Mama and papa

In linguistics, mama and papa are considered a special case of false cognates. In many languages of the world, sequences of sounds similar to /mama/ and /papa/ mean "mother" and "father", usually but not always in that order. This is thought to be a coincidence resulting from the process of early language acquisition.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Etymology[]

'Mama' and 'papa' use speech sounds that are among the easiest to produce: bilabial consonants like /m/, /p/, and /b/, and the open vowel /a/. They are, therefore, often among the first word-like sounds made by babbling babies (babble words), and parents tend to associate the first sound babies make with themselves and to employ them subsequently as part of their baby-talk lexicon. Thus, there is no need to ascribe to common ancestry the similarities of !Kung ba, Aramaic abba, Mandarin Chinese bàba, and Persian baba (all "father"); or Navajo amá, Mandarin Chinese māma, Swahili mama, Quechua mama, and Polish mama (all "mother"). For the same reason, some scientists believe that 'mama' and 'papa' were among the first words that humans spoke.^[5]

Linguist Roman Jakobson hypothesized that the nasal sound in "mama" comes from the nasal murmur that babies produce when breastfeeding:

Often the sucking activities of a child are accompanied by a slight nasal murmur, the only phonation which can be produced when the lips are pressed to mother’s breast or to the feeding bottle and the mouth full. Later, this phonatory reaction to nursing is reproduced as an anticipatory signal at the mere sight of food and finally as a manifestation of a desire to eat, or more generally, as an expression of discontent and impatient longing for missing food or absent nurser, and any ungranted wish. When the mouth is free from nutrition, the nasal murmur may be supplied with an oral, particularly labial release; it may also obtain an optional vocalic support.
— Roman Jakobson, Why 'Mama' and 'Papa'?

Variants[]

Variants using other sounds do occur: for example, in Fijian, the word for "mother" is nana, in Turkish, the word for mother is ana, and in Old Japanese, the word for "mother" was papa. The modern Japanese word for "father", chichi, is from older titi (but papa is more common colloquially in modern Japanese). Very few languages lack labial consonants (this mostly being attested on a family basis, in the Iroquoian and some of the Athabaskan languages), and only Arapaho is known to lack an open vowel /a/. The Tagalog -na- / -ta- ("mom" / "dad" words) parallel the more common ma / pa in nasality / orality of the consonants and identity of place of articulation.

Examples by language family[]

"Mama" and "papa" in different languages:^[6]^[7]

Afro-Asiatic languages[]

Aramaic: Imma for mother and Abba for father
Hebrew: Ima for mother and Aba for father
Dialectal Arabic/Maltese أم ("Om") for mother and أب ("Ab") for father
Berber: Yemma/Ma for mother and Aba/Baba for father

Austroasiatic languages[]

Khmer has different words that indicate different levels of respect. They include the intimate ម៉ាក់ (mak/meak) and ប៉ា (pa), the general ម៉ែ (mai/me) and ពុក (puk), and the formal ម្ដាយ (madaay) and ឪពុក (ovpuk).^[8]
Vietnamese, mẹ is mother and bố is father. Má and ba or cha respectively in Southern Vietnamese.

Austronesian languages[]

Tagalog, mothers can be called ina, and fathers ama. Two other words for the same in common use, nanay and tatay, came from Nahuatl by way of Spanish.^[9]^[10]^[11] Owing to contact with Spanish and English, mamá, papá, ma(m(i)), and dad [dʌd] or dádi are also used.^[12]
In Indonesian, mother is called Emak (mak) or Ibu (buk), father is called Bapak or Ayah. The modern Indonesian word for father is papi and mother is mami. The words mami and papi have been used since the days of the Dutch Indies Colonial, causing the mixing of the words "Papa & Mama", Europe to "Papi & Mami", Indonesia.
In Māori, Papa is the name of the Earth goddess in the creation myth, and as such is sometimes used to refer to the embodiment of motherhood. The sky father in the same myth is called Rangi.

