Proto-North Caucasian: *ɫamV
Meaning: licking, to lick
Notes: An expressive root with an exceptional phonological structure RVRV. The tendency to avoid such root structures probably had led to adding the suffix *-c̣V in the Lak-Darg. area. We can now only guess as to its original meaning: cf. perhaps PNC *=ic̣Ă 'to give, put' (cf. expressions like Rut. miz wɨs 'to lick' = 'to give tongue' etc.). Anyway, it is hard to separate the And. and Lezg. forms (going back to *ɫamV) from Lak-Darg. (going back to *ɫVmc̣V).
The front vocalism in PD *lemc̣ could have been conditioned by the influence of PD *mec: 'tongue' (see *mĕlʒ_ĭ). It is interesting that the stem *lemc̣, in its turn, had influenced the root for 'tongue' in PD which gave rise to the coexistence of two stems: *mec: and *lec:mi (*lemc:i) in Dargwa dialects.
