E. Lipiński (1997:461) assumes an eventual connection with PWS *li
‘to, towards’
Possibly related are MSA forms (Blažek 2007:24‒25): Hrs. wəl ‘towards’, Jib. yɔl ‘towards’, Soq. aḷ (more often in di-ˀáḷ) ‘towards’. The etymological background of the MSA forms is, however, rather uncertain, cf. Mhr. hāl ‘to, with, into’ and təwōli ‘to, towards’.
Har. ilā, ilāwa are likely borrowed from Arabic, although -wa in ilāwa is difficult to explain (Arakelova 2001:37, Kogan 2015:181).
The origin of the -āh extension cannot be established with certainty, but as plausibly argued in Huehnergard 2005 (following Brockelmann 1908:334; cf. Pardee 1999:286, 2000:36), it may represent a back-formation from the plural *ˀil-āh-ūma
Loss of -n- in Hbr., Arm. and Sab. (presumably, *ˀinš->*ˀĩš->ˀīš) remains problematic in spite of the obvious presence of -n- in the Hebrew plural form ˀănāšīm (constr. ˀanšē).
PCS
*ˀṯm - to fall into debt, to be guilty
(Kogan 2015: 206)
PCS
*ˁbd - to serve (?), to work, to make
(Huehnergard 1995: 276; Kogan 2015: 380)
The meaning “to serve” is probably the original one (cf. Huehnergard 1995:276);
A denominative verb from *ˁabd- rather than vice versa (Kogan 2015: 181)
PCS
*ˁabd- - male slave
(Kogan 2011: 237; Kogan 2015: 181)
*ˁḏr - to help
(Hasselbach–Huehnergard 2007:420; Kogan 2015: 206)
Note that the semantic gap between the meaning “to excuse” in Arabic and “to help” reconstructed for PCS is considerable. See also Arb ˁuḏr- ‘attainment, accomplishing of what one wants, success, victory’. Does this derived noun preserve a more archaic meaning “success” (< “help”), lost elsewhere in Arabic? For the semantic relationship between “help” and “victory, success” cf. Arb. naṣr- (Kogan 2015: 206)