I wonder why in so many languages we always have the similar pronunciation of mama and papa?
eg, Chinese Pin yin mama baba
English mama papa
French maman papa
Spanish mamá papá
........
Western language has big difference with eastern language, but why for this term of address they are so similar?
Silly question :P
.......

Question

I wonder why in so many languages we always have the similar pronunciation of mama and papa?
eg, Chinese Pin yin  mama baba
       English  mama papa
       French   maman papa
       Spanish  mamá papá
       ........
Western language has big difference with eastern language, but why for this term of address they are so similar?
Silly question :P
        .......

Answer

Perhaps it is because there was a single source of language. There have been some scientific studies within the last couple of years that suggest this is true. Multiple languages evolved from a single source, losing sounds the farther away from the source. Chinese, for example, is far away from that source, and it is a sound-poor language. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704547604576262572791243528.html .

Answer

Because perhaps the word 'mama' has his origin in baby talk.
When babies start to talk they say only ma, ba, ta, da, pa.

European languages come from Proto-Indo-European that is the hypothetical ancestor language of many languages, including the following major groups:
Albanian
Anatolian
Armenian
Balto-Slavic
Celtic
Germanic
Greek
Indo-Iranian
Italic

Answer

mais pour le français est préférable d'utiliser mon père - ma mère

Answer

porque estas lenguas tienen una lengua, protolengua en común, que es la indoeuropea.
Con las invasiones con las guerras en siglos pasados se fueron adaptando muchas palabras.
Por ello si vas a estudiar algunas de estas lenguas a nivel profesional, te enseñan griego y latín, para entender sus raíces y palabras que son muy comunes entre ellas.

Answer

In Farsi we say "maman, baba"

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