Abstract
Several verbal morphologies including the core orthography {ld} are attested in ninth- and eighth-century BCE Aramaic texts from Sefire and Tell Fekheriyeh. From their similar contexts, all can be demonstrated to have the semantics 'to remove', but scholars are divided as to the root source and precise phonology of these verbs. The present paper demonstrates that these {ld} verbs belong to a cognate set descendant from proto-Semitic *root l(-)partial derivative. The representation of the reflex of the interdental *&PARTIAL by {d} is a precocious development only attested broadly in later Aramaic, but its surfacing here can be rationalized by appeal to diachronic phonology, phonotactics and linguistic typology. The consistent employment of developed orthography for this root is perhaps related to the existence of a broad and consistent early Aramaic curse tradition.
