Proto-North Caucasian: *Hăʒ_Ĕm-
Meaning: to clean, clean
Notes: Initial laryngeal is reconstructed on basis of PL pharyngealisation; however, it is not possible to establish its precise nature, because in most languages it was either lost (as part of the weak first syllable), or absorbed by class prefixes.
In PWC the root has a frequent labial prefix (probably originally a class marker). In EC the original structure of the root was best preserved in Av.-And. and Nakh; in most other languages, where the root was treated mainly as an adjective, it obtained a productive adjectival (*participial) suffix *-rV and underwent metatheses, usual in cases like this: *Hăʒ_ĔmV-rV- > *Hăʒ_mĔ-rV- > *Hămʒ_ĔrV- // *mHărʒ_Ĕ-. Cf. also Hurr. šēɣ-(a)lǝ 'ritually pure', šēɣǝ, šīɣǝ 'pure (water)', Urart. šēχa id. (?) - reflecting probably a variant *ʒ_ămHĔ- (see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 35).
See Абдоков 1983, 149, 168-169.
