Hello,
do we find in all languages a root "ma" to say "mother"? I know that
it is the case for example in Chinese.
If "ma" is to be found in all languages (or almost) could it be that
it belongs to the proto-World, or is it just a "law of nature", that
the baby says "ma" when he sees its mother?
Thank you for your answers!
Sacha
Among the earliest sounds babies make are the vowel [a] and a bilabial [b,p,m].
sounds like
ba, pa, ma should be made, but so should ab, ap, am, etc. It is thought
that this first word
was interpreted by mothers/fathers to refer to themselves e.g. narcissism
!
What it does not explain is why some languages never went beyond the "baby
stage" and
got stuck with baby words while others, no doubt because they were superior
races, decided
that they would invent new words.
Obviously, this depends on thoughts on earliest language, and how developed
and how later
languages developed from that early language.
--
Mark Hubey
hubeyh@...
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey