Proto-North Caucasian: *ʁwV̄
Meaning: thou (obl. base)
Notes: Reconstructed for the PEC level. The stem originally formed part of the suppletive paradigm of the 2d person pronoun. We can securely reconstruct the oblique stem *ʔŏʁwV, reflected in PN erg. *ʔaħ, Tsakh. gen. j-ɨʁ- and Khin. dat. oχ. It was probably used in the ergative case (the shift to genitive in Tsakhur must be secondary, because the original 2d person genitive is more or less securely reconstructed as *ʔeu_V- or *ʔiu_V, see under *u_ō). As for the stem *ʁwV̄- itself, it was either used as ergative or (interchanging with *uō) also as nominative.
The complete paradigm of the second person pronoun in PEC can thus be reconstructed as *u_ō (nom., perhaps interchanging with *ʁwV̄), *ʔŏʁwV (erg.), *ʔeu_V-/*ʔiu_V- (gen.), *du- (dat.). There is, however, no guarantee that this situation reflects the common NC state of things, because Western Caucasian languages do not reveal any traces of the stems *ʁwV̄ and *du- (reflecting only *u_ō).
