[Jimbee (OP)]

I was watching a special on TV a while back. This Russian man was trying to reconstruct some basic root words of the oldest human language, the one from which all languages descended. (I just looked it up online. And they said that would be called Proto-Human language, Proto-Sapiens or Proto-World language.) He only came up with a few words. And the reporter telling the story pointed out that it would be hard in any event to uncover something so old and that there is no written record of.

But I was wondering. Since we know there was one language that all human languaged descended from, what DO we know about it? I mean, what is the oldest word that all human languages now seem to share in common? I heard once that "mother" is one of the oldest words. Almost all the words in the Indo-European group of languages have a word for mother of course. And they all look similar. Almost all of them seem to begin with an M. Almost like they are imitating baby talk. Ma-ma in other words. Is mother then the oldest word all human languages share in common?

[alancalverd]

Oddly, the first word-like noise most babies utter is da-da, but since it doesn't necessarily relate to a known or present individual, it's usually ignored as random babble.

Ma-ma can be pronounced with a sucking motion and is quickly associated with an individual (sheep make a very similar noise) but I have been recently advised that the word "mother" is not to be used in medical ethics discussions or research applications because, despite being the most important word in any language (and they are indeed all very similar)  is is not considered "inclusive". I don't think there is an official alternative yet so I always say "previously pregnant person or apparent guardian and principal nurturer" and get a laugh.

[paul cotter]

The "XX".