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Subject:
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Words for Mother
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Question:
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I am curious why there is a remarkable similarity across different languages in the form of nusery names for parents?e.g.,In Chinese and Navajo ''ma'' corresponds to English ''mama''.
Is it juist a matter of fact on coincident????
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Reply:
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Just to follow up on Bob Papen's comments: it's not that the word
for mother is related in all these languages. It's that human babies
develop at roughly the same timetable everywhere, and the sounds
in the baby words (and sometimes also the adult term) for mother
correspond to the sound that are earliest controllable by baby
articulators.
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Reply From:
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Nancy J. Frishberg
click here to access email
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Date:
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Jan-21-2006
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Other Replies:
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Re: Words for Mother
Robert A Papen
(Jan-20-2006)
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Re: Words for Mother
Geoffrey Sampson
(Jan-23-2006)
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