Proto-North Caucasian: *ʔV̄ƛ̣V
Meaning: prince, master
Notes: Among modern languages the root is attested only within Nakh (an old borrowing from Nakh or some close language is probably Arch. hal-lu / hal 'master'). However, the root is no doubt archaic, because it has interesting parallels in HU: Hurr. all-ae 'princess, queen', *allae-ɣǝ 'household' (borrowed in Arm. aɫx 'family, household', allae-χi-nnǝ 'housewife' ( > Arm. aɫaxin 'serving woman, female slave'); Ur. al-ae 'master, ruler', al-awe 'great'. See Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 50.
The HU forms with the *-χǝ-suffix (voiced in Hurr. -ɣ-) are particularly interesting, because it seems that they were borrowed back into EC languages with the meaning 'slave': cf. Av., Cham. laʁ, Darg. laʁ, Lak. laʁ ( > Arch. (Mikailov) laχ-t:u 'obedient'), Tind. laʁa, Akhv., Kar. laʁe, God. laʁi 'slave', PL *laʁ > Arch. lo (erg. laha) 'child'.
