Linguists some time ago noted how universal the word for mom is around the world. A current explanation for this phenomena is that the ma or mum sound replicates the sound an infant makes when nursing.
This makes sense and seems very plausible.
In general, infants don’t have to be taught how to suckle. In modern terms we refer to this as the “suckling reflex” to describe the fact that infants start making the suckling motion whenever a finger or nipple is placed in their mouth or even near their lips.
We see infants making this suckling motion while in dream state, or at varied times during the day. When a child is in discomfort, grumpy or in pain the simple placement of a pacifier is often all that is needed to temporarily quell their discomfort. This was pretty obvious to us, that is why we called it a pacifier.
Likewise, every parent has heard their child make the ma or mum sound or just plain hummed when they were nursing.
The possibility of ma, mom, mama, etc. all stemming from this universal desire and call for the nourishment and satiation provided by the breast got me to wondering. How varied is this primal call? What are the different ways it manifests itself in our latter lives, or in our cultures?
The following few ideas are not that amazing and probably have been written by others long ago. But, they were the thoughts I had this morning so I thought I’d share.
Not being much of a polyglot I can’t tell say how well the following ideas and theories are echoed in other tongues and cultures, but I would be glad to hear from others if any of these examples hold up in other cultures and languages.
Before kids say ma, mom, or mum they make the “mmm” sound when nursing. This sounds more like a hum than anything else and, therefore, got me thinking about the role and function of humming.
A suckling child hums and while nursing all his anxieties, discomforts and pains are quelled or at least put on hold. Therefore, it makes sense that we would hum or associate humming with being content or removing anxiety.
If one seeks to find this motive in adult humming one is likely not to be disappointed. Humming has long been used as a companion to leisure or done while doing a nurturing task. Also many people hum when they are anxious or in need of feeling more secure.
Though most people don’t have any memories of breast feeding they still hum when they feel good about food. In English speaking nations we generally say “mmm” in response to a food tasting or smelling good.
Likewise if something tickles our fancy or is “food for thought” we will say “hmm” as we savor its possibility.
As the title of this post indicates the pleasure and satisfaction of humming even shows up in our religious and spiritual practices. Most chants and mantras involve some form of humming. The oft used and heralded universal sound (mantra) Om, is a prolonged and soothing hum.
Often the goal of chants and meditations is to reach an altered state of total bliss and contentment which could be viewed as an attempt to reach the state of pure contentment possibly attained during nursing. We even use the words “childhood innocence” in trying to convey the purity and completeness of enlightenment.
I, myself, wrote a couple of posts some time back about my desire to learn how to purr. The goal of which was to find the simple contentment in life that a cat does when it purrs. I have been a practicer of Transcendental Meditation (TM) for over 35 years, and I do find that my mantra has taken on a purring quality of late, the result of which has been an increased sense of calm and warmth.
I do want to mention that I personally do not do meditation for any spiritual reasons, but rather for the practical and health benefits of the technique. I’ve expressed on this site many times and in many different ways the concerns I have not only for religion, but spiritualism in general.
The “mmm” sound does show up in the English language in a number of ways, here are a couple of examples. Words such as womb and home have a hum to them. In catechism class as a child I learned that the Hebrew word for perfect food or as food from heaven as Catholics translated it was Manna.
The “nnn” sound often has a hum to it like the “mmm” sound. The word Manna then contains two hums. Words for paradise such as heaven or eden both end with a hum. Even Nirvana when pronounced slowly has a couple of hum points. The word “nest” likewise has a comforting hum.
I can think of a couple other hum sounds beyond “mmm” and “nnn”. One of them is the “ing”sound in English or the “gn” sound in Italian. The last example I can think of off the top of my head is the “zzz” sound when uttered with mouth open and teeth close together.
In fact if you hum with you lips pursed and your teeth close together you get the hum vibration of an old vacuum cleaner. If you begin there and then part your lips your “mmm” slips right into the “zzz” sound.
While the terms for home in Italian and Spanish have no “mmm” hum they do have the “zzz” hum in the pronouncing of casa.
I wonder just how many of our end goals, dreams and pursuits have their origin in the pleasurable experience of being nursed and our attempts to replicate it. Likewise, I wonder how much of the emotional intent of our language is grounded in the endless “mas” and “mums” we uttered (uddered, sorry couldn’t resist) during our earliest feedings.
Jim Guido