Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Daddy is just a word

No, this isn't going to be as philosophical as the title might suggest...

I was just thinking this morning.  In all the languages I know (and taking information from here), "father" starts with P (padre, papa) or B (baba).  So who decided that Daddy would also mean Father in English?  I think it was the men.  When babies start talking, what is the first consonant sound they make?  "Da".  Seems like a conspiracy to me.  They use the P and B sounds, too, but the very first one is usually the D.  I think dads just wanted to believe that the first word their baby says is "Daddy".

Just my thinking, though....

3 comments:

Cassie said...

I think you're on to something there. "Daddy" is definitely the word Andrew says most often!

Manday said...

Where do you think Mom/Mama comes from? Exact same concept, that is why its so similar in all languages.

http://www.billcasselman.com/wording_room/mother.htm

And you are right, Dad is also because of how earily babies produce the sounde:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1446/whats-the-origin-of-the-word-dad

Anonymous said...

HA! You are definately on to something.