# Finno-Ugric: mother



## francisgranada

Hello everybody,

What is the equivalent and the etymology of the words meaning "mother" in the Finno-Ugric languages?


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## LilianaB

I think it is abtiss, ema and emme in Estonian.


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## bibax

Abtiss sounds like abbatissa (= abbess, mother superior).


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## francisgranada

Hungarian:

*Anya*, probably of Finno-Ugric or Uralic origin. This word is found in various forms also in some other Finno-Ugric languages, with the meaning of woman, mother. In Hungarian, also in the word _leány _(girl) from *_lai any_ (young woman). The final _-a_ in anya is supposed to be originally a possessive ending.

The words *eme*, *emse *are documented in old Hungarian in the meaning of female of some animals, and according to some sources also "nursing mother". The root _eme _survives today in female names _Emese_, _Emőke_.


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## LilianaB

Do you think the Gothic ai ei could come from Finno Ugric langauges. In other Germanic languages mother starts with m, I think.


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## Explorer41

*ahvalj* already pointed out (unfortunately, in another thread), that that Gothic word had a special meaning, it was not the general word for "mother" (well, its meaning was _restored_ so, it's very likely that its restorer could use the reasoning you gave  ).


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## LilianaB

Well, it is the only word for mother in Gothic, in most dictionaries. What would the other one be? Even if it was a special use of the word, could it come from Finno-Ugric?


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## Ben Jamin

In Finnish mother is 'äiti".


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## francisgranada

From an other thread:



kirahvi said:


> ... Mother is _äiti_ in Finnish. There is an older word for mother, _emä_, which is found in many other Finno-Ugric languages. The word _emo_ is still used in modern Finnish, meaning a mother of an animal, dam. The word _emä_ can be seen in _emäntä_, hostess. Sometimes it is used to refer to wife, mostly humorously.
> 
> Mother in Komi is _en_.



This _emä _is the same as the Hungarian _eme _(post #4). It's interesting, that in both Hungarian and Finnish it refers rather to animals than to people.


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## LilianaB

What is Hungarian for mother, in the sense of human?


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## francisgranada

The Hungarian for mother is *anya*, today in all senses.


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## LilianaB

Do they have a female name Anna also in Hungary? The nickname for Anna is Anya in Polish.


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## francisgranada

Yes, but _Anna _(from the Hebrew _Hannah_) has nothing to do with the Finno-Ugric _anya_.


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## Explorer41

One can remember also the Kyrgyz name of a cemetery from Chyngyz Aitmatov's "The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years": "Ана Бейит"- "Ana-Beiit" - "Материнский упокой" - "the Mother's rest".


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## tFighterPilot

I wonder if it's related to the Hebrew "Em"\Arabic "Um".


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## LilianaB

Kirgiz is a Turkic language, so would the origin of the word be Turkic, or a borrowing from Finno-Ugric languages or perhaps one common to both groups?


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## Gavril

Lule Sámi: _ieddne_
North Sámi: _eadni_

Both of these are apparently from the same Germanic source as Finnish _äiti_.

South Sámi: _tjiedtjie _(not sure about the etymology of this word)

Here are some other cognates of Finnish _emä_ (from _Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja, _p.119) – I’m not sure whether all of these still have the meaning “mother”:

Karelian/Votic _emä_
Veps _ema_
Livonian _jemā_
Nganasan _ńame_
Selkup _ämä_


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## ancalimon

LilianaB said:


> Kirgiz is a Turkic language, so would the origin of the word be Turkic, or a borrowing from Finno-Ugric languages or perhaps one common to both groups?



In Turkish mother: ANA (which later turned into ANNE which is thought to be a more elegant word in Turkish)  was also AMA in the past. APA and ABA were also used.

It could be related with two Turkic words;  AM (female genital organ)  or MEME (breast) which is related with EM (to suck).  So a baby could have associated the mother with sucking her breasts for milk.

In Turkish there are some words which consists of two repeating sylables. Like  nene (grandmother), dede (grand father), baba (father) and ANA (meme) mother).  ANA is a weird exception.


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## LilianaB

Why wouldn"t the Gothic word be from Sami or from another Finno-Ugric language. Most Germanic languages, as I mentioned before, have a word for mother different than ai ei or aithei. Nothing close. Maybe _wife_ can come from _aithei_. This does not prove, however, that the word was Germanic.


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## Lugubert

LilianaB said:


> Why wouldn"t the Gothic word be from Sami or from another Finno-Ugric language.


I think it isn't very probable that a very basic word like mother would be borrowed, especially not across language families.



