Why is the first word that comes out of every child’s mouth mother?
Where Did The Word Mother Come From: Mother cannot be described in words. But have you ever wondered where the word mother came from and what is mother called in different languages? Let’s try to find out.
The ‘M’ sound connects mother and child
When a child starts learning to speak, initially the sound that comes out of his mouth is M…M…M…. This sound attracts the attention of the mother. Simply put, the sound of M connects the child to the mother. If we talk about languages around the world, there are many ways to address a mother. One thing that is common among these is the M and A sounds.
The easiest sound to make is:
A small child starts producing sounds like a, b, m, p, much before learning to speak. Out of these, the pronunciation of m is the easiest for any child. There is no need to use the tongue to pronounce these letters, and their sound is produced from the lips only. Even during breastfeeding, when the mouth is closed, the sound produced by the child from the nose is m. Medical experts say that this letter acts as an indicator for children that something will happen as this.
easy to understand by repeating it again and again:
A study was conducted in 2012 at the University of British Columbia. It was found that when a child hears sounds like Dada and Mama, his brain activity increases. It revealed that compared to other sounds, repeating the same sound helps children recognize and understand it easily. This is the science behind M becoming Mama.
Originating from the Sanskrit word matri:
As far as the origin of the word Maa is concerned, it has come from the Sanskrit word Matri. The Hindi words Mata and Maa have originated from the Sanskrit word Matri, which is one of the oldest words of the Indo-European language family. While in Sanskrit, mother is called Matri, Mata, in Hindi, there are many forms of address like Maa and Mata. These are also used in many of its dialects. In many dialects of Hindi, mother is also called Amma, Ammaan.
How many names of mothers in the world?
In Latin, mother is called Mater. Latin was actually the language of the Romans and it was influenced by Sanskrit as well as Greek. The word Mater is the source of the English word Mother and the Spanish word Madre. English is a part of the Germanic language family, and hence it is also influenced by the German word Mutter for mother. The word Modor was used in Old English, which changed over time and appeared as Mother in modern English.
In ancient Greece, the Greek word Mētēr was used for mother, but in modern Greek, mother is addressed with the word Mitera. On the other hand, the German language comes from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. The word Mutter used to address mother in this language is influenced by the Sanskrit word matri and the Latin word mater.
Ma’ has also been used in Mandarin (Chinese), a language of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The roots of the word Ma’ are found in the ancient Chinese language. In ancient times, the word Mu was used for mother in Chinese. It is still used formally today. Its everyday form is Ma.
Words for addressing a mother in Indian languages:
Mother is called by these words – Tay, Amma in Tamil, Amma, Talli in Telugu, Maa in Bengali, Aai in Marathi, Mata in Punjabi, Amma in Kannada, Amma in Malayalam, Bau, Mata in Odia, Aai in Assamese, Mata in Gujarati, Mauj in Kashmiri, Mai in Konkani, Mau in Sindhi, Ammi in Urdu, Masa in Marwari, Dai, Amma, Maa, Mahtari in Chhattisgarhi, Maji, Eija in Uttarakhand, Mai, Mahtari, Maya, Maa in Bhojpuri and other dialects of Bihar, Amma in Hindi dialect Awadhi.
The ‘m’ sound is not common for no reason:
You will notice that most of the words used to address mothers have a common sound, and that is ‘m’. This is not a mere coincidence. Linguist John McWhorter has written a book, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language. In this book, he has explained that the ‘m’ sound is so easy to pronounce that children start speaking it without being taught. That is why different language families like Sino-Tibetan, Bantu, and Semitic associate it with addressing mothers without being influenced by each other. However, Georgia is a country where the m sound is found in addressing fathers instead of mothers. There, mother is called Deda and father is called Mama.
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