Proto-Altaic: *čḕlV
Meaning: to split, hole, crack
Russian meaning: расщеплять, дыра, щель
Comments: KW 444, Владимирцов 183, Poppe 16 (Turk.-Mong.). A Western isogloss. The root was originally verbal (cf. PT); Mong. and TM reflect a velar derivative *čḕlV-gV. Despite Doerfer's (TMN 2, 554) criticism the comparison still seems valid (although the narrowing *e > i in PT is not quite clear). Miller (1985b, 207) cites a MJ tir- 'cut in narrow strips' which would be a nice match, but we were unable to identify the source of the word.