the Proto-Semitic language did not have any articles, the most likely theory is that the article al- comes from the same proto-Semitic source as the Hebrew definite article ha-. That theory is based primarily on the fact that the two share many similarities. Both particles are prefixed to nouns, and both geminate with certain following letters. Moreover, neither particle is prefixed to non-final nouns in a genitival construction. Finally, both are prefixed to relative clauses. According to David Testen, many northern and southwestern Semitic languages have particles that bear similarities to al-. With this fact, he posits that al- has a proto-Semitic antecedent. There are three major possibilities regarding the form of the proto-Semitic particle that is the putative antecedent of al-: hal; ha; ‘a; David Testen and Jacob Weingreen state that / hal is the correct antecedent. Often cited is the Arabic word for 'this', hādhā, which, when combined with a definite phrase, has been known to become shortened from hādhā al-bayt (this house) to hal-bayt. However, hal-bayt may merely be a shortening of the demonstrative pronoun. Weingreen also states that the original form of the Hebrew ha- was in fact hal. Hebrew, then, dropped the final l to achieve ha- while Arabic softened the h- to a hamza, resulting in al-. However, there is no evidence supporting the existence of hal from ancient Hebrew texts. In fact, as early as the 6th century BC both han (a probable predecessor of the Hebrew ha) and al were being used simultaneously in different Arabic dialects, namely Northern and Central. The Arabic word hādhā is equivalent to the Hebrew word זה zé. It appears that over time Hebrew shortened the demonstrative pronoun hazé (eikh korím layéled hazé? or What's this boy's name?) to simply zé. That indicates that the Hebrew ha- was the accurate retention of the original proto-Semitic source, as opposed to al-, which cannot conclusively be linked to the ancient cognate demonstrative pronoun hādhā/hazé. Arabic lā hypothesis According to Jacob Barth, who was lecturer in Hebrew at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary, al- comes directly from the Arabic negating particle, lā. He conjectures that lā became al- through a process of metathesis. That is to say, the lām and the alif swapped positions. It is noteworthy that the negation denoted by lā and the definiteness denoted by al- are in stark contrast to each other. Barth also asserts that lā