Mother
Posted by Bruce Kahl on May 12, 2002
The origin of the word for "mother" in virtually all Indo-European
languages is the baby-talk syllable "ma," (usually the first recognizable syllable
uttered by a baby and also the basis of "mama") plus the kinship suffix -ter (-ther),
also found in "sister, "brother," and "father." The original form, *mater- evolved
into Latin "mater," Greek "meter" (as in "metropolis," the mother city), German
"Mutter," French "mère," Serbian "majka," Russian "mat', materi," Italian and
Spanish "madre," Portuguese "mãe," Danish "moder," Dutch and Afrikaans "moeder,"
Norwegian "mor," Swedish "moder," Icelandic "móir," Irish "máthair," Hindi "mataji,"
Gujarati "maataa," Farsi (Persian) "madar," and Pashto "mor."
To All the Moms
out there--Happy Mother's Day!!
- Re: Mother ESC 05/12/02
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