> Most Germanic languages, as I mentioned before, have a word for mother different than ai ei or aithei. Nothing close. Maybe _wife_ can come from _aithei_. This does not prove, however, that the word was Germanic.





			
				etymonline.com said:
			
		

> *wife *O.E. wif "woman," from P.Gmc. *wiban (cf. O.S., O.Fris. wif, O.N. vif, Dan., Swed. viv, M.Du., Du. wijf, O.H.G. wib, Ger. Weib)


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## J.F. de TROYES

ancalimon said:


> In Turkish mother: ANA (which later turned into ANNE which is thought to be a more elegant word in Turkish) was also AMA in the past. APA and ABA were also used.
> 
> It could be related with two Turkic words; AM (female genital organ) or MEME (breast) which is related with EM (to suck). So a baby could have associated the mother with sucking her breasts for milk.
> 
> In Turkish there are some words which consists of two repeating sylables. Like nene (grandmother), dede (grand father), baba (father) and ANA (meme) mother). ANA is a weird exception.



Surprisingly_ breast_ is _mamma _in Latin, _mama_ in Hausa ( Chadic language, Northern Nigeria ) , _-ama-_  in Xhosa  ( Bantu languages ; South Africa); and in French _des nénés_ is colloquial and affectionate for _des seins_ (breasts). Why do  so different languages have about the same word for the same part of the body ? No borrowing was possible. Likewise an American anthropologist in the 50s. has documented the word_ mother_ in 470 languages 52% of which use a form containing the syllables _ma_, _me_ or _mo . _Jacobson followed by other linguists has put forward an interesting hypothesis developed here. Even though the article does'nt directly deal with this thread, it seems to me of interest to mention it. To sum up, words like _mama_ in Romanian , _mā ma_ in Chinese, _mama_ in Swahili and Quechua cannot be traced back to a common ancestor, but come from the babies of all over the world babbling first sounds, something like " ma, ma,ma " which are the easiest sounds to be pronounced . These utterances can be interpreted by the mother as adressing and  naming her (or a particulary attractive part of their body for babies ) and these sounds taking shape in accordance with the language phonology gives rise to a word used by families and occasionaly spreading to the whole language. This informal word competes with the formal word,  coexisting with it or even replacing it .

This hypothesis could explain why words as _aïti _and _emä, emo_... coexist in related languages as well as the Turkish words with repeating syllables. As for _ana_ it would be interesting to compare it with its counterparts in Turkic and Altaic languages.


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## Kevin Beach

As I have mentioned in other threads about close family names, I believe that a lot of sense can be had from considering the noises that babies make. Across the ages, lands and languages, human babies tend to make very similar noises. They are often mimicked by adults to encourage communication in the infant. A child looks at somebody and says mama, ana, dada, papa, meme, atta, mo, me ... or anything similar, and the adults adopt it as the "baby name" for the person the baby has addressed it to.

If I'm right, then arguments about which word was borrowed from which language by another aren't really relevant.


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## englishman

ancalimon said:


> In Turkish mother: ANA (which later turned into ANNE which is thought to be a more elegant word in Turkish)  was also AMA in the past. APA and ABA were also used.
> 
> It could be related with two Turkic words;  AM (female genital organ)  or MEME (breast) which is related with EM (to suck).  So a baby could have associated the mother with sucking her breasts for milk.


Perhaps coincidently "Amme" is "wet nurse" in German (and "Hebamme" is "mid wife", though that seems to be unrelated).


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## englishman

Lugubert said:


> I think it isn't very probable that a very basic word like mother would be borrowed, especially not across language families.


German has borrowed "Baby", though, so it's not impossible.


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## berndf

englishman said:


> Perhaps coincidently "Amme" is "wet nurse" in German (and "Hebamme" is "mid wife", *though that seems to be unrelated*).


Not directly. The OHG etymons _amma _and _hefihanna_ were not related. But if we assume, as many do, that  the second _h_ in _hefihanna_ was not etymological there might be a relation. We have _anus_ in Latin for old woman and _amma_ in Old Norse for grandmother.

We find ana or ama, sometimes with a consonant in front and _apa, aba, ada, ata_, also sometimes with a consonant in from in so many languages (Latin_ pater_ and English _father_ might also have their origin there). I agree with Kevin that we probably can't pinpoint a common ancestor. These words may well have evolved from child-talk, _a_-labial/dental-_a_ is very easy to produce and therefore probably just natural for children to use who just begin learning to speak.


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## Gavril

englishman said:


> German has borrowed "Baby", though, so it's not impossible.



Another example is English _papa_, thought to be from Latin via Old French. It seems likely that similar words in other Germanic languages (e.g., Icelandic _pabbi_) are from the same source.


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