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 and 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.

Etymology

Mama and papa use speech sounds that are among the easiest to produce: bilabial consonants like,, and, and the open vowel. They are, therefore, often among the first word-like sounds made by babbling babies, 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, Yoruba bàbá, and Persian baba ; or Navajo amá, Mandarin Chinese, Swahili mama, Quechua mama, and Polish mama. For the same reason, some scientists believe that mama and papa were among the first words that humans spoke.
Linguist Roman Jakobson hypothesized that the nasal sound in "mama" comes from the nasal murmur that babies produce when breastfeeding:

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. Very few languages lack labial consonants, and only Arapaho is known to lack an open vowel /a/. The Tagalog -na- / -ta- 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:

Afro-Asiatic languages

  • Aramaic: Imma for mother and Abba for father
  • Hebrew: Imma for mother and Abba for father
  • Arabic: أم for mother and أب for father. When actually talking to them, they are called Ummi for Mother and Abba 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 and ប៉ា , the general ម៉ែ and ពុក , and the formal ម្ដាយ and ឪពុក .
  • 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. Owing to contact with Spanish and English, mamá, papá, ma, and dad or dádi are also used. In addition Chinese has influenced the Tagalog languages even before the Spanish Colonial Period; in Old Tagalog the word Baba was used for Father.
  • In Malay, mother is called Emak or Ibu, father is called Bapa, Abah 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 appa are used in Tulu, they are not really Tulu words but used due to the influence of neighboring states' languages. The actual word for mother in Tulu is appe and the word for father in Tulu is amme. Note that the usage of these words is at odds with the usage pattern in other languages.
  • In Telugu, the common words for mother and father are amma and nanna. "Thalli" and "Thandri" are used for mother and father in formal Telugu. 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.
  • In Malayalam, the common word for mother is "Amma" and for father is "Achan/Appa". In scholastic usage, Mathav and Pithav are used respectively. "Achan" is either a transformed Malayalam equivalent of the Sanskrit "Arya" for "Sir/Master" or originated from a native Dravidian word that means paternal grandfather. Other words like "Appan","Appachan","Chaachan","Baappa/Vaappa","Uppa" etc. are also used for father, and words such as "Umma", "Ammachi" 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, "thaai" and "thanthai" are the formal Tamil words for mother and father; informally "amma" for mother and "appa" for father are much more common. "Aayi" and "Aaththa" for mother and "Ayyan" for father are also used in some dialects.
  • 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 and. For formal usage, these words are applied, but in informal speech, both mama and papa are used as well. For family internal addressing, apu and anyu are also used.
  • Finnish Äiti and Isä for mother and father, respectively. Also, the old Finnish word 'emä' for 'mother'.

Indo-European languages

In the Proto-Indo-European language, *méh₂tēr meant "mother" while *ph₂tḗr and *átta meant "father".

Romance

  • Catalan mamà / mama and papà / papa
  • French maman / papa and mamie / papy
  • Friulian mame / pai or papà
  • Galician nai, mai / pai
  • Italian mamma and papà or babbo
  • Lombard mader
  • Portuguese mãe / pai ; Portugal: mamã / papá; Brazil: mamãe / papai
  • Romanian mama / mamă and tata / tată
  • Sardinian mama and babbu or formal "Mammai" and "Babbai"
  • Spanish mamá and ''papá''

Balto-Slavic

  • Belarusian мама for mom and тата for dad.
  • Bulgarian мама for mom and татко for dad; майка for mother and баща for father; баба for grandmother and дядо for grandfather.
  • Czech máma and táta
  • Lithuanian mama / tėtė, motina / tėvas .
  • Macedonian мама/mama for mom, and татo/tato for dad. мајка/majka for mother, and татко/tatko for father.
  • Rusyn мама for mom and татo for dad.
  • Polish mama and tata
  • Russian мама. In Russian papa, deda and baba mean "father", "grandfather" and "grandmother" respectively, though the last two can represent baby-talk. In popular speech tata and tyatya for "dad" were also used until the 20th century; batya is also still occasionally used to this day. In some dialects, papa means "food".
  • Serbo-Croatian mama for mom, and tata for dad.
  • Slovak mama / tata, also tato. In addition, papanie / papať means "food" / "eat" respectively.
  • Slovene mama / ata, also tata''
  • Ukrainian мама and тато .

Germanic

Celtic

Indo-Aryan

Old Indo-Aryan : Mātṛ / Ambā for "mother" and Pitṛ / Tātaḥ for "father".
  • Assamese has ma and aai as "mother" and deuta and pitai as "father". However, due to English borrowings, the words mamma and pappa are sometimes used today.
  • Bengali, the words maa and baba are used for "mother" and "father".
  • Bhojpuri has maai and aama as "mother" and babu as "father". Informally, the terms mami and papa are also used, possibly due to English influence.
  • In Doteli language, "eeja" is used for mother while "buwa" or "baa" is used for 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.
  • Kashmiri, Mauj/mauji for mother is used in both formal and informal language where as Moul for father in formal and Baabé/Baba in informal language.
  • 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 Madesh state of Nepal and Bihar state of India.
  • Marathi Aai for mother and Baba for father. In some parts of Maharashtra Amma for mother and Appa or Tatya 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 Aama or Ma to refer to mother and Buwa, Buba, Baba, or Ba for father. Generally, the former word or words are considered more formal and respectful than the latter. Mummy and Papa is also common as English loan words.
  • Odia uses bapa for father and maa, bou 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" and father was "appa ". 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", or "thaththa" for father.
  • Urdu the words for mother are maa/''mɑ̃ː, madar or walida formally and ammi, mama informally, whereas father is baap, pedar' or 'walid' formally and baba or abba or abbu'' informally.

