#3457 PTB *mam BREAST

This root is evidently hypocoristic in origin (see also #3459 PTB *pa BREAST / NIPPLE / MILK, above), and in fact is practically identical to the Indo-European root *mā- ‘mother; breast’ (> e.g. Latin mamma), of which the American Heritage Dictionary (1981:1527) says “An imitative root derived from the child’s cry for the breast (a linguistic universal found in many of the world’s languages, often in reduplicated form).” The final nasal in this etymon might have arisen through the reduction of an earlier reduplicated form *ma‑ma (as in Ao, Sangtam, and Bunan).

There is a phonologically similar but apparently unrelated root #3451 PTB *m‑ʔum ⪤ *mum HOLD IN MOUTH / CHEW / EAT / KISS, below.