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    Which word is an onomatopoeia in the biggest number of language families (i.e. at least one language per language family)?

    Question #95891. Asked by gentlegiant17. (May 20 08 2:30 PM)


    pu2-ke-qi-ri

    		I nominate the words for "mama" and "papa." It's not onomatopoetic in the sense that the "sounds" of the words don't reflect some physical aspect of "mother" and "father." Instead, words for "mama" and "papa" in most languages onomatopoetically represent baby babble.

    http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/001428.html

    May 24 08, 11:18 AM

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