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There's nothing even slightly strange about it. The terms are self-recapitulating because parents mistake children's babbling for first words. If anything, it'd
by talideon 10y ago
There's nothing even slightly strange about it. The terms are self-recapitulating because parents mistake children's babbling for first words. If anything, it'd be strange if they weren't the same. Take a read of this: http://languagehat.com/trask-on-mama-and-papa/ http://languagehat.com/trask-on-mama-and-papa/
- ptaipale 10y agoThen why isn't aunt "gaga" in all languages?
- talideon 10y agoWhy would it be? What's your reasoning for expecting it to be? Did you read the paper linked to?
- talideon 10y agoAddendum: in case anybody's wondering what I meant when I wrote "it'd be strange if they weren't the same", I was referring to the high probability of them being coincidentally the same or at least very similar.