Proto-Lezghian: *χ:ʷar, *χ:ʷar-t:
Meaning: 1 lime-tree 2 log, pole 3 tree 4 ceiling 5 beam
Lezghian: ʁʷar 2
Tabasaran: ʁʷard 2
Agul: ʁʷad 4
Rutul: χɨd 1
Tsakhur: hala-χ:ʷar 2
Archi: χ:at 5
Udi: χod 3
Comment: An interesting root. Several reflexes contain the suffix *-t: (observed also in other tree names). The oblique base can be reconstructed as *χ:or-t:V- with a regular Ablaut *a/*o, cf. Tab. Düb. ʁurdi- (in literary Tab. there occurred already a vowel levelling: ʁʷarda-, cf. also Lezg. ʁʷarc:i-, Ag. ʁʷadi-); this also explains the delabialised form Rut. χɨd (instead of *χʷad). The root means 'lime-tree' (whence 'tree' in general in Udi). Lime-tree logs must have been mainly used as poles for planking the ceiling, and this particular meaning obtains in Lezg. (Khliut dialect - in literary Lezgian it means already 'log' in general), Tab. (cf. also ʁʷarda-n 'ceiling' - but in Düb. the root preserved the original meaning 'lime-tree'), Tsakh. and Arch. (where the root means the principal holding ceiling-pole). It is interesting that some Rut. dialects preserve the meaning 'log' in compounds (cf. Ikhr. ala-χʷar 'a thick log' = Tsakh. hala-χ:ʷar), while the suffixed base *χ:ʷart: has here only the meaning 'lime-tree'. [Not quite clear is the loss of labialisation in Arch.; for the regular reflex of PL *t: cf. Arch. plur. χ:at:-ur.]
