Proto-North Caucasian: *kăuV̄
Meaning: gate, fence
Notes: The PNC antiquity of this root is rather dubious. It is nearly identical in all languages (and the probability of interlingual borrowing is rather high), refers to a cultural phenomenon, and is widely represented outside the North Caucasian languages: cf. Georg. (dial.) kawi 'fence, fortress' (probably an Adygh loanword), Osset. kaw / kawä 'fence', Hung. káva id., Mord. kav 'closet, cage', Veps. kavi 'stake', Russ. (Novgor., Olon.) кава, каба id. See Шагиpов 1977, Abdokov 1983, 127, Aбаев 1949, 1958, Фасмеp 1967.
Rogava (1956) and Kumakhov (1964) may be right in treating PAK *káwǝ as a derivate from *kǝ 'twig, rod'. In this case the Adygh form is a probable source of all the above forms, and the form *kău_V̄ should be considered non-existent.
