# кӏялагьи
## Lak
### Alternative forms

* кӏяла гьи (kʼaˤla hi), кӏаьла гьий (kʼäla hiy)
* кӏялахӏи (kʼaˤlaħi)
* чӏялагьи (čʼaˤlahi) — dialectal, Vikhli

### Etymology

From кӏяла (kʼaˤla, “white”) +‎ гьи (hi, “birch”). The latter survives only in dialects and "goes back regularly to *mihi (with a regular reduction of initial *m- + narrow vowel)", ultimately from Proto-Northeast Caucasian *mĭhV (“a kind of foliage tree, perhaps alder”).
On the other hand, Kibrik / Kodzasov recording the word as ḳalla-hi in the Khosrekh dialect explain it as ‘white bundle’, apparently identifying the second part with homonymous гьи (hi, “bundle of brushwood”), but this is typologically unlikely, unless the latter developed from an earlier sense ‘wood’; in this respect compare Kabardian пхъэхуей (pχɛxʷujej, “birch”, literally “wood-white”). Nikolayev / Starostin offer a native etymology for гьи (hi, “bundle of brushwood”), ultimately from (proposed) Proto-North Caucasian *mŏχ_V.
Note also Lak кӏялаттарлил (kʼaˤlat:arlil, “fir”), another tree name with кӏяла (kʼaˤla, “white”).
See also Old Armenian կաղամախի (kałamaxi).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kʼaˤlahi/

### Noun

кӏялагьи • (kʼaˤlahi)
* birch
    Synonyms: мархъ (marq), махъ (maq), кӏялахӏилул мурхь (kʼaˤlaħilul murx̂), хӏаби (ħabi)
* aspen; poplar

#### Usage notes

* The meaning ‘birch’ is found universally in the standard materials of the language, while ‘aspen’ and ‘poplar’ are found only in unreliable X. Xalilov and Erckert. Therefore they may be spurious.
* The spelling кӏялахӏи (kʼaˤlaħi) is widely attested in the materials, but ignored in the etymological discussion of Nikolayev / Starostin and Xajdakov.

### References

* 1 2 Хайдаков, С. М. (1962) “кӏяла”, in Л. И. Жирков, editor, Лакско-русский словарь [Lak–Russian Dictionary]‎, Moscow: GIINS, page 172a
* ↑ Xajdakov, S. M. (1973) Сравнительно-сопоставительный словарь дагестанских языков [Comparative Dictionary of Dagestan Languages] (in Russian), Moscow: Nauka, page 53a
* 1 2 3 Xalilov, Xalil (2002) Lax̂:i wila nit:il maz, Makhachkala, pages 106, 182
* 1 2 Džidalajev, N. S. (1994) “берёза”, in Russko-lakskij slovarʹ [Russian–Lak Dictionary]‎, Makhachkala: Dagučpedgiz, page 30
* 1 2 Khalilov, Madzhid (2015) “кӏялахӏи”, in Mary Ritchie Key & Bernard Comrie, editors, Lak dictionary‎, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, retrieved 2018-08-13
* ↑ Schiefner, Anton (1866) “k̔alaḥ̌e”, in Ausführlicher Bericht über Baron P. v. Uslar's Kasikumükische Studien (Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences de St.-Pétérsbourg, VII-e serie; t. X. no. 12) (in German), Saint Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, page 93b
* 1 2 Хайдаков, С. М. (1966) Очерки по лакской диалектологии [Essays on Lak Dialectology]‎, Moscow: Nauka, page 33
* 1 2 Nikolaev, Sergei L., Starostin, Sergei A. (1994) “*mĭhV”, in A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary‎, Moscow: Asterisk Publishers
* ↑ Kibrik, A. Je., Kodzasov, S. V. (1990) Сопоставительное изучение дагестанских языков. Имя. Фонетика [Comparative Study of Dagestan Languages. Substantives. Phonetics] (in Russian), Moscow: University Press, →ISBN, § 200, page 99
* ↑ Хайдаков, С. М. (1962) “гьи”, in Л. И. Жирков, editor, Лакско-русский словарь [Lak–Russian Dictionary]‎, Moscow: GIINS, page 91b
* ↑ Nikolaev, Sergei L., Starostin, Sergei A. (1994) “*mŏχ_V”, in A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary‎, Moscow: Asterisk Publishers
* ↑ Khalilov, Madzhid (2015) “кӏялаттарлил”, in Mary Ritchie Key & Bernard Comrie, editors, Lak dictionary‎, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, retrieved 2018-08-13
* ↑ Gadžijev, G. M. (1958) “берёза”, in Russko-lakskij školʹnyj slovarʹ [Russian–Lak School Dictionary], Makhachkala: Dagučpedgiz, page 18a
* ↑ Erckert, Roderich von (1895) Die Sprachen des kaukasischen Stammes. I. Theil. Wörterverzeichniss (in German), Vienna: Alfred Hölder, page 111