Proto-North Caucasian: *mūqV
Meaning: barley
Notes: Reconstructed for the PEC level. Correspondences are regular (Lak. qa < *muqa with a regular loss of *mu-). The regular reflex of *mūqV in PTs is *miχV; thus another root, PTsKh *maqa 'barley' (Tsez., Gin., Inkh. maqa) must be considered as a loanword. The most probable source for it is Proto-Kartvelian *maqa ( ~ -χ-); see Klimov 1964, 130 about this root, which itself can be a loanword from some PEC dialect.
