Why the word "mother" is similar in other languages?

Question

As far as I know, in many languages, the word "mother" pronounced similarly, like "mama, mommy" as in English, "mama" or something like that in Chinese, and many more languages.

Answer 1

probably because when I baby says it, it usually sounds the same no matter what language they are trying to speak...LOL

Answer 2

That's a strange claim, but it has some truth to it-- though the reasoning behind it is not very exciting. The fruit was introduced to the west by the Portuguese who called it "banana" after an indigenous West African word for the fruit. This caught on in the same way that some form of the word "auto" is used in many languages to refer to automobiles. Languages spoken in the Muslim world tend to use some form of the Arabic name for the fruit, موز [muz]. Turkish and Persian are good examples of this, while Azeri uses "banan." As you could probably guess, most languages spoken throughout Asia and Australia have native words for banana, as do almost all indigenous languages of North and South America.

Answer 3

English mother and Latin mater and many
similar maternal words contain the worldwide etymon ma ‘breast’ + ter an Indo-European agent suffix, so that the etymological meaning of the word mother is ‘breast-feeder.’ For other words ending in the Indo-European -ter suffix, look at: brother, sister, daughter, pater, frater, German Schwester ‘sister.’ The dental t sound often alters slightly to become a dental d sound, as in the German word for brother, Bruder.
Mamma is the formal English medical word for breast. Mamma is a reduplication of the much older Proto-Indo-European root *ma, breast or mother. This is not only the first sound uttered by many human infants, it may also be the most widespread word root in the world. *Ma forms the basis of the word for mother in many different and possibly unrelated language families around the world:
Latin mater
Greek meter
French mère
Portuguese mãe
Spanish madre
German Mutter
Russian mate
Icelandic modher
Sanskrit mata
Irish mathair
Welsh mam
Arabic oum
Hebrew em
Swahili mama
Chinese ma
Hawaian makuahine (maka first, beloved < *ma-k Proto-Polynesian, the mother (?) + wahine woman)
Why so widespread a word? The sounds of m and a are among the easiest to make and among the first sounds acquired by a human infant.

Answer 4

The sound of "mama" is a vocalization that involves opening the lips to make a sound. As infants learn to vocalize and open their mouth this is the sound. It is common around the world and has come to mean mother in many (but not all) languages and cultures.

Answer 5

We all whatever our colors, locations, nationalities are from the same source, same graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandfather and mam. the first word we learn is mmmmmmm--> mama , mum , mother etc.

Answer 6

Because a baby's first words are usually "mama" or something similar to that or "dada" or "baba" for dad. It's just natural.

Answer 7

because the crying voice of a human infant is same all over the world. this voice is UWAAN or UMAAN..... and wen infant starting speak words more or less..... the first word is commanly MA-MA....MA_MA. because infant can use lips only. not can use tung then infant speaks MA_MA...MA_MA......and another word infant generally using only lips is PA_PA....or ABBA_ABBA...........in india and surrounding country the words for the relations in family......infant or child speaks using tung and teeth ....that is CHA_CHA......KAKA_KAKA.....so all words are i think produced by the voices make by birds, animals, or many voices make with natural or human working efforts...like cutting a tree with hexa, produce voice CUT and so on.

Answer 8

Cause most of the world's languages have have evolved from Sanskrit. And in this, mother is called ma or amba

Answer 9

Most languages came from latin, thats why a lot of words in english sound simmilar in other languages

Answer 10

Also "mammary gland" for breast nipples.
The word comes from the same lip movements that it takes to get milk from a nipple, the first thing (or one of them) a baby learns, and associates with "mama."
Mama, milk, feeding. Add vocalization. Repeat often.

Answer 11

because all langages evovled from a commom languag that started splitting as humans colonized more of the earth