Yules, ewes and wheels

[llama_nom]

hvaíhvl, na. wheel
hviul, na. wheel

jaíhvla, na.pl. yule
jiula, na.pl. yule

aus (aw-), fi. ewe

Looking into yule, it occurred to me that the OED reconstruction of
"wheel" as Proto Germanic *xwexula- (and *xwe(g)ula-) doesn't quite
work, since the double "h" in Old English variants is due to earlier
/hw/ (cf. Francis A. Wood: "Germanic "w" gemination II, Modern
Philology 18:6, 1920, pp. 303-308), or else to a directly following
/l/, later syllabicised.  If /xw/ had come before /u/ in Proto
Germanic in this word, it would have become /x/, but then neither of
the possible explanations for the double "h" in Old English could apply.
 
The OED reconstruction of the voiced variant doesn't work for Proto
Germanic either, since /gw/ became /g/ before /u/ in Proto Germanic,
e.g. *magwuz (cf. Ogham Irish maqos) > Go. magus; but /gw/ > /w/ in
other positions, e.g. *magwjo: > Go. mawi; *segwniz > Go. siuns.  So
the regular development in Gothic would be *hvaihvl (=OE hweohhol < PG
*xwexwlam) and/or *hviul (=OE hwéol, hweowul, hweogul < PG *xwegwlam)
-- both neuter.  Synonyms exist in both Old Norse too: hjól and hvel.

Also, if we haven't already got it (I think this may be in
Koebler...), 'ewe' < PIE *ovis > Go. *aus (gen. awais), fi. (cf.
aweþi, awistr).  For the alternation -au- : -aw-, compare Go. naus
(nom.pl. naweis, acc.pl. nawins).

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