Proto-Lezghian: *lV / *ʔal:V
Meaning: 1 preverb "above" 2 above (adv.) 3 dem. pronoun 4 series Super
Lezghian: al-/el- 1, -l 4
Tabasaran: Vl- 1, -in / -il 4
Agul: al- 1, -l 4
Rutul: l- 1, la-ʔ 2, -la elative, comparative
Tsakhur: ali-d 2; -l (ess. II), -l-qa (all. II), -l-e (abl. II); al- 1
Kryz: li 3
Budukh: al(ad) 3
Archi: jat 2, -t:- 4
Udi: ala 2; ? -l terminative
Comment: The morpheme is very frequent in Lezg. languages. It is, first of all, used as an adverbial stem with the meaning "up, above" (in Arch. as a compound with the pronominal stem ja-) (besides Tsakh. ali-d, Arch. jat and Ud. ala cf. also Bud. la-χa). Second, in several languages it is used as a spatial preverb ("above, from above etc.") (Lezg., Ag., Tab., less frequently in Rut.). In most languages it is also used as a locative suffix of the series Super ("above smth."), cf. Lezg. -al/-el, Tab. -ʔil (a dialectal form, in lit. Tab. -ʔin with secondary nasalisation), Ag. -l, Rut. -l (with semantic transformations: presently it is used within the elative marker -l-a / -ɨl-a), Arch. -t / -t:i. Finally, in some languages *lV (*ʔal:V-) became just a demonstrative pronoun "that" or "this" (which is obviously a late semantic development < "that (above the speaker)"), thus in Ag. li 'that', Kryz. li 'this', Bud. al(ad) 'that'. See Aлексеев 1985, 75.
