name
-- b, c, h, l: something fishy about all those
-- c, j sounds like "pike." Maybe that's where all the fish came from too, come to think of it. [aside: anybody heard from shona lately?]
-- d, m - I never did care all that much for figgy pudding
-- k - that's just "spike." See c,j above.
-- n is just too silly. Besides, everyone knows that "consonantal drift" is just another word for plate tectonics.

Doesn't leave too much to choose from, does it...I'll take E over g and i; it has the right ring to it.