# What was the first word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 9, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965 "2012-01-09T20:36:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/1 "2012-01-09T20:36:19Z")
The first inventions thread made me wonder if there would be any scientific way of determining what was the first word that primitives would have used. Since I doubt such science exists, I thought we could speculate. What makes sense to you as the first utterance that was supposed to be a communication between two (or more) of our ancestors? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/2 "2012-01-09T20:43:18Z")
Language ain’t my specialty, but I know that there has been suggestion that the first “words” weren’t “words” as we would call them at all, bu “modifiers” to various calls, suggesting things like “near” and “far”. On a more conventional front, because “mama” is one of the earliest sounds a baby makes (and, somewhat to a lesser degree, “papa” or “dada”), and because these words are surprisingly similar across languages, these might be the first words. > **[Mama and papa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_and_papa)** > > In linguistics, mama and papa are considered a special case of false cognates. In many languages of the world, sequences of sounds similar to /mama/ and /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. > 'Mama' and 'papa' use speech sounds that are among the easiest to produce: bilabial consonants like /m/, /p/, and /b/, and the open vowel /a/. They are, therefore, often among the ... ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/3 "2012-01-09T21:24:01Z")
AAAaarrgghhh! ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/4 "2012-01-09T21:26:29Z")
Meeeeeeeww ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/5 "2012-01-09T21:39:02Z")
“Hey,” as in “Hey, what are you doing with that rock?” > [@CalMeacham](#): > > On a more conventional front, because “mama” is one of the earliest sounds a baby makes (and, somewhat to a lesser degree, “papa” or “dada”), and because these words are surprisingly similar across languages, these might be the first words. My understanding is that most children say “dada” first. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/6 "2012-01-09T21:43:06Z")
Superfluous. It is a good word and it bears repeating. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/7 "2012-01-09T21:43:21Z")
I’m going to guess “ma,” for Mama. The word is formed simply by opening your lips. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/8 "2012-01-09T21:58:53Z")
What’s heidelbergensis for fuck? ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/9 "2012-01-09T22:01:14Z")
We could get into fuzzy questions about what constitutes a word, as opposed to a non-word vocalization, but I’m just going to go ahead and guess that it was a word for “snake”. My reasoning is that alarm calls would logically benefit from specificity, because the optimal response to an alarm call depends on the nature of the threat. A snake is a low-visibility, potentially lethal threat that is best dealt with in a very different way from many other threats–you don’t really need a different call for each big predator, for instance, since the response to all of them is likely to be “run like hell”. Of course, a call that essentially meant “run” might have come first, but that raises those fuzzy questions. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/10 "2012-01-09T22:21:13Z")
I or me. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/11 "2012-01-09T22:39:17Z")
My guess would be some form of “Look out!” or possibly “Yikes!” ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/12 "2012-01-09T22:42:49Z")
Some monkeys do have different calls for different predators, to differentiate between predators that can’t climb well (eg. tigers), predators that can’t run well (eg. snakes) and eagles. Do they count as words? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/13 "2012-01-09T23:07:36Z")
“OW!” . . . followed by “#@%&$” ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/14 "2012-01-09T23:25:59Z")
I would guess, “No” or some variation thereof. I’m relatively secure in my deep cynicism which tells me Og and Ug were selfish motherfuckers when they came up with it. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/15 "2012-01-09T23:36:59Z")
Trying to be logical about the idea, I have to assume grunts and gestures were already in play and that some fair measure of meaning could be attached to them. I would even buy that signing preceded words, maybe by a long time. I have no issue with the baby’s first sounds being adapted to words, but I would hope the first “word” between functioning adults would be something more relevant than Mama or Dada. Are we convinced that the first “humans” likely to have spoken would have been somewhere in Africa? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/16 "2012-01-09T23:42:00Z")
In fact, now that I think about, I’m not sure the first words weren’t, “Fuck you!” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/17 "2012-01-09T23:46:21Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > In fact, now that I think about, I’m not sure the first words weren’t, “Fuck you!” The third was “What?” Though most linguists believe the earliest word indicated a mass awareness of a [certain ornithological](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184) nature. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/18 "2012-01-09T23:50:47Z")
Eä! ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/19 "2012-01-09T23:54:48Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Some monkeys do have different calls for different predators, to differentiate between predators that can’t climb well (eg. tigers), predators that can’t run well (eg. snakes) and eagles. > Do they count as words? I’ve always thoughts so. Clearly-defined meaning specifying a particular action should be taken - sounds like language to me. Then again, I’ve never been much on the whole us vs. them mentality many people take when regarding anything non-human. “They’re just animals!” “Well, so are we.” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965/20 "2012-01-09T23:55:37Z")
I have often wondered what the odds are that it was “Umgawa.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-word/608965.md?page=2)