Proto-North Caucasian: *wHōrƛwVɫV (~ *b-)
Meaning: snake
Notes: Reconstructed for the PEC level; one of the original trisyllabic roots. In PN we would rather expect *bʡōχVl-; the irregularity may be explained by a secondary contamination in Chech. with another root (bȫχa 'dirty', bȫχalla 'dirt'). Otherwise the correspondences are regular. Cf. also Hurr. fali 'worm' (read /fālǝ/ < HU *wāl-), see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 50.
Abdokov (1983, 119) compares the root with PAK *markʷá 'helminth', which is hardly possible phonetically.
