Proto-North Caucasian: *cwä̆ʡmV
Meaning: bear
Notes: One of the long established common NC roots. The PWC form is metathesized (*mǝš́ʷV < *š́ʷVmV), otherwise corresponding quite well to EC reflexes. The Lak. and Darg. forms reflect a rather unique suffixed variant *cwä̆m-ƛV (such a lateral suffix is unknown elsewhere), and thus raise some doubts; but it is hard to separate these forms from all the rest.
See Bork 1907, 26-27, 30, Trombetti 1923, 364, Рогава 1956, 28, Шагиров 1977, 273, Abdokov 1983, 119-120. All the authors link the EC and NC forms also with PK *da(ś)tw- 'bear' which is hard to justify phonetically, as well as the attempts to make an inner morphological analysis of the PWC form (made in Рогава 1956, 28, 36, Ломтатидзе 1961, 118).
