An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Wall

by Friedrich Kluge

Wall, masculine, ‘rampart, mound, embankment,’ from the equivalent Middle High German wal (ll), masculine and neuter; Old High German *wal is by chance not recorded. Compare Old Saxon wal (ll), Dutch val, ‘rampart,’ Anglo-Saxon weall, English wall. This West Teutonic word, which is certainly borrowed from the equivalent Latin vallum, vallus, seems to belong to the earliest loan-words from Latin (compare Straße, Mauer); primitive kinship with the Latin word is very improbable.