Re: Is "ma" Proto-World? (Re: Re: Comparison ofphilosophical languages)
| From: | Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 23, 2003, 5:17 |
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Josh Roth wrote:
> I don't know what comes first, but since when do we derive our words from
> babies' babbling anyway?
We sometimes "borrow" children's words into our languages. For example,
in Japanese, -chan, a childish pronunciation of -san, has become part of
the standard language as an affix indicating affection. Likewise, with
terms for parents or siblings, childish words sometimes stick, like
"mommy" or "daddy", or "mama" and "papa", "dada" for that matter. Those
aren't descended from the PIE words for "mother" and "father", they're
independant developments.
--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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