Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

Actually that's a very good way to think, in this particular case, anyway=
. "Ma"
is not the word for mother in every language, just a large percentage of =
them.
In Finnish, for example, mother is "=E4iti" (that's an a with diereses).

    Clint



Grandsire, C.A. wrote:

> Bryan Maloney wrote:
>  I'm reminded of
> > someone in an early linguistics course I took who just WOULD NOT beli=
eve
> > that "ma" did not mean "mother" in every language on earth, no matter=
 how
> > much the Japanese professor tried to explain things...
>
>         I hope this person left linguistics before it was too late. It'=
s not
> the right behaviour to have if you want to be a linguist. Yet it's true
> that "ma" is a very spreaded way of  kindly meaning "mother", even in
> unrelated languages. Where does it come from? Areal influence?