PROTO: *bʕaltkē
MEANING: a big hoofed animal
COMMENT: The PEC reconstruction is somewhat dubious, first of all because of the unique cluster *-ltk- in the stem. Cf. also an interesting Lak-Darg. isogloss, pointing to a reconstruction *b(H)VldV: Lak. burt:ij 'on horse-back', burt:ijhu 'rider', PD *murt:a 'rider' (Ak. murda, Chir. mart:a).
All the listed forms can be in fact old loanwords from Alanic (Scythian), cf. Scyth. *bālya- 'troup of horse riders', *bālti- 'horse ride' - reconstructed on basis of Osset. bal, balc and going back to an Iranian verbal stem *bār- 'to mount, ride (on horse-back)'. Other reflexes of this verb in Ossetian are bajrag 'foal, stallion' and baräg 'horse-rider' (whence a later Nakh loanword: Chech. bērī, Ing. bäri).
