Mother's Day

Since today is mother’s day, the topic for my journal is very appropriate: the origin of the word “mother”. The English word, “mother” probably originated form the Latin word, “mater,” which are both similar to many maternal words in language around the world such as “Moeder” in Afrikaans, “Meme” in Albanian, “Ma” in Asturian, “Mèder,” in Bolognese, “Majka” in Bosnian, “Mãe” in Brazilian Portruguese, “Matre” in Calabrese, “Mare” in Catalan, “Mati” in Croatian, “ Mor” in Danish, “Moeder” in Dutch, “Mère” or “Maman” in French, “Mutter” in German, “Màna” in Greek, “Makuahine” in Hawaiian, “Maji” in Hindi, “Móðir” in Hindi, “Máthair” in Hindi, “Madre” in Spanish, “Motina in Lithuanian, “Matka” in Polish, “Mama” in Romanian, “Mai” in Punjabi, “Matri” in Sicilian, “Mor” or “Morsa” in Sweedish, and “Muter” in Yiddish. Etymology is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “the process of tracing out and describing the elements of a word with their modifications of form and sense” or “an account of the formation and radical signification or a word.” Thus, the etymology of “mother” in English is related to almost every other word meaning mother because they contain the etymon “ma,” meaning “breast” + “ter”. This is an Indo-European agen suffix, so that the etymological meaning of the word “mother” is “breast-feeder.” Contrastingly, for other words ending in the Indo-European “-ter” suffix such as brother, sister, daughter, pater, frater, and the German Schwester “sister,” the dental t sound often alters slightly to become the dental d sound, as in the German word for brother, Bruder. “Mamma” is the formal English medical word for breast. Mamma is a reduplication of the much older Proto-Indo-European root “ma,” for breast or mother. Not only is this the first sound uttered by many human infants, but it may also be the most widespread word root in the world, and throughout many languages. “Ma” forms the basis of the word for mother in so many different languages and many are unrelated to each other such as Latin-based languages prominent through Europe and East Asian languages that do not even use phonetics in their alphabet, but assigned the “ma” sound to their characters. So thus, one may ask, why is this “ma” word so widespread and generally means one thing? This is because the sounds of m and a are among the easiest to make and among the first sounds attempted and achieved by human infants. The first noise in life associated with deep internal pleasure may be the sound made by the infant’s mouth sucking milk from the mother’s breast. This sound is frequently some kind of variation of the sound “ma-ma.” The slight smacking and sucking movement of the lips made in uttering an m-sound is similar to the lip movement required to suck a nipple. This explains why many infants’ first words are some form of mother and how the sound “ma” became so universal around the world despite economic, social, and cultural differences. However, that is merely what the word “mother” means and how it came to be. There is no way to actually define the word mother for an individual and what it signifies. Our sentiments for our mothers cannot possibly be summed up in a few words on a card or through the gesture of flower bouquets and chocolate boxes. These are the people who raised us from the actual single moment we became living beings, who nurtured us and gave us a future full of opportunities. So every year we have a holiday especially to thank these incredibly special and overly generous people. But that is not enough, not even close. Every single day, we need to thank our mothers, whether we know them or not, whether we speak to them or not, whether we have even ever seen them. Because no matter what has happened since our births, without our mothers and their existence, we would never be here. We would never have the chance to do anything: to be happy, to be sad, to be. So, on this mother’s day, we not only have to think of our mothers and thank them profusely for all they have done, but we need to remind ourselves everyday from today on, that they deserve infinite respect and unconditional love and dedication from us. Happy Mother’s Day.

Works Cited
"Mother: Etymology of the Word from Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day at Billcasselman.com." Mother: Etymology of the Word from Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day at Billcasselman.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2013.
"Mother in Different Languages." ,Ways of Saying Mother,Mom in Different Languages. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2013.