“Go slow it’s not a race!
Think a little and give some space!
Take a little or get some grace!
Don’t forget to keep a smile on your face!”
It is said that this word is one of the oldest in the universe and among the very first words uttered by a baby!
In fact the word is so similar in so many languages it is really amazing!
read on!
Of course you all know the word in the word for mother!
Maman. Madre. Mamma. Mam. Amá. ‘Um. Mama. Eomma. Amma. Mama. Mamay. Maa. Sound similar? That was mother in different languages — specifically in French, Spanish, Italian, Welsh, Navajo, Arabic, Swahili, Korean, Telugu, Mandarin, Quechua and Hindi, in that order!
As you can see that the names are so similar in almost all the languages even if you see the way they sound! You can of course link it to the fact that they are similar since if you investigate the language they all belong to the Indo-European family.
It has At least then we could trace the echo of “mama” back to a definitive origin. But this small sampling of “mother” in different languages accounts for pretty much every corner of the globe. It doesn’t take a linguistics degree to see that “mama” belongs to a dialect far more universal than a single protolanguage.
When I was posted in NIMHANS (not as a patient!); one of the senior speech therapist used to tell us that if you analyze the most earliest sounds made by kids all over the world, you would see that most of them have similar sounds! He used to tell us that the average baby makes so many sounds and may or may not put meaning to them! But as he or she grows older, many sounds gets filtered according to the region and stimulation he or she receives!
Now if he or she does not receive adequate stimulation which means that if parents and other people do not converse with the babies, then in all probability the baby may not have much language at least initially!
That is why recently we as speech experts do see babies who are born in small nuclear families with limited interactions with the outside world either have a delay in language development or do not develop them at all!
Which is why a deaf kid does not learn how to speak! If you do not listen then you do not repeat! And language what you have presently is just a parroting of words which your ancestors have been doing and invented ages back!
Even Shashi Tharoor with his immense command over language is simply repeating what he has heard or learnt others says or write!
Apparently there are some words which numbers to around 23 which are told to be the oldest words in the spoken word and the word similar to the word mother is one of them!
This list of “ultraconserved words” (which have remained more or less the same for 15,000 years) are thought to originate from such a mother tongue, which was used around the time of the last ice age!
So apart from the development of proper language, the words of mother and possibly father are the only words which a child would learn by himself or herself! Of course if you stimulate him to say mamma or daddy then he or she would pick one depending on the rate of stimulation and success!
In his groundbreaking paper “Why ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’?,” linguist Roman Jakobson pointed to the first syllable babies are usually capable of making: “ah,” or “mah.” These are usually the first sounds babies reach for because they don’t require complex mouth positions (or the use of tongue or teeth).
This also explains the universality of words like “papa” and “dada” — the “p” or “b” sound usually follows the “m” sound in baby linguistics. Once babies start saying “ma,” they soon start saying “pa” and “da.”
Moreover, “mah” is associated with the murmuring sound a baby makes when it’s feeding. In other words, “mama” doesn’t literally mean “mother” — at least from the perspective of a baby. If anything, “mama” is more directly translated from baby-ese as “food”! Unfortunately here father’s do not have any advantages!
The words which they speak is thus a sound of comfort and fulfillment! So did you ask your mother or father the first word you spoke? With meaning of course and not the moving of lips with sound!
Let me know if you get the answer and we can do a meta analysis of those words since apparently for all the babble from the babies and the proof, a Meta Analysis is the highest level of evidence!
Now when I think of mother and baby smile reminds me of birthday celebrity Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal!
Her mischievous but cute smile was so innocent but makes you feel so nice!
Now think about some nice words to say and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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