----- Original Message -----
From: "H.M. Hubey" <hubeyh@...>
To: <Nostratica@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Nostratica] The stem "ma"


>
>
> ghozzis wrote:
>
> > 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,

True.
> but so should ab, ap, am, etc.

False. Open syllables come first. I'm not sure about geminates though.
('Amma', 'appa' and 'atta' seem fairly common.)

> It is thought
> that this first word
> was interpreted by mothers/fathers to refer to themselves e.g. narcissism
!

Or the breast, whence Latin _mamma_ 'nipple', as well as 'mummy'. 'Maman'
might be French for 'mummy', but it's also Chinese for 'food'. My wife
interpreted our daughter as using it to mean 'food'.

> 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.

And why some then appear to have gone back to the baby words, e.g. Welsh
_tad_ 'father', _mam_ 'mother', Gothic _atta_ 'father'.

Richard.