Proto-High East Cushitic: *rV̄ʔ- (?)
Meaning: 'hippopotamus'
Sidamo: rooʔe 'hippopotamus' Huds. HEC, 80
Notes: Quoted by Hudson together with Geleba rooṗe, Oromo roobii, Burji roobe id. (Huds. HEC, 80); Blazek adds Sidamo robē, robicco, Darasa rōṗe reconstructing *robH- 'hippopotamus' (Bla. Eleph., 203). However, *-b- in Sidamo yields -b- (see robē, robicco above), sometimes -w- (cf. Huds. HEC, 92 'light'; 94 'louse'; 156 'tongue'; 76 'greedy person'), but not -ʔ-; consequently, Sidamo rooʔe, in spite of its phonetic affinity with PHC *rooṗe (Hudson) or *robH- (Blazek) may be alternatively reconstructed as *rooʔ- and compared to the present Afras. root as a metathetic form
