Proto-North Caucasian: *ʡĕrŁ_ɨ̆
Meaning: seven
Notes: A very stable common NC numeral. It is also attested in HU: although the normal Hurr. word for 'seven' is šitta- (a Semitic loanword), the old root may be discovered in Hurr. fāīrǝ ( < *wa(H)er-) "the seven stars, the Pleiades" (see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 20). In most NC subgroups (including HU) this numeral reveals a reflex of the old class marker *u_- (*u_ʡĕrŁ_ɨ̆); labial *b- in PWC is also a trace of the class prefix. Special phonetic comments: in Lak. arul < *ʔarl- (insertion of a parasitic vowel between two liquids); the uvular reflex in PD is due to the lost laryngeal; in PWC palatalisation of *Ĺ is secondary (there does not exist a non-palatalised *L in PWC). Otherwise all correspondences are regular.
See Trubetzkoy 1922, 241, 243; 1930, 275; Абдоков 1983, 152.
