Mama and papa explained

In linguistics, mama and papa are considered a special case of false cognates. In many languages of the world, sequences of sounds similar to pronounced as //mama// and pronounced as //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 pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //p//, and pronounced as //b//, and the open vowel pronounced as //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, Yoruba bàbá, and Persian baba (all "father"); or Navajo amá, Mandarin Chinese, 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:

^[6]

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:^[7] ^[8]

Afro-Asiatic languages

Aramaic

Imma for mother and Abba for father

Hebrew

Ima for mother and Aba for father

Arabic: Arabic: أم ("Um") for mother and Arabic: أب ("Ab") for father (formal). 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 (mak/meak) and ប៉ា (pa), the general ម៉ែ (mai/me) and ពុក (puk), and the formal ម្ដាយ (madaay) and ឪពុក (ovpuk).^[9]
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.^[10] ^[11] ^[12] Owing to contact with Spanish and English, mamá, papá, ma(m(i)), and dad pronounced as /[dʌd]/ 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. ^[13]
In Malay, 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 appa 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 appe (pronounced as /apæ/) and the word for father in Tulu is amme (pronounced as /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, the common words for mother and father are amma and nanna.^[14] "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 (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" for mother and "appa" for father are much more common.
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 pronounced as /[ɑ]/ and pronounced as /[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 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, *mā́tēr (modern reconstruction:

méh₂tēr

) meant "mother" while *pǝtḗr (modern reconstruction:

ph₂tḗr

) and átta meant "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 or formal "Mammai" and "Babbai"
Spanish mamá and papá

Balto-Slavic

Belarusian 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.
Czech máma and táta
Lithuanian mama
Macedonian мама/mama for mom, and татo/tato for dad. мајка/majka for mother, and татко/tatko for father.
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. In some dialects, papa means "food".
Serbo-Croatian мама/mama for mom, and тата/tata for dad.
Slovak mama / tata, also tato. In addition, papanie / papať means "food" / "eat" respectively.
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 (in Irish pronounced as /ˈmˠaːhəɾʲ/) / áthair
Scottish Gaelic màthair (in Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic pronounced as /ˈmaːhəɾʲ/)^[15] / athair (in Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic pronounced as /ˈahəɾʲ/)^[16]
Welsh mam / tad (mutates to dad)
Breton mamm (mutates to vamm) / 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".
Bhojpuri has maai ("माई") and aama ("आमा") as "mother" and babu ("बाबू") as "father". Informally, the terms mami and papa are also used, possibly due to English influence.
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 Urdu: {{nq|ماں, madar Urdu: {{nq|مادر or walida Urdu: {{nq|والدہ formally and ammi Urdu: {{nq|امی, mama Urdu: {{nq|مما informally, whereas father is baap Urdu: {{nq|باپ (not used as salutation), pedar Urdu: {{nq|پدر or 'walid' Urdu: {{nq|والد formally and baba Urdu: {{nq|بابا or abba Urdu: {{nq|ابّا or abbu Urdu: {{nq|ابّو informally.

Other Indo-European languages

Albanian nena/nëna / mama
(Modern) Greek μάνα, μαμά (mana, mama) and μπαμπάς (babas)
Hittite (annaš, "mother") and (attaš, "father")
Pashto moor Pushto; Pashto: {{nq|مور is the word for Mother. Plaar Pushto; Pashto: {{nq|پلار is the word for Father and baba بابا is used for father as well.
Persian madar Persian: {{nq|مادر is the formal word for mother, whereas Persian: {{nq|مامان or maman is the informal word for mother. Pedar Persian: {{nq|پدر is the formal word for father whereas baba or Persian: {{nq|بابا is the informal word for father.
Hazaragi ‘’aya’’ is used for mother and ‘’ ata’’ is used for father.
Kurdish dayê and yadê or dê is the word for mother.
Luri dā دا and dāleka دالکه is the word for mother, and is bowa or bawa is the word for father.

Kartvelian languages

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

Mayan languages

Ch'ol

ña

Tzotzil

Tzeltal

Niger-Congo languages

Igbo

Mama / Nne / Nma

Swahili

Mama and Baba

Yoruba

Màmá / Ìyá and Bàbá

Zulu