PROTO: *=ĭrbĔ
MEANING: to sew
COMMENT: The root, originally verbal, has preserved its verbal status only in a few languages (Bacb., Darg., Ud., WC; cf. also Ur. ab-il- 'to join' ( < 'sew together' ?), see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 18). Much more widely spread are old derivates: *jiburV in Western EC languages ( > PN *jub, *ʔab-rV-; Av. ʕébu, Chad. ʕíbur; Lak. p:a, p:ur-; Khin. p:la), *HrVbV̄ and *wVreba in Eastern EC languages (PL *rap:/*räp:, *wurep:a; PD *durup:, *birep:a).
Abdokov (1983, 129) compares the EC forms with a PAK root *bǝ-, tentatively reconstructed by the author with the meaning 'to pierce, punch a hole', on the basis of complex derivates like Kab. pxǝʁa-mbǝ-n 'to punch a hole (by a pointed obj.)' [in Карданов 1957 glossed: 'to crush, squeeze through'] and Shaps. ja-bǝ-xǝ-n 'to fall down (through)'. The morpheme is unclear etymologically (in fact, it may represent the same root as Ad. bǝ 'hole, den' - see Shagirov 1, 102), and the etymology seems dubious.
