Proto-North Caucasian: *c̣_wŏjV ( ~ -ɨ̆-)
Meaning: woman, female
Notes: The WC form has a frequent labial prefix (which conditioned loss of labialisation *pǝzʷV > *pǝzV). The EC-WC comparison was suggested by Shagirov (1977). There exist also interesting Kartvelian parallels: cf. Kartv. *ʒ̥1̇u- 'female, bitch' (compared with Lak. in Klimov 1963); Chan. bozo 'girl' (cf. PAK *bzǝ), Svan. zural 'woman' (see Lomtatidze 1961). Untenable is Trubetzkoy's (1930) comparison of the WC root with Darg. gʷaza, Lak. k:ʷac:a etc. 'mare'.
In Nakh languages, besides *psṭuw, there is a series of similar forms: Chech. stē 'woman; female' (pl. steš, Usl. stij), stē-n 'female', Akk. sēwã 'female', Ing. se id., pl. istij ( = Chech. stij) 'women, wives'. There are two possible solutions: to consider these forms as derived from *psṭuw (from the oblique base *psṭawV-), or to compare them separately with an isolated Darg. form - Chir. cade 'female' (reconstructing PEC *cVjdV (~ ć-)). This problem can not be definitely resolved without Bacbi evidence.