Iranian

  • Pashto مور is the word for mother, پلار is the word for father and بابا is used for father as well.
  • Persian
  • * In Iranian Persian, مادر is the word for mother and پدر is the word for father in formal speech. Informally, the word for "mama" is مامان, a French loanword, or a natural variant such as ماما and the word for "papa" is بابا. However, some Iranian dialects use ننه for "mama."
  • * In Dari, just like Iranian Persian, مادر and پدر are the words for "mother" and "father" respectively in formal speech. Informally, ننه for "mama" and بابا for "papa" are used.
  • ** Hazaragi آبه is used for mother and آته is used for father.
  • Kurdish dayê and yadê or dê is the word for mother.
  • Luri دا dā and دالکه dāleka is the word for mother, and bowa or bawa is the word for father.

Other Indo-European languages

Kartvelian languages

  • Georgian is notable for having its similar words "backwards" compared to other languages: "father" in Georgian is მამა, while "mother" is pronounced as დედა. პაპა papa stands for "grandfather".

Mayan languages

Niger-Congo languages

Sino-Tibetan languages

  • Bodo, बिमा and बिफा are the words for "mother" and "father" respectively. However, parents are usually referred to by their children as आइ/आइयै or मा and आफा or बाबा — "Mom" and "Dad."
  • Burmese, မိခင် and ဖခင် are the words for "mother" and "father" respectively. However, parents are usually referred to by their children as မေမေ and ဖေဖေ — "Mom" and "Dad."
  • Cantonese, and are the formal words for "mother" and "father" respectively. or and or are used informally for "Mom" and "Dad" respectively.
  • Mandarin Chinese, and are for "mother" and "father" respectively. Note that the f sound was pronounced bilabially in older and some other forms of Chinese, thus fu is related to the common "father" word pa. In addition, parents are usually referred to by their children as and — "Mom" and "Dad". In informal language, mā and bà are sometimes used as shorter versions of the aforementioned words.
  • Taiwanese Hokkien, and refer to "mother" and "father" respectively. Note that some of the b sounds in modern Taiwanese was pronounced as m in older Chinese languages, hence is related to the common "mother" word m. Additionally, parents are also referred as / and /, equivalents to "Mom" and "Dad", respectively.
  • Hakka Chinese uses "â-pâ - â-mê" （阿爸阿姆） for father and mother. In the Meixian dialect mother is called "â-mà". Other term is "fu-mû" or yà-ôi for parents or both father and mother.
  • Tibetan uses amma for mother and nana for father.
  • Tani uses "ané" for mother and "abu/abo" for father.
  • Despite being a Tibeto-Burman language, Newari uses "maa" for mother and "baa" for father, similar to Nepali due to continuous interaction with Nepali speakers.

Kra–Dai languages

  • Thai, "mother" is แม่ and "father" is พ่อ. มะ and บะ or ฉะ respectively in Southern Thai. Colloquially, mamà and papà are also used.
  • Lao, "mother" is ແມ່ and "father" is ພໍ່.

Turkic languages

  • In Turkish, both anne and ana mean mother, and baba and ata means father. Also, nene can be used for grandma and dede for grandpa.
  • Uyghur, an East Asian Turkic language, uses ana or apa for mother, and ata or dada for father.
  • In the Crimean Tatar language, the word Ana means mother, and the word Baba means father.

Other families and language isolates

  • Basque: ama for mother and aita for father.
  • Japanese, 父 and 母 for "father" and "mother" respectively in formal style. They are basic words which do not combine with honorifics. Japanese has also borrowed informal mama and papa along with the native terms, stemming from American influence post-World War II. Before the borrowing became common, a child usually called its mother おかあさん, かあちゃん, vel sim., and its father おとうさん, とうちゃん, etc.. On the other hand, マンマ means “food” in baby talk.
  • Okinawan language, the word あんま is used to refer to mother while ふぁふぁ refers to father.
  • Korean, 엄마 and 아빠 are mom and dad in informal language, whereas the formal words are 아버지 and 어머니 for father and mother.
  • Kutenai, a language isolate of southeastern British Columbia, uses the word ma.
  • Sumerian: ?? / ama
  • Mapudungun: Chachay and papay are respectively "daddy" and "mommy"; chaw and ñuke being "father" and "mother", respectively. Chachay and papay are also terms of respect or sympathy towards other members of the community.