North Caucasian etymology : List with all references

Proto-North Caucasian: *bŏrGwV̄ ( ~ -ǝ-)

Meaning: stall, shed; tower

Proto-West Caucasian: *ba[q:I]V

Notes: Cf. Urart. burg-ana- ( > Arm. burgn) 'tower, fortress' (see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 18). An interesting common NC term - which has parallels in some European languages (an old Wanderwort). Abdokov (1983, 125) compares the Kab. form with heterogeneous EC material (Darg. dirq, Tab. aqI) which is hardly justified.

Avar-Andian etymology :

Protoform: *birʁʷa ( ~ -o)

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: shed, penthouse

Akhvakh: beʁʷa

Karata: beʁʷa (Tok.)

Botlikh: beʁuj

Comments: Cf. also Akhv. Tlan. borʁo, Tseg. berʁa id.

Tsezian etymology :

Proto-Tsezian: *beʁ(:) (~ o,ɔ)

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: horse stall

Khvarshi: beʁ (Radzhibov)

Inkhokvari: beʁ

Comments: PTsKh *beʁ.

Abkhaz-Adyghe etymology :

Proto-West-Caucasian: *ba[q:I]V

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: 1 shed, cattle-shed 2 fortress, castle

Abkhaz: a-bā́ 2

Kabardian: baq 1

Comments: The Abkh. form presupposes PAT *baʕa (*bǝʕa), where -ʕ- < PWC *-q:I-. In Kab. one would rather expect -q: and not -q (a regular PAK match for PAT *baʕa would be *baq:V). This form must have indeed existed and is reflected in the Abaz. loan from Kabardian - baq̇ 'cattle-shed' (where q̇ is a regular Abaz. substitute for Kab. q: in loanwords). The reason for weakening -q: > -q in modern Kabardian is not quite clear. From the semantic point of view the correlation "cattle-shed" : "fortress" is not surprising, because it is known that towers/fortresses were used for keeping cattle.

Armenian bak 'sheep-fold, enclosure' is probably of Caucasian origin, see Acharyan 1, 907 (although it may be borrowed also from Georg. baḳi 'fence, enclosure' - which, for phonetic reasons, can not be compared with WC forms - despite Kuipers 1960, 83, Shagirov 1, 73).