Why are some words, like “mama and papa”, similar in many languages?
In: Other
I’m not well-versed on the etymology, but as a layman and fellow linguaphile, I think I figured out a pretty simple answer. From a performance aspect, one can deduce that these are two of the lowest effort words to make (“ma” literally being *the easiest* word).
Without opening your mouth, make as low effort a sound as possible. You probably hummed. From a hum, open your mouth as neutrally as possible; try not to shape your mouth or alter the sound or to produce any particular sound at all. Simply go from a closed-mouth hum to an open-mouth “hum”. You’ll notice that the hum is now a vowel closest to an U sound as in “ugly” or an A as in “all.” When your lips separated, they produced the sound of a consonant. That consonant was M. Attempting to consciously produce sound with your mouth, at virtually the lowest level of effort and recognition possible, you have said “ma.” I’d argue that “ma” is borderline universal and typically the first word because it is literally the easiest word to say. “Pa” or “ba” add only a tiny bit more effort to the same process.
I’m not learned on the subject though, so maybe I’m totally full of shit. Seems simple enough though.
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