David,
Whenever you look at an U and an I [also O and E] in a Hebrew word you see a universal identity marker [also known as a personal pronoun], invariably.
invariably. I have said this repeatedly on this list [also, of course, in my book, which can be seen in its entirety at www.hebrewetymology.com <http://www.hebrewetymology.com>].
It is for illustrative purposes only that I specifically read -U- as HU), and -I- as HI). Consider the example of $-U-LAX, $AL-U-AX, and $ALX-U, of the root $LX, 'send'. Even though the latter means 'THEY have sent' I permit myself to read it as $ALX-HU) by virtue of the universality of U.
I am preparing now a reply to Kenneth Greifer in which I will elaborate on this in some greater detail.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
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