23. The vowel ĕ, an indeterminate, rapidly pronounced sound often called by its Jav. name pĕpĕt. This vowel estabhshes its claim to be styled Common IN by the evidence of the word tĕnah, “ half, some ”.
Half. Celebes, Bug.: tĕṅṅa — Borneo, Bol.: tĕṅah — Java, Sund.: tĕṅah — Sumatra, Karo: tĕṅah — Malay Peninsula, Mal.: tĕṅah — Eastern Border, Sawunese: tĕṅa — South-Western Border, Simalurese: tĕṅah.
Note.—The phonetic laws are: “Common IN final h disappears in Bug., Mak., and several other IN languages ”.—“When in Common IN ĕ, of a non-final syllable, is followed by a single consonant, that consonant appears doubled in Bug.”—Both these laws are exemplified by Bug. tĕṅṅa.
24. The number of areas in which we have met with ĕ amounts only to seven ; according to the principles enunciated in § 3 we ought therefore to have some hesitation in declaring it to be Common IN. Whereas a, i, and u are present everywhere, the pĕpĕt is wanting in some IN languages, which instead of it use another vowel: e.g. Day. does not say tĕṅah, but teṅah, Bis. says toṅa. But in several of these languages the pĕpĕt has left tangible traces of its former existence. In Mak. of Celebes the pĕpĕt appears as a; Mak. therefore possesses two etymologically distinct a’s, the one corresponding to the Common IN a, the other to the Common IN ĕ. But the second a causes certain consonants which follow it to be doubled, the first one does not affect them. So Common IN anu, “ someone ” (§ 135), appears in Mak. as anu, but Common IN ĕnĕm, “ six ”, as annaṅ, and Common IN tĕkĕn, “ staff ”, as takkaṅ. In this matter Bug. exhibits the intermediate stage, for it also doubles the consonant but it retains the pĕpĕt:
| Common IN | tĕkĕn |
| Old and Modern Jav. | tĕkĕn |
| Bug. | tĕkkĕṅ |
| Mak. | takkaṅ |
In precisely the same way Iloko in the Philippines, which has replaced ĕ by e, doubles the consonant and accordingly says
