4 ms·

Finnish = äiti Hungarian = anya Kannada = ತಾಯಿ (taayi) ... "avva" sometimes colloquial. Telugu = తల్లి (talli)

pygy_ 13y ago
äiti, anya (pronounced ~aaya) and avva are still compatible with the explanation. The Telugu word is the formal name (corresponding to mother on Wikipedia). Are you familiar with the language? We'd need statistics on the frequency of the first consonant utterance, and see if it correllates with the distribution of the names given to mothers by babies.
- shared4you 13y ago
  Yes, Telugu is my mother-tongue and Kannada is my first-language. In spoken Telugu today, 'amma' is far more common than 'talli'. In written Telugu, both are equally common. 'talli' has secondary meaning of just refering to any female. For example, "chitti talli" (little girl), "talli-tandrulu" (mother-father, i.e., parents), etc. Similar remarks apply to Kannada. Avva is informal and more common in rural dialects.
  - dheerosaur 13y ago
    Talli is to mother as Amma is to the mama word from the article. Interestingly, 'mama' in Telugu is uncle.
  - akandiah 13y ago
    > In spoken Telugu today, 'amma' is far more common than 'talli'. That's intriguing, because 'amma' is the Tamil word for mother.
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- L4mppu 13y ago
  please tell me how you can turn äiti into mama? Closest to mama in Finnish I can think of is mummo or mummu which means granny.
adamors 13y ago
Mama also means mother in Hungarian though. Nagymama (nagy means big) is grandmother.
Sharlin 13y ago
Interestingly enough, "äiti" is actually a (very old) loanword of Germanic origin. The original Finnish word for "mother" is "emä" or "emo", deriving from the Proto-Uralic "*ämä". "Emä" and "emo" are still in use in poetry and in some compound words in a figurative sense, for instance "emolevy" (motherboard) and "emäalus" (mothership). In modern Finnish, "mamma" is one of the words used colloquially to refer to one's grandmother (cf. "granny"). In some dialects, it can also mean simply "mother". These usages are probably loaned from Swedish where the formal words for mother and father are "mamma" and "pappa" respectively.
unhammer 13y ago
North Sámi = eadni

pygy_ 13y ago

äiti, anya (pronounced ~aaya) and avva are still compatible with the explanation. The Telugu word is the formal name (corresponding to mother on Wikipedia). Are you familiar with the language? We'd need statistics on the frequency of the first consonant utterance, and see if it correllates with the distribution of the names given to mothers by babies.

shared4you 13y ago
Yes, Telugu is my mother-tongue and Kannada is my first-language. In spoken Telugu today, 'amma' is far more common than 'talli'. In written Telugu, both are equally common. 'talli' has secondary meaning of just refering to any female. For example, "chitti talli" (little girl), "talli-tandrulu" (mother-father, i.e., parents), etc. Similar remarks apply to Kannada. Avva is informal and more common in rural dialects.
- dheerosaur 13y ago
  Talli is to mother as Amma is to the mama word from the article. Interestingly, 'mama' in Telugu is uncle.
- akandiah 13y ago
  > In spoken Telugu today, 'amma' is far more common than 'talli'. That's intriguing, because 'amma' is the Tamil word for mother.
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L4mppu 13y ago
please tell me how you can turn äiti into mama? Closest to mama in Finnish I can think of is mummo or mummu which means granny.

adamors 13y ago

Mama also means mother in Hungarian though. Nagymama (nagy means big) is grandmother.

Sharlin 13y ago

Interestingly enough, "äiti" is actually a (very old) loanword of Germanic origin. The original Finnish word for "mother" is "emä" or "emo", deriving from the Proto-Uralic "*ämä". "Emä" and "emo" are still in use in poetry and in some compound words in a figurative sense, for instance "emolevy" (motherboard) and "emäalus" (mothership). In modern Finnish, "mamma" is one of the words used colloquially to refer to one's grandmother (cf. "granny"). In some dialects, it can also mean simply "mother". These usages are probably loaned from Swedish where the formal words for mother and father are "mamma" and "pappa" respectively.

unhammer 13y ago

North Sámi = eadni