Ix-nay on the ostratic-nay

[iffr762 at utxvms.cc.utexas.edu]

On Thu, 4 Mar 1999, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:

> iffr762 at utxvms.cc.utexas.edu wrote:

> >	With regard to reconstructing 1sg pronouns, there is (or so I seem
> >to recall) a cross-linguistic tendency for these to be formed with /m-/,
> >probably from a weaker variant of what might be called the "mama
> >syndrome": sounds that babies tend to make early tend to be pressed into
> >service as words that mamas and babies might use to relate to each other,
> >like "mama" and "me".

> I don't think so.

	See coming response to Glenny. Both /m/ and /n/ tend to occur in
words for female care-givers, with /n/ typically referring to more
secondary ones, as in "nanny".  1st pronouns do show a statistically
significant tendency to use nasals, which appears to me to be a sort of
opposite side of the coin phenemenon.  If a mother is going to imagine
that her baby, who is in fact only babbling, is talking to her, then
"mama" and "me" are the words she will want to hear the baby say.