yes, he is not the only one. There are several who connect it to h-b-q, and I think I alluded to that. But in that case the word would be çáå÷ä. There is no linguistic support whatsoever that het and aleph alternate in L'shon Chazao.
Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
Rabbinic Coordinator
The Orthodox Union
Voice (212) 613-8330 Fax (212) 613-0718 e-mail mandels@ou.org
Indeed, it is the same. And for purposes of making a drosho this method, of saying that letters from similar pronunciation points may substitute for each other, is widely accepted.
However, when you look at the linguistic evidence, the evidence shows that such substitutions are much more limited. And I do not know of anywhere in Chazal Hebrew that a het was changed into an aleph. If that were the case, we would expect many other examples.
Even in cases like æò÷ and öò÷, we do not find other places where zayin alternates with s.adi, and the assumption that they are related stems more from the fact that they seem to mean the same things. But we do not find any case of zrk alternate with s.rk, or s.rq with zrq.
Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel