Proto-North Caucasian: *χ_[ǝ]rV (~ *-l-)
Meaning: ewe, ram
Notes: An Av.-And.-Tsez. isogloss. The PTs form contains a rare phoneme *ʁ- which in this case must be just a variant of PTs *χ (*ʁ- is reconstructed on basis of PTsKh *-ʁu present only in the compound *biƛ̣-ʁu; we may think of a secondary voicing in this position). There exists a chance of finding a Lezghian cognate: PL *χIap:, obl. *χIop:ɨ-, pl. *χIop:-Vr 'sheep, sheep-flock' (collect.). This would be possible if we suppose a metathesis *χIop:Vr < *χIor-p:V in early PL, with a reanalysis of the original plural suffix *-p:(V) as a part of the root.
