Those two aren't original terms, they're merely more formal terms. (e.g. mother and father rather than ma and pa). Cantonese sounds more similar to Classical C

Those two aren't original terms, they're merely more formal terms. (e.g. mother and father rather than ma and pa). Cantonese sounds more similar to Classical Chinese than Mandarin does. According to Cantonese wikipedia for "ba"[1] and "ma"[2], in ancient times the word "父" sounds close to the modern day cantonese "爸" (ba) and likewise for "母" and "媽" (ma). [1] http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/阿爸 http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/阿爸 [2] https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/阿媽 https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/阿媽 I doubt it can be explained away as merely Western influence. Perhaps it's English that received some Chinese influence? ;) I heard the word "kowtow" originated from China, too.