Comment: Cf. also Ag. Tp. merǯʷ 'gadfly'. In Rut. and Tsakh. *m- > n-, probably, due to assimilation. Obl. stem *melč:we- or *melč:wa- (cf. Tsakh. Gelm. nožä-). 3d class in Rut. and Tsakh.
Comment: Cf. also Lezg. erg. murḳadi, Khl. mɨrk,mɨrk:adi, Tab. Kand. merk:, Düb. mirk:i. 4th class in Rut., Tsakh., but 3d class in Kryz., Bud. and Archi. Obl. base *merƛ̣:ʷɨ-, cf. Tsakh. mɨk:ɨ- (most other languages reflect only consonantal obl. bases). The Archi word is a historical subessive case ("under the ice").
See Trubetzkoy 1930, 83; Лексика 1971, 189; Гигинейшвили 1977, 70.
Comment: 3d class in Kryz. and Bud. Obl. stem *merχIʷɨ- or *merχIʷä- (to judge from Tab. murχIu-). The root should be distinguished from a very similar PL *werχIʷ id. (see *wēqwV), although they contaminated almost to the point of complete merging.
Comment: Cf. also Ag. Burk. uruʔaj, Fit. urij-ar, Tsakh. Gelm. muʔujä, Tsakh. (prop.) nuʔjä 'mint'. 4th class in Kryz. and Tsakh. Not quite clear is the loss of initial nasal in Ag. (metathesis *muHraj > *ʔumraj > uraj ?).
Comment: All languages reflect a compound with some obscure second element. In Rut. the pronounciation varies between niḳʷnäχI and nuḳnäχI. The Tsakh. form is metathesized, but cf. the more archaic Gelm. ńuḳńaχ.
Comment: 4th class in both languages. The Shakhdagh word presupposes a protoform like *mi(l)tV-ƛʷar. The second part of it is probably the same as in *ʎ:an:ɨ-ƛʷar 'spring' (opposed to *ʎ:an: 'summer' in Tab. xadu-kar : xad, Lezg. gat-far : gad; cf. also Ag. Bursh. šir-kʷar, Khud. š:ir-kʷar 'spring').
The root *mi(l)tV- can also be reflected in Tab. sumčir (Düb. sumčar) 'wedding' - which may be analysed as a reduction < *susu-mčir < *s:ʷes:V-mitir lit. "bride-wedding".
Comment: The vowel reflex is somewhat uncertain (perhaps we should reconstruct *-e-). Absolutely incomprehensible is the initial p- in Bud. 4th class in Rut., Kryz. and Bud.
Comment: Cf. also Lezg. Khl. mɨrs 'bloom (on a plum)'. The Tab. form (mers) is not quite regular in its vowel reflex: cf. the more regular form in Tab. Düb. miš̌. Also deviating is Ag. Bursh. mes (against the more regular Rich. murs). In addition, the final version of the MSU recordings lists Düb. miš:̌i (not miš̌, as it was recorded earlier). We may suspect that we deal here with a confusion of two originally different roots: a) *mirsʷ (with a weak *sʷ) and b) *mäs:ʷ (with a strong *s:ʷ). If this is true, the root *mäs:ʷ would be a perfect match for PTs *mis(:)- 'mould' ( > Tsez., Gin. mesla).
Obl. base *mirsʷɨ- (cf. Lezg. mursu-, Ag. mursi-). See Хайдаков 1973, 102.
Meaning:1 growth, excrescence 2 nipple 3 penis (of a boy)
Lezghian:maṭ 1
Tabasaran:mimiṭ 3 (?)
Tsakhur:miṭ 2
Comment: Cf. also Tsakh. Mishl. miṭi. 3d class in Tsakh. (note that Arch. maṭi < Lak. maṭi). Tab. mimiṭ may belong here (with reduplication), but may be a suffixed form (with -iṭ) of an expressive root, present also in Lezg. Khl. memis 'penis (of a boy)', Khin. mämil 'penis'.
Comment: 3d class in Tsakh. and Arch. Cf. also Tab. Düb. mizmizi 'fly'. The Tsakh., Rut. and Arch. forms are irregularly transformed (the Arch. form probably experienced the influence from PL *c:imc: 'ant' q.v., although the reflex z clearly shows that it belongs to PL *mizmiza).
Comment: Lezg., Tab. and Kryz. reflect a form with the frequent nominal suffix *-Vj. Whereas in Lezg. the loss of *mo- is regular, the same phenomenon in Kryz. still needs a special explanation (perhaps - under Lezg. influence?). The root should be strictly distinguished from *moč̣or q.v. (although they may have partially contaminated).
Comment: 3d class in all class-distinguishing languages. Cf. also Lezg. Khl. t:ur. External parallels make us believe that the Tab. form is the most archaic (muč:̌ur < *moc̣:ʷi-r with -r originally as a suffix); but reasons for loss of *mo- in all other languages are unclear (such a loss is regular only for Lezg.). We may deal here with a secondary contamination with a quite different EC root, reflected in Bezht. c̣oro 'scoop', Cham. č̣ora 'mug'. See Талибов 1980, 264.
Meaning:1 beard 2 chin 3 moustache 4 edge of a plough
Tabasaran:muč̣ur (Khiv.) 4
Agul:muč̣ur 2
Rutul:mɨč̣ri 1
Tsakhur:muč̣ru 3
Budukh:mič̣er 1
Archi:moč̣or 1
Comment: Some of the languages reflect a suffixed form *moč̣ori-j (Tsakh. muč̣ru < *muč̣ri with vowel assimilation). 3d class in all class-distinguishing languages. See Талибов 1960a, 296; Лексика 1971, 104; Гигинейшвили 1977, 135.
