Okay, somebody explain this to me... One of the goddesses worshipped by the indigenous people of the Andes is called Pachamama, which means the Mother of the World, sometimes translated as Mother Earth. In the Quechua language Pacha means world or land, and Mama means mother. (Other Inca goddesses include Mama Killa, Mama Ocllo and Axomamma.) But how can Mama mean mother in a language so far removed from any European language? Is this some sort of Spanish/Quechua hybrid word? And if so, what was the original name of this goddess? I know most Indo-European and even Asiatic languages have similar words for Mama and Papa. This does not hold true in Finnish, and -- it seems to me -- most Native American languages. Except for Quechua, spoken in the Andes, and Mayan, spoken in the Yucatan. Native American words for mother that dont sound like mama or papa include nuke, hya, yapti, nantli, hvshki, unitsi, nigawes, kicke, -nihstenha, nika, nonôk, ukaawimaaw, ina, masaka, hidu, tlaa, snaan, esmuma, ene, aana. Have the Quechua and Mayan speakers independently come up with this suspiciously similar word, or is it Spanish influence? wiki.answers/Q/How_do_you_say_mom_in_native_American_language#slide3
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 10:10:20 +0000
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