Proto-North Caucasian: *rīlć_wī ( ~ -ǝ̄-)
Meaning: girl, woman
Notes: Medial *-l- is suggested by the PD form (where *-l- regularly > -r-). In PL we should expect *jVš:V-j; the form *jVčVj was probably influenced by PL *čɨj / *rV-čɨj 'sister' (see *-ɨ̆ć_ĭ).
Although all the forms point to PEC *r-, this consonant may represent the old female class marker; in that case the root *-īlć_wī can be a result of usual adjectival metathesis < *(-ī)ć_wīlV, and we could compare also HU forms: Hurr. šali, Ur. sǝlā 'daughter' (see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 42).