Dravidian languages[]

Though amma and nana are used in Tulu, they are not really Tulu words but used due to the influence of neighboring states' languages. The actual words for mother in Tulu is nane (pronounced [nane]) and the word for father in Tulu is amme (pronounced [amæ]). Note that the usage of these words is at odds with the usage pattern in other languages (similar to Georgian in that sense).
In Telugu, "Thalli" and "Thandri" are used for mother and father in formal Telugu. amma and nana or bapu are used for mother and father for the informal way. Notice how nana refers to maternal grandfather in Hindi, and how that differs from its Telugu meaning. "Nayana" is also used for father in informal Telugu in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana of India. Note that the usage of these words is at odds with the usage pattern in other languages (similar to Tulu and Georgian in that sense).
In Malayalam, the common word for mother is "Amma" and for father is "Achan". In scholastic usage, Mathav and Pithav are used respectively. "Achan" is either a transformed Malayalam equivalent of the Sanskrit "Arya" for "Sir/Master" (Arya - >Ajja -> Acha) or originated from a native Dravidian word that means paternal grandfather (cf.Ajja in Kannada and Ajje in Tulu meaning grandfather and Achan is an uncommon word for father in Tamil). Other words like "Appan","Appachan","Chaachan" (all 3 forms common among Christians, Appan is also used by Hindus of Tamil influenced areas),"Baappa/Vaappa" ,"Uppa"(both common among Muslims) etc. are also used for father, and words such as "Umma"(among Muslims), "Ammachi"(among Christians) for mother. Christians use Achan to mean Church Father."Thalla" which means mother and "Thantha" which means father are currently never used formally and are considered derogatory/disrespectful. "Thaayi" is another old and extremely uncommon word for mother.
In Tamil, "Thaayi" and "Thanthai" are the formal Tamil words for mother and father; informally Amma and Appa are much more common words for mother and father respectively(also naina for father(in an informal way)).
In the Kannada language, "Thaayi" for mother and "Thande" for father are used formally. But to address them informally Kannadigas use amma for mother and appa for father.

Uralic languages[]

Estonian ema for mother and isa for father.
Hungarian apa means "father" and anya means mother, which tends to use open vowels such as [ɑ] and [ɐ]. For formal usage, these words are applied, but both mama and papa are used as well, in informal speech. For family internal addressing, apu and anyu (variants of "apa" and "anya," respectively) are also used.
Finnish emä (note: The use of "emä" is considered archaic in the meaning "mother of a child". The modern word is "äiti" derived from Gothic "aiþei".)

Indo-European languages[]

In the Proto-Indo-European language, *mā́tēr (modern reconstruction: *méh₂tēr) meant "mother" and *pǝtḗr (modern reconstruction: *ph₂tḗr) meant "father", and átta meant "papa", a nursery word for "father".

Romance[]

Catalan mamà / mama and papà / papa
French maman / papa (mother / father) and mamie / papy (grandmother / grandfather)
Galician nai, mai / pai
Italian mamma and papà or babbo
Lombard mader
Portuguese mãe / pai (mother / father); Portugal: mamã / papá; Brazil: mamãe / papai
Romanian mama / mamă (mother) and tata / tată (father)
Sardinian mama and babbu
Spanish mamá and papá

Balto-Slavic[]

