PIE words for sexual organs

[George Hinge]

Gordon Selway:

>George Hinge wrote (but I am not sure yet who introduced the idea):
>>I don't know if the Gaelic <palla> can be derived from OI 'ball'.

Rick Mc Callister did introduce the idea in his mail, asking

> How 'bout a form ancestral to English "balls", Gaelic palla [sp?],
> perhaps *bhel-; or are these later developments?

I supposed that the bracketed [sp?] is questioning the orthography, and if
the beginning of the word is spelled in some other way, the comparison might
be possible?

>There is 'peilear' (ball, bullet - not as far as I know 'testicle', which
>may be 'clach' (Sc.)/'cloch'(Ir.), ie 'stone'), and 'peile' is football (ie
>soccer) in Irish Gaelic.  I'm not sure of its earlier spelling (though
>'palla' cannot lead to 'peile' - that would require a change in the quality
>of both consonants from broad to slender - as I understand things).  But it
>is not an item inherited by internal tradition from PIE, whatever its
>source is.

The source might be Latin 'pila' "ball" with a short -i- and
consequently -e- in Late Latin / Romance.

George Hinge
The Department of Greek and Latin
The University of Aarhus, Denmark
oldgh at hum.au.dk