为什么“妈妈”的发音全世界基本相同

In his groundbreaking paper “Why ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’?,” linguist Roman Jakobson pointed to the first syllable babies are usually capable of making: “ah,” or “mah.” These are usually the first sounds babies reach for because they don’t require complex mouth positions (or the use of tongue or teeth). Moreover, “mah” is associated with the murmuring sound a baby makes when it’s breastfeeding.

语言学家罗曼·雅各布森在其开创性的论文《为什么是’Mama’和’Papa’？》中指出，婴儿能发的第一个音节是“啊”或“mah”。婴儿最先能发出这俩音节是因为这两个音节不需要很复杂的口腔位置（使用到舌头或者牙齿）。此外，“mah”还与婴儿吃奶时发出的嘟哝声有关。