Belarusian мама (mama) for mom and тата (tata) for dad.
Bosnian мама/mama for mom and тата/tata for dad.
Bulgarian мама (mama) for mom and татко (tatko) for dad; майка (maika) for mother and баща (bashta) for father; баба (baba) for grandmother and дядо (dyado) for grandfather. For aunt and uncle: стринка (strinka) for father’s brother’s wife and чичо (chicho) for father's brother / вуйна (vuyna) for mother’s brother’s wife and вуйчо (vuycho) for mother's brother. More words for relatives in Bulgarian
Croatian mama and tata
Czech máma and táta
Lithuanian mama
Rusyn мама (mama) for mom and татo (tato) for dad.
Polish mama and tata
Russian мама (mama). In Russian papa, deda and baba mean "father", "grandfather" and "grandmother" respectively, though the last two can represent baby-talk (baba is also a slang word for "woman", and a folk word for a married woman with a child born). In popular speech tata and tyatya for "dad" were also used until the 20th century.
Serbian мама/mama for mom, and тата/tata for dad.
Slovak mama / tata, also tato
Slovene mama / ata, also tata
Ukrainian мама (mamа) and тато (tato) (папа (papa) in South-eastern dialects).

Germanic[]

Dutch mama / mam / ma and papa / pap / pa
English mama / mum/mummy (standard British) / mom/mommy (US/Canada/sometimes regional Irish) / momma / mam (regional British and regional Irish) / ma and dad / dada / daddy / papa / pa / da
Faroese mamma
German Mama and Papa
Icelandic mamma; pabbi
Norwegian mamma and pappa
Swedish mamma and pappa
Swiss German mami, but mame in the dialect from Graubünden and mamma in certain dialects from the Canton of Bern

Celtic[]

Irish "Máthair" (pronounced [ˈmˠaːhəɾʲ])
Scottish Gaelic màthair ([ˈmaːhəɾʲ])^[13] / athair ([ˈahəɾʲ])^[14]
Welsh mam tad (mutates to dad)
Breton mamm (mutates to vamm) and tad (mutates to dad or zad)

Indo-Aryan[]

Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit): Mātṛ / Ambā for "mother" and Pitṛ / Tātaḥ for "father".

Assamese has ma ("মা") and aai ("আই") as "mother" and deuta ("দেউতা") and pitai ("পিতাই") as "father". However due to English borrowings, the words mamma and pappa are sometimes used today.
Bengali, the words maa ("মা") and baba ("বাবা") are used for "mother" and "father".
Gujarati uses mātā, or mā, for mother and bāpuji, or pitā, for father. Informally, the terms mammi and pappā are also used, possibly due to English influence.
Hindi has the word mātā and pitaji as the formal words for "mother" and "father", though the shorter informal term maa and pita is more common. Due to English borrowings, the words mamma and pappa are also common.
Konkani language, the word "aai" for "mother" and "baba" "father" are used, given the language's close similarity to Marathi. However due to English borrowings, the words mamma and pappa are much more common today.
Maithili language has the word Mami and Papa to refer mother and father respectively, which were borrowed from English and are very popular in Mithila federal state of Nepal and Bihar state of India.
Marathi Aai (“आई”) for mother and Baba (“बाबा”) for father. In some parts of Maharashtra Amma ("अम्मा") for mother and Appa ("अप्पा") or Tatya ("तात्या") for father is also used. However due to English borrowings, the words mummy and pappa are much more common today in urban areas.
Nepali language has the words "ama" or "ma" to refer to mother and "baba" or "ba" for father.
Odia uses bapa (ବାପା) for father and maa(ମା), bou (ବୋଉ) for mother. However due to English borrowings, the words mamma/mommy and pappa are much more common today.
Sinhalese, the word for mother originally was "abbe" ("abbiyande") and father was "appa " ("appanande"). Use of "amma" for mother and "nana" for father is due to heavy influence of Tamil. In some areas of Sri Lanka, particularly in the Central Province, Sinhalese use the word "nanachhi" for father.
Urdu the words for mother are maa/mɑ̃ː ماں, madar مادر or walida والدہ formally and ammi امی, 'mama' مما informally, whereas father is baap باپ (not used as salutation), pedar' پدر or 'walid' والد formally and baba بابا or abba ابّا or abbu ابّو informally.

Other Indo-European languages[]

Albanian nena/nëna / mama
(Modern) Greek μάνα, μαμά (mana, mama) and μπαμπάς (babas)
Hittite

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