It suddenly occurred to me that there is something Slavonic about this too.
In Russian "to have" is HMyETb; but often the preposition Y (oo) is used
with the Genitive personal pronoun, "to be" understood: Y MyENyA KNHGA, I have
a book, rather than HMyEyU KNHGY. This parallels the Semitic HaYaH LiY SePheR.
Just my $0.02
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology) <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)