Comments: Cf. also a tabooistic use in Tind. eja 'penis'. The semantic correlation 'thing' - 'what' (interrog. pronoun) is also observed elsewhere, cf. e.g. PN *fu-(n) 'what' - *fu-ma 'thing' etc.
Other Andian languages reflect a similar stem: PA *dan(HV) 'thing' - which may be actually a later contraction < *Hida-nV (with a frequent nasal suffix). Cf. And. dan, Cham. dā̃, Kar. Tok. da (plur. dan-dibi), God. dãji 'thing'.
Comments: The root is used either independently (with the suffixed class marker -b) - mostly in the 3d (inanimate) class, but in Cham. and God. also in the 1st/2d classes - or in conjunction with another interrogative stem, *mV (see *ʔi-mV) - in the 1st/2d classes. Cham., Tind. and Kar. reflect also a stem *hidV- / *ʔidV- 'what' - but since there does not exist a class marker *-d, it is rather a quite different stem (see under *ʡǟdV 'thing; interrog. pronoun').
The most archaic form is Kar. (with *h-); other languages reflect the PA weakened variant, *ʔi-.
Comments: Cf. also Kar. Arch., Anch. heƛ̣:-, Cham. Gig. hiƛ̣:-. k- in Kar. is an old preverb. Reasons for -n-conjugation in And. are not clear. In Tindi there also exists a word ƛ̣:o 'a particle of indirect speech ("says")', reflecting an old Ablaut stem.
Comments: Av. has a suffixed form (with -il); accent paradigm B (ƛ̣:olbó-l,ƛ̣:albá-l). Note the parallel meaning 'kin, family' in Av. (a rather archaic feature).
Cf. also Akhv. Tlan., Ratl., Tseg. eƛ̣:eb, Kar. Anch. reƛ̣:ebo ( < *herƛ̣:ebo). The epenthetic -r- in Kar. Anch. and Bagv. is obviously secondary.
Comments: Tindi has an irregular strong affricate (-ƛ̣:-) which shouldn't correspond to Av. ṭ and And. -l- (< *ƛ̣). This must be probably explained by the auxiliary nature of the stem.
Comments: Av. paradigm A (ríc̣:i-l), but Chad. B~C (nuc̣í-l). Cf. also Cham. Gig. hinc̣:ur id. Already for PAA a form like *hrimc̣:V should be reconstructed (to account for Av. ric̣:).
Comments: Av. paradigm B (gen. ʕinṭí-dul; Chad. niṭí-l,naṭá-l). Cf. also Av. Shangud. nolʔo, Andal. ʕinli (in some Av. dialects there occurred a rather frequent metathesis of nasality in the first weak syllable with laryngeal), Akhv. Tseg. miṭa, And. dial. (Khaid.) hinalo-l,hinlʔa-l 'sweetbrier'. Av. ʕinṭi > Darg. Ak. ʕinṭ id.
Comments: Av. paradigm C (ṭiná-lzul,ṭína-bi; but Chad. A: gen. ṭínu-l). Cf. also Av. Gid. (Gudava) ƛ̣ino, And. (Gudava) hinƛ̣u, Akhv. Ratl. miƛ̣o, Tseg., Tlan. miṭu (the North. form miƛ̣ido is originally locative), Cham. Gig. hinnu, God. Zib. hilmu. Akhv. miƛ̣o is an obvious metathesis < *ʔimƛ̣o; in Av. one would rather expect *ʔinṭu (or *niṭu); the form ṭinu is a result of metathesis (or an exceptional preservation of the archaic consonant order).
Comments: Av. paradigm A (loc. hóc̣:a-ƛ̣:, pl. hóc̣:a-bi; Chad. hóc̣ki-l,hóc̣ki-l). The Chad. form includes a diminutive suffix -ku (-ḳu). In most Andian languages (except Kar.) the word is homonymous with *hinc̣:u 'door' - which is, of course, accidental (cf. the opposition in Av. hóc̣:u vs. nuc̣:á).
Comments: Cf. also Cham. Gig. c̣:in-č̣aq̇:ulda 'naked'. In Tind. and Cham. the root *hinc̣:V- is provided by expressive suffixes. [In Cham. Gig. -č̣aq̇:ul-da may be a remnant of another root, possibly reflected (with distortions) in Darg. č̣aInḳ(u)-si and Lak. ḳač̣a-s:a 'naked'; cf. also Akhv. (cited from Khaid., thus not very reliable), q̇:uč̣a 'naked'.]
