Proto-North Caucasian: *qwä̆nV
Meaning: woman
Notes: One of several common NC roots meaning 'woman, female'. Its specific usage in Lak. (where qami is phonetically a development < *qan-bi with the old plural suffix) and PL suggests that it may have been a collective noun 'women', at least, in PEC.
In PWC *p(ǝ)- is a frequent nominal prefix. We should note also some phonetic irregularities: Khin. χ- instead of expected q- (probably under influence of Az. χanɨm 'lady' /which has nothing to do with the root in question/ or related Lezghian forms; direct borrowing from Kryz or Az. is rather improbable in this case); PL *χon-p:V instead of expected *χʷen-p:V - probably, an early reduction in a polysyllabic pluralis tantum. Otherwise the correspondences are regular, and the reconstruction seems rather secure.
