Hi, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton tells his mothers on his TV show that the reason Mama is Mama is bc that is the sound the baby makes when it cries and that is the person who has most usually responded -- hence the baby 'names' the female parent by calling to it via newborn cries... While the sound "dada" is more like the sound babies make when they are happily babbbling during play -- especially rougher physical play that the male parent is more likely to be involved in... In psycholinguistic terms it makes sense -- there are universal syllable sounds that all humans make at birth regardless of language of origin. These sounds are then guided and shaped by the sounds of the language around them, hence the permutations of Mama, Mommy, Mother, Mumma, Mum, Ahma, Ohma, omma, etc... So which came first? I'd venture a guess that the Latin word for breasts was derived from the sound the infants make right before they are brought to the breast. Not in terms of some group sitting around saying, "what should be call this?" but rather a natural evolution of sounds made in early communication being molded into formal language. I love the few threads going about how intelligent babies really are, how adaptable, aware, able to learn... aLLLways, anne Anne E. Robb, MAT, LLLL Off on a Tangent, Oregon, USA mailto:[log in to unmask]