Proto-North Caucasian: *=ilq_wV- (/*=ilχ_wV-)
Meaning: to kill, slaughter
Notes: The "tense" stem *-ilq_wV- ( / *-ilχ_wV) is usually transitive ("to kill (plur. obj.), to slaughter") and opposed to the "lax" intransitive stem *-ilqwV- (/*-ilχwV) "to die (plur. subj.), to die out". This semantic opposition is rather obscured in Dargwa dialects, where the meanings are sometimes reversed, and sometimes organized in another way (e.g. in Chirag: -elχ:ʷ- 'to kill' vs. -elχʷ- 'to slaughter'), probably because of the intermixture of the two stems. WC languages have preserved only the "tense" stem, used only within compounds, thus it is difficult to formulate the precise meaning of the morpheme in PWC.
In both cases Av.-And. languages (and WC, although here only one variant of the stem was preserved) reflect affricates, while other languages reflect fricatives; a situation which is quite unique and does not occur elsewhere.
