To back up David Kummerow on this one, if you do some comparative linguistics, particularly with Arabic, it is possible that the gemination which is part of the Hebrew article is, in fact, an assimilation of lamed. That is, it could be that the Hebrew article is /Hal-/. The problem is, we have no way of being sure about this in Hebrew, because the article never appears on its own without articulating a substantive of some kind. However, the Arabic parallel is suggestive. The consonant /lam/ in Arabic is often run into the following consonant, producing an effective gemination of that consonant.
Regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au
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