Gonneke's post about what breastfeeding is called in Dutch was a good start.
Couldn't others tell us what the word is in the languages they know, and how
that translates into English?
In Norwegian breastfeeding is called 'amming', and that only means
'breastfeeding', from the mother's point of view.  The baby does something
called 'dieing' which is NOT anything like expiring or passing on from this
world to the hereafter, it just looks like a misspelled version of  that.
I think the reasons breasts are called 'mammae' in Latin, and breastfeeding
is called amming in Norwegian are the same.  The consonant 'm' is the
easiest one to learn to say.  Even a tiny baby who is vocalizing as she goes
onto the breast will say 'amm' or 'mamm' as she comes in contact with it.
Seems likely to me that the first thing we put in our mouths would be the
first thing we would name, and that the name for mother and the name for
breastfeeding would be related.
We call human milk 'breastmilk' or 'mother'smilk' (brystmelk, morsmