Conclusion
An initial heth/X in Biblical Hebrew is not always part of a word’s original
root. A word that begins with a heth/X may be simply a variant of a word that
begins with a mere vowel-type sound, such as an initial prosthetic aleph (or
a yod/Y, etc.).
So )BL and XBL may have the same root, and be mere variants of the same basic
word. And YBL. And XBR (since resh/R and lamed/L were sometimes
interchangeable in the Bronze Age).
We see that an initial heth/X is, in some cases, much less important than is
usually supposed, being the functional equivalent of a mere prosthetic aleph.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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