The Gothic word for "mother"

[Ian Ragsdale]

At one point I was working on a short paper RE: the use of "atta" in
the Gothic Lord's Prayer, but there seemed to be little etymology to
speak about with the word and futile to extrapolate on the point ad
nauseum.  Everything I've read simply touts "atta" as a nursery word,
pointing out attested forms in many languages both IE and otherwise.
Lehmann's etymological dictionary has little else to say.  Aithei just
looks to me like a feminized form with the dental stop assimilated to
a fricative to deal with the new vowel.

I've always thought that Tucker's Etymological Dictionary of Latin
pointed out an interesting fact: "atta" in Roman times was used by old
men to refer to their seniors, as a sign of respect.  So this "nursery
word" is also found in other cultures/times outside of baby talk.

-IMR
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