Mapping Indo-European Anatomical Terminology II: Latvian gaļa ‘meat’

Abstract

The present contribution analyzes Latvian gaļa ‘meat, flesh’ from the point of view of the Indo-European anatomical terminology and identifies its cognates in Old Irish gaile ‘stomach’, ‘Para- Phrygian’ γάλλια ‘intestines’ with the same suffixal derivation in *-o-/-*-eH₂-, and further with Ancient Macedonian γόλα ‘intestines’, Greek χολάδες ‘entrails, guts’, and Slavic *želǫ̋dъkъ / *želǫdь(cь) ‘stomach’, all derivable from the aniṭ-root *g^hel- or its apophonic variants. Insular Celtic *eχs-glasso-/ā- ‘stomach’, if derivable from *eĝʰs-⁽ĝ^)(h)(H)-stH₂o- ‘standing out of *⁽ĝ^)(h)(H)-’, implies that *⁽ĝ^)(h)(H)- should belong to a different internal organ, probably ‘gall, bile’, whose designation derivable from the root *ĝ^helH₃- ‘green, yellow’ is attested in several Indo-European branches. The alternative, if γάλλια ‘intestines’ is of Greek origin, is also discussed.