# Do words for mothers in other languages have letter " m" in them ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644 "2008-12-04T07:13:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/1 "2008-12-04T07:13:44Z")
mostly mummy,mom,momma,ma,amma etc… ( in Marathi language in india it is " Ayee" ) how about other languages ?? ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/2 "2008-12-04T07:23:38Z")
French is Maman, German = mama, Greek = mummia and Yahoo!Babelfish will have more, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![vintageloveletter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8e8cbc/32.png) [@vintageloveletter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vintageloveletter)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/3 "2008-12-04T07:26:20Z")
[http://tinyurl.com/679rrb/](http://tinyurl.com/679rrb/) Actually, this is an interesting wikipedia article which addresses why a lot of the words for mother have the /m/ sound. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama\_and\_papa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_and_papa) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/4 "2008-12-04T08:41:40Z")
In Fulfulde it is “dada”, which can be a bit confusing at first. (Dad is baba.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/5 "2008-12-04T09:02:30Z")
Spanish: madre, mamá, mami. Grandmother: abuela. Grandmother, aragonese: yaya. Catalan: mare, mamà. Grandmother: avia. Basque: ama, amatxo. Grandmother: amona. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/6 "2008-12-04T09:09:41Z")
Indonesian: Ibu ---
**Author:** ![GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f1d935/32.png) [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/7 "2008-12-04T09:40:29Z")
Czech: Matka, mamka, maminka (correspond to English: Mother, mum, mummy) ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/8 "2008-12-04T11:00:58Z")
Finnish: äiti although, mamma or mama is understood by everyone, if almost never used. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/9 "2008-12-04T11:26:33Z")
Most of those Ms probably come from Indoeuropean languages that share an original root word, it would be interesting to know if non-indoeuropean languages show a more than evenly distributed of the M sound at the beggining of the word “Mother”. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/10 "2008-12-04T11:30:33Z")
Irish :- Mother is máthair. Grandmother is sean máthair (literally, old mother) or máthair mhor (literally, big mother) or mathair chriona (literally, mother of the heart). ---
**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/11 "2008-12-04T11:30:51Z")
> [@maggenpye](#): > > Greek = mummia That’s the Egyptian sort! It’s simply “mama”. ETA Or “mitera” more formally. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/12 "2008-12-04T11:34:20Z")
Mutter- German ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/13 "2008-12-04T11:55:59Z")
Japanese - Haha, Okaa-san [母　お母さん] Kannada - Amma ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/14 "2008-12-04T12:16:09Z")
> [@chromaticity](#): > > Japanese - Haha, Okaa-san [母　お母さん] > Kannada - Amma **Kannada** is a dravidian language and mostly all dravidian languages have " amma" . Examples are Malyalam,Telugu,Tamil etc.. In India, I know marathi has “ayee” for mom. I do not know much about languages of north eastern states of India. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/15 "2008-12-04T12:18:32Z")
Hebrew has \*imma \*for mommy and \*abba \*for daddy ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/16 "2008-12-04T15:08:00Z")
> [@indian](#): > > I do not know much about languages of north eastern states of India. Bengali: Mother: ma Mother’s mother: didima (dida) Father’s mother: thakurma Mother’s sister: mashima (mashi) _Mother’s brother: mama_ Mother’s brother’s wife: mamima (mami) Father’s sister: pishima (pishi) Father’s elder brother’s wife: jethima (jethi) Father’s younger brother’s wife: kakima (kaki) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/17 "2008-12-04T16:44:20Z")
Hungarian (not Indo-European) is an exception: anya Ed ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/18 "2008-12-04T17:28:42Z")
Portuguese: Mãe=Mom/Mother Mamãe=Mommy It’s pronounced kind of like “My” but with most of the sound coming out of your nose. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/19 "2008-12-04T17:34:13Z")
No such thing as an “m” letter in Chinese, but it’s an “m” sound when spoken. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644/20 "2008-12-04T17:42:47Z")
Turkish: Anne (pronounced Ah-nay) So far, we’re seeing a lot of m-initial words and a-initial words, aren’t we? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-for-mothers-in-other-languages-have-letter-m-in-them/475644.md?page=2)