There's a joke in a Marathi children's book, which goes roughly as follows: A: Know why we call our mothers "Aai"? B: No, why? A: The reason is because "aaaa

There's a joke in a Marathi children's book, which goes roughly as follows: A: Know why we call our mothers "Aai"? B: No, why? A: The reason is because "aaaaa" is the sound you make when hurt or in trouble, and it's your first instinct to call to your mother for help in such cases. B: Nonsense. Do English-speakers^ say "maaaaaaaa" when hurt? I think Indic languages have almost every permutation of "a" and "m" for "mother" -- we have "Aai", "amma", "maaa", "mamma", ... ^Might have been Hindi speakers, I forget now.