Eli5 why the words for mom and dad are so similar in a wide variety of languages
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The more common a word is in a language, the more resistant it is to change. Repetition breeds a degree of conformity. Hence, even as languages differentiate in grammar and vocabulary, the more common words of each language branch will tend to maintain similar forms. So *papa* is commonly understood in most Romance languages, for instance, not to mention Germanic languages. It explains similarity between language families.
Papa and mama are special cases that appear to transcend language families because of how young children develop language. Names for parents tend to be among the early sounds children make, hence “dada,” “baba,” “papa,” or “tata.” So there are a limited set of possibilities that could form to identify parents, among the first words used by babies. This [article from The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/words-mom-dad-similar-languages/409810/) by linguist John McWhorter breaks down the linguistics in an accessible way.
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