Proto-North Caucasian: *HpēɫV̄ (~-ī-)
Meaning: vein, sinew, pipe
Notes: Darg. has a metathesized form (*lap instead of *pal). Not clear is the Lak. initial p:- (perhaps, a bad recording of a dialectal form?); p- should be expected. The original meaning of the root must have been "pipe; kennel" - cf. also related HU forms: Hurr. pala, Ur. pīlǝ "canal" (see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 16) - but in several subgroups a semantic shift "pipe" > "blood vessel, sinew" took place.
