word for mother

[Anand Ghurye]

Dear Friends ,

In most of the languages I know of , the word for mother has to do
something with M sound . Only in marathi it is AAI . Can anyone throw
light on the origin of this word though it is not sanskrit please ?

Anand Ghurye

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

The Tulpule-Feldhaus Dictionary of Old Marathi says that Aai आई
(Marathi) derives from Skt आर्या. Apparently, at some stage while
Marathi was being formed, someone started the practice of calling his
mother asआर्या-आई and that was picked up by others. In Sanskrit too
the mother is addressed as अम्ब. And of course there are words like
माई, मैय्या in Hindi and other languages. Take the म out and you have
Marathi आई.

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, June 22, 2011.

[Manas Talukdar]

I think you would be interested to know that even in Assamese, traditionally, in many households mother is addressed as "aai". In more recent times however, "aai" is rarely heard, except perhaps in rural areas, and "mA" is far more common.

- Manas

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[Ashwini Surpur]

Namaste,

The Marathi word 'aai' must be derived from Sanskrit  - 'ai'  (ai giri nandini vishwa vinodini - Mahishasura Mardini stotram)

Another Sanskrit word for mother you all know is 'ambaa'.

In Kannada, we say - amma, abbe, awwe, awwa - all starting with 'a' and not 'm'.

-Ashwini

On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 9:57 AM, Anand Ghurye <anand....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Aniruddha Joshi]

Hello Anand ji,

Namaskaar.

It is said that Marathi belongs to the southernmost branch of Indo-Aryan languages along with Konkani, Sinhalese and Divehi ( The national language of Maldives).

It is bordered to the immediate south by Dravidian languages such as Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Kodagu, etc.

The word aai (=mother) is perhaps of Dravidian origin, evolving in prehistoric times, perhaps from Proto-Dravidian.  It's also said that about 5% of Marathi basic vocabulary is of Dravidian origin. Certain Austro-Asiatic languages such as Munda, too might have had an influence on Marathi vocabulary.

I'm attaching herewith a document which gives those words in Marathi, which are of probable Non Indo-Aryan / Non Indo-European origin.

Thanks and Regards,

Aniruddha

[S. L. Abhyankar]

There is quite some logic behind आर्या becoming आई in Marathi
In many प्राकृत languages a letter of two different consonants e.g. आर्या was made into a letter with doubling of second consonant. For example धर्मम् is धम्मम्. Similarly आर्या --> आय्या --> आई In vernacular Marathi, they also say, very fondly "आये ऽ ऽ" !
सस्नेहम् ,
अभ्यंकरकुलोत्पन्नः श्रीपादः |
"श्रीपतेः पदयुगं स्मरणीयम् ।"

[Ram Kumar Krishnan ராம குமரன்]

In certain dialects of tamil too grandmother is referred as aaya आया
and sometimes babysitter is referred also aaya

2011/6/22 Arvind_Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com>

[hnbhat B.R.]

Very interesting discussion. Thanks for good guesses as usual without any solid proof in support. I also add one more guess from my memory I had heard long ago: jasomati maiyyaa se bole nandalaala

The above word could have been adopted into Marathi with feminine additional double suffix mayyI >> maayii >> maa{}I

or ,may a confounding of two words मा + आया ?? माई >> आई 

resulting in the initial M consonant finally.

-- 

Dr. Hari Narayana Bhat B.R. M.A., Ph.D.,
Research Scholar,

EFEO,
PONDICHERRY - 605 001

[hnbhat B.R.]

Sorry for sending the incomplete sentence.

 

resulting in the initial M consonant finally.

which would be read as finally lost as आई. 

[Sunder Hattangadi]

For anyone who would like to figure out the abbreviations, here is an interesting site:

 

http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/sarva/entrance.html

 

SARVA

South Asian Residual Vocabulary Assemblage
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
(ILCAA) Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

 

997 *āī— ‘mother, aunt’. [Prob. a nursery word] Dm. yī ‘mother’, yai ‘grandmother’; Paš. āı̄́ ‘mother’ (→ Par. āi IIFL iii 3, 1), Kal. ā́y *l, Bshk. īēī; S. āī f. ‘mother, aunt, respectful address for any senior female relative’; N. āi—māi ‘wife, woman’; A. āi ‘mother, smallpox’, āiṭi ‘affectionate address for a girl’; B. āī ‘mother's mother, mother's aunt’; Or. āī ‘mother's mother’; G. āi f. ‘mother, grandmother’; M. āī f. ‘mother, term of endearment for an infant’, āī—bāī f. ‘motherly old woman’, āī—māī f. ‘mother, motherly person’. — The Dard. words poss. < āryikā—. Addenda: *āī—: S.kcch. āī f. ‘mother’; WPah.kc. ai.

 

 

Regards,

 

sunder

[Anand Ghurye]

Dear Arvindji ,

Thanks for the input . The M is the one that surprises . German ,
English , Russian and all Indian languages have M somewhere while
addressing mother only except Marathi .

Regards ,

Anand Ghurye

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 9:55 AM, Arvind_Kolhatkar
<kolhat...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Regards ,

Anand K. Ghurye

[P. Vasu]

AAYII FOR MOTHER IN MARATHI...........

 

AACHHI / AAYII/ AAI  IN TAMIL

THAAI, ANNAI, AATTHAA are also used

 

and of course AMMA

I have also heard of the term AMMAAYII 

 

seems like a good exchange of loan words across cultures  

 

We,  in India are indeed a wonderful mix and remix of different minor variants of homosapiens, as our mitochondrial DNAs would one day "prove" . The generous exchange of words, ideas and genes reflects in all our rich languages, mental habits, physical traits etc.

 

Dhanyaasthu te Bharatha bhoomibhaage!

[gaja...@yahoo.com]

I would like to share this with you all.

  I was shocked when son of my Egyptian college called him "Baba". We use Baba for daddy in Marathi.

Regards

 G Joshi