Why does the word for mom sound the same in so many countries across the world?

Question

examples:
mama
mere
madre
maa
ma

Answer 1

Still one of the most convincing theories was given by M.-M. Lewis 1936 (in the book "Infant speech", London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner).
The theory is, in short, that the cebtral vowels "a" and "e" (being the least complicated vowels to produce) are first produced in discomfort cries, while the incipient sucking movements before, during, or after feeding periods give the labials "p", "b", and nasal "m" with lip closure, and the nasal "n" and dentals "t", "d" as the tongue presses against the front gums in sucking movements. Consonant-vowel alternations result in babbling sounds such as "mama", "nana" "meme" "tata" "baba" etc., from which the first meaningful words for the persons most important for the infant are formed.
So it is no coincidence that many non-related languages have combinations of nasal+ "a" (or "e") as (toddler) words for female breast (Latin "mamma", Indonesian/Malay "nenen") and for mother (English "mum", Thai "meh", Turkish "anne"), while combinations of plosive consonant +"a" or "e" stand for "father" in toddler talk or standard language (Engl. "daddy", Yiddish "tateh", Arabic "abba; abu" Aramaic "abba", Tamil "appa" etc.)

Answer 2

wow, that really cuts to the heart of the study of genetic linguistics. I don't think anyone knows for sure, the answer is mostly theoretical. It could be said that all human languages come from the same proto-language and some of the most basic core words have come down through the ages relatively unchanged. You could also say that ma-ma are the first syllables a baby says when learning to speak, and that has been nearly universally assigned to mean "mother".

A more exotic idea is that there is a physiological predisposition in the human brain to assign certain sounds to specific meanings, the more basic the meaning, the more likely the sound to be similar among human languages. That is, the idea that language is to a certain extent innately hard-wired to the human brain.

Answer 3

Because, apart from grunts and other noises, the first sound coming from a baby that adults think is a word is when the babe voices a bilabial nasal plosive /m/ with an indistinct back vowel, something like /a/, giving rise to /mamama/.

Answer 4

I saw a show on this once. Supposedly it is because it's one of the first sounds a baby can make, mama, dada, baba, caca. Plus, there's that whole Indo-European background that unites the majority of modern languages.

Answer 5

Because the easiest vocalizations for a baby to learn are:
muh
ma
ahm

These vocalizations do not require any complex action of the tongue or lips (such as "la" or "pa" requires).

Answer 6

The letter M is the easiest to pronounce by toddlers.

Answer 7

influenced by English
at very being, we didn't call our mother "mom"...I am a Chinese.
we call mother "niang".....sounds like this.

Answer 8

Because it's easy to say.