Syriac

ləwāt - to; next to; before (LSyr. 362, SL 682)

PWS
*li/la - to (preposition) (Arakelova 2001:33, Kogan 2015:119)
its derivation from the verbal root *wly ‘to adhere, to be near’ advocated in Voigt 1999:41 is highly unlikely If the preposition is diachronically identical with the precative marker *li (Huehnergard 2006:16), one may trace it back to PS, assuming an independent loss of its prepositional function in Akkadian and MSA (the l-precative is prominently attested in both). If this relationship is rejected, the preposition *li may be regarded as a shared innovation of the CS/EthS genealogical unity (Kogan 2015: 119)