Proto-North Caucasian: *kăwčǝ̄ (~ -ǝ-)
Meaning: bitch
Notes: The word is very similar in different subbranches, and some interlingual borrowings may have had happened (some of the certain borrowings were mentioned above). It is not excluded, that the Av. dialectal forms are borrowed from Lak., and that the Khin. form is borrowed from the Shakhdagh languages. However, the Tsezian and Lezghian forms can not be borrowed from any external source.
The root is close phonetically and semantically (and thus reveals a tendency to contaminate) with PEC *gwăǯē 'dog, bitch'. However, they are opposed in several languages and must be kept apart.
