Re[2]: [tied] Re: Etymology of PIE *ph2ter

At 12:25:18 PM on Monday, January 2, 2006, Patrick Ryan
wrote:

> From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard@...>

>> Don't forget bilingualism. In our family, the baby word
>> for 'food' is Chinese - my wife interpreted some of our
>> daughter's babbling as being this Chinese word, and
>> wondered how she could know it.

[...]

> Of course, this is the process I have been describing
> without much success in convncing some people of it
> actuality.

On the contrary, it is precisely the process that Etherman
and I were talking about.

[...]

> My conclusion from all this is that, at some _very_ early
> time, /ma/, 'breast', was a word that existed outside of
> the Kinderstube ('breast-men[???]; another attempt at
> humor). Mothers want their kids to get with it and join
> the community, so a conscious selection is made to
> reinforce /ma/ for either 'breast' or 'mother' as a basis
> for a later elaboration into /mama/ or /ama/ or something
> similar.

> What do you think, Richard. Does this sketch make any
> sense to you?

I can't speak for Richard, but I find the proposed mechanism
very implausible.

Brian