Comment: We can reconstruct for PL the direct stem *hi (Lezg. hi 'which', Ud. Nidzh. he, Vart. e 'what, which'); the same stem is used in Tsakh. (in conjunction with other interrogatives) hi-šu 'who' and hi-ǯo 'what', and, as oblique, in Tab. hi-ʔan / hi-q̇an 'how many', Ag. erg. hi-na 'who', Bud. he-je 'where'. M. Alekseyev suggested that several interrogative forms in Lezgian languages beginning with n- actually go back to the same stem with reduction of the initial unstressed syllable (thus n- does not represent any independent interrogative morpheme, but is just an old oblique stem marker *-nV). Cf. Ag. Rich. na 'who (erg.)' which is obviously identic with Ag. Tp. hi-na. In this way we can explain Lezg. erg. ni (< *hi-ni), Tab. naʔan 'where' (< *hi-na-ʔan), Tsakh. ne-n 'which' (< *hi-ne-n).
Besides the oblique base *hi-nV- there existed in PL a variant *ha- (sometimes also *ha-nV- with the same oblique stem marker) reflected in Rut. erg. ha-la 'who', Kryz. erg. ha-lɨr id., Arch. ha-n 'what', Bud. ha-nu 'whose'. See Aлексеев 1985,74.
Comment: The basic root is verbal, "to fill", cf. Lezg. ac̣u- (praet. ac̣u-na), Tab. a=c̣-, Ag. ac̣- (Bursh. ac̣i-), Rut. term. a=c̣ɨ-r, Tsakh. ǵ-a=c̣a-, Arch. ā=c̣a-, Bud. s-a=c̣-. Initial *hI- is reconstructed mainly on basis of the Kryz ʕ- (and possibly the Arch. vowel length) which, however, may be a prefix. In some languages the attributive form means also 'thick' (Tab. ac̣u, Lezg. Khl. jac̣ɨ).
Comment: Cf. also Rut. (Khniukh) jič̣-dɨ 'barren, dry (sheep, cow)'; Tab. ič̣i, Düb. erč̣̌i (with secondary labialisation) 'empty'; Ag. Burk. ʕač̣ 'ravine'. The noun is rather well preserved (in Tab., Ag. ; Tsakh. hač̣- also reflects a nominal stem), but in some cases it maybe a back formation from the adjective *hIač̣ä- / *hIoč̣ä- (with Ablaut). There existed also in PL a derived stem *hIač̣-rV- > *hIarč̣V- reflected in Tab. (Düb.) and probably (as a back formation) in Rut. erč̣.
The Ud. reflex is not very clear (hissing c: instead of č:; -m- in Inlaut).
Comment: Within PL there is a difficult interrelation between four roots: *[hI]alχä- 'long', *hI[a]χV- 'high', *jaq:V 'high' and *ʔarχ:(Vl)- 'far' q.v. In several languages contaminations have arisen. Thus, -ʁ- in Lezg. jarʁi 'long' is obviously due to contamination with jarʁal 'far'.
Several languages reflect metathesized forms (*[hI]alχä- ~ *laχä- ~ *χalä- and, with Ablaut, *χolä-), which is usual for verbal/adjectival stems. Note that all these variants are not merely Lezgian, but have external parallels as well.
Meaning:1 a sort of small nuts 2 wheat grain, wheat
Lezghian:aḳa 1
Agul:eḳ 2
Rutul:aḳ-aχ 1
Comment: Cf. also Ag. Bursh. ʡaḳ, Fit., Burk. eḳ 'wheat'. The Lezg. form goes back to *hIa(m)ḳVj with a productive *-j-suffix; suffixation in Rut. is less clear. For the semantic development cf. external evidence (variation of meanings between "seed, grain, fruit-stone" and "wheat, wheat grain"). Unfortunately, without the Tab. and Arch. evidence it is hard to prove whether there was or was not a medial nasal resonant (required by external evidence).
Comment: In Tsakh. also 'far' (aq̇Ia-na). The Arch. form q̇ʷa(-t:u-t) 'wide', because of its phonetic peculiarity, is probably an early loanword from Lak.
Comment: The stem is verbal (and belongs to the strong verb class), but is often used for deriving adjectives 'high' (Rut. ha-χɨ-d, Tsakh. aχtɨ-n, Arch. b-e:χu) or 'long' (Kryz. ʕaχtä, Bud. ʕapχu, Ud. boχo). The meaning 'long' may be a result of partial contamination with PL *[hI]alχä- 'long' q.v., but in general these two roots are to be strictly kept apart.
Comment: Cf. also Ag. Bursh. c̣ul/jic̣ul 'joint; vertebra', Fit., Burk. ic̣ul 'vertebra'. The Kryz. form literally means "a full (ʕac̣a) place", which is of course a folk etymology. The root occurs only with suffixes (-ul in Ag., -a < *-aj in Kryz., -in in Rut.). An expressive modification (phonetically not quite clear) of the same root may be Tab. bic̣nac̣ 'joint; ankle'.
Comment: Ruite enigmatic is the velar ḳ in Shakhdagh; otherwise the correspondences are quite regular (the Ud. form goes back to *wiq̇I- < *hIiq̇Iʷ-). -r- in Ag. and Bud. is an infix (probably, old durative).
Comment: The verb belongs to the strong PL conjugation class. Cf. also Ag. Fit. ruḳ-, Tp. ruḳʷa-. A strange form is Tab. Düb. ji=k:- 'to dig': it is hard to separate from other listed forms, but -k:- is absolutely irregular.
Comment: The pure root may be observed in Ag. and Tsakh.; the Lezg. form (cf. also Khl. šk:i) has an expressive prefix š-, while the Tab., Rut. and Shakh-dagh forms contain productive adjective suffixes -r- and -t:-. Because of the early vowel reduction in most languages, the medial nasal *-m- (which can be reconstructed on external evidence) has vanished in all languages.
Comment: Cf. also Rut. Ikhr. hileg, Khnov. hilag 'iron'. Not clear is the dropping of -g in Tsakhur (*jɨwag would be expected). 4th class in all languages.
