dialects tútuka, “beak”; Old Javanese tutuk, “mouth”; in several languages tuktuk, “woodpecker” ; Karo pukpuk, “to labour hard” ; Tontemboan sinduk, “pounded rice” ; Javanese pupugan, “fragment”.
Here, for example, there is no question of any phonetic connexion between duk in Tontb. sinduk and buq in Mal. tumbuq, for a Tontb. d never corresponds with a Mal. b.
347. In IN and IE the operation of phonetic laws is very often countered by the powerful influence of analogy and popular etymology. The power of popular etymology is very aptly and generally noticeable in names of animals, especially trisyllabic ones, as exemplified by the “Schweizerisches Idiotikon” " on the one hand and the Old Javanese vocabulary on the other: see e.g. in the former s.v. Ameise, “ant” , and in the latter s.v. alifan, “centipede” .
348. In IE research difficulties arise in connexion with certain phenomena that have been termed root-variation, root-determination, and the like: see Brugmann KvG, § 367. I refer to such cases as the existence alongside of one another of forms like the IE trep: trem: tres, in the Latin trepidus, “timid” , tremere, “to tremble”, and the Sanskrit trasati < treseti, “to tremble” . We find precisely similar phenomena in IN also: thus in Tontemboan there are the forms rěp, rěm, and rěs, in urĕp, “to cover”, rĕrĕp, “to overlap” ; urěm, “to clasp round”, tirěm, “to enclose”; kĕrĕs, “to clasp round”, kurĕs, “to cross one's arms” . And in IN such phenomena are even less easy to tackle than they are in IE. As a rule we are not even in a position to form any certain idea that they really involve phonetic questions.
349. But there still remain in IN as in IE some phonetic phenomena, of which one can only say either: “Here law- less chance holds sway”, or: “Research has failed to dis- cover the principle of the occurrence” . To such alternatives I feel that I have to resign myself after considering the representation of Original IN t in Bimanese and Original IN k in Nias.
