剣 by itself can be read either way. What's the difference?
Clarification: In particular, when 剣 refers to a 諸刃 sword, which reading are natives more likely to use?
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2 Answers
A little research leads me to believe that つるぎ refers exclusively to double-bladed swords (諸刃{もろは}の剣{つるぎ}) while けん can refer to any sword, including single- or double-bladed, as well as a bunch of other metaphorical meanings and referring to sword arts and whatnot.
See the answer here:
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1035588605
As for which is more common, it's けん.
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From what I understand, moroha just means any kind of double bladed sword, not a particular subset of double bladed swords. If this understanding is correct, then tsurugi and ken are applicable to double bladed swords (most swords...), and ken is applicable also to single bladed swords or dull swords like scimitars or practice swords. That still leaves me with the question: for a generic (double bladed) sword, which reading is more common?– HALJul 24, 2013 at 16:15
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1I never see any word for it except けん, and I feel like a good many of the swords I see referred to as けん are double bladed...– ssbJul 25, 2013 at 8:27
tsurugi = native (ancient) Japanese word
ken = (ancient) Chinese pronunciation that came with Kanji
These two types of pronunciation are called 訓読み（和語） and 音読み（漢語）
We usually read 剣 as ken. tsurugi is not common.
