Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *lVʔVb- ~ *ʔVlb- (?)
Meaning: elephant/hippopotamus
Notes: Cf. HSED, 1662 *leb- 'elephant' comparing Eg. ;bw, Tangale and Mokilko forms; and also Logone nevi 'elephant' with "irregular n- <*l-" (hardly comparable).
Proto-High East Cushitic: *lVʔVb- (?)
Meaning: 'hippopotamus'
Hadiya (Gudella): looba 'hippopotamus' Huds. HEC, 80
Kambatta: looba 'hippopotamus' Huds. HEC, 80
Notes: These forms are quoted by Hudson together with Geleba rooṗe, Sidamo rooʔe, Oromo roobii, Burji roobe id. (Huds. HEC, 80); Blazek adds Sidamo robē, robicco, Darasa rōṗe reconstructing *robH- 'hippopotamus' (Bla. Eleph., 203). Cf. also HSED, 2128 *rob- 'rhinoceros, hippopotamus' comparing, besides Eg. irb; 'rhinoceros (?)', Oromo roobi, Sidamo robee and Hadiya lobe with the remark "irregular l- in Had." The latter assertion is wrong: Had. l- <*r- is quite regular, cf. Huds. HEC, 43-4 'cook'; ibid., 45 'corpse'; ibid., 47 'death'; ibid., 83 'inherit', etc. All these examples, however, show Kambatta r-, and not l-, <*r-, while other examples containing l- in both Kambatta and Hadiya point to *l- (see ibid., 24 'bamboo'; ibid., 27 'big'; ibid. 28 'blaze'; ibid., 30 'borrow'; ibid., 32 'bring up'. So, inspite of a close affinity of HEC forms meaning 'hippopotamus' with r- and l- there are certain reasons to reconstruct two parallel forms, one with *r-, the other with *l- (see 130 notes).
