You did. Or at least, you and billions of other babies around the world and across time. “Ma” is one of the earliest vocalized sounds a baby makes on its way to learning speech, and it requires lip movement similar to that of nursing. It’s no wonder, then, that most languages have some variation on the M sound in their words for “mother”: mamá (Spanish), maminka (Czech), eomma (Korean), umama (Zulu), etc. The name “Dad” is likely also derived from baby talk, but arrives in second place. The D sound is known as a “dental consonant”, is difficult to form until the baby’s upper front teeth have grown in.
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