Proto-North Caucasian: *ɦrĕʒ_́wǝ̆
Meaning: long hair, tail
Notes: Reconstructed for the PEC level. The original meaning was probably "long hair, hair in tail" with the meaning "hair" preserved only in Darg. Correspondences are regular except for the vowel in PL (we would rather expect *ħirč:ʷ or *ħärč:ʷ); however, we must note that in this root most Lezghian languages lost the initial syllable, thus the PL vocalic reconstruction is not very certain.
PL has also another root, PL *(j)ic̣: (Arch. ic̣, erg. ic̣:i, Rut. dɨn < *(j)ic̣:ɨ-n) "goat's wool". It may reflect a separate PEC root which had merged with *ɦrĕʒ́_wǝ̆ in other languages (cf. the meaning "goat's wool" in Av. Chad. and PTs).
