Proto-North Caucasian: *nä̆wš_i
Meaning: two; a 2-year-old animal
Notes: An interesting case. The root must have originally meant simply "two" and formed part of the suppletive paradigm of the PNC numeral "two" (*ṭq̇Iwä - *näwš_i). The original meaning is preserved in PN and HU: cf. HU *šin 'two' > Hurr. šin-, Ur. šî-šǝ ( < *šin-(i)šǝ), see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 37. (Note that both in PN and HU the root is metathesized). But probably already in PNC the root was used also to denote a two-year-old animal; it is only the latter function in which it was preserved in most modern languages. The Nakh languages present here an important link, because they have preserved the root in both functions. Phonetically the comparison is satisfactory (PL has a form with a frequent *-j suffix; weakness of -š- should be best explained by an intermediate form *nišʷaj < *niwš:-aj). Some problems are raised by -č́- in WC (instead of the expected -š́-; perhaps the affricate reflects here the rare Inlaut combination -wš:- ?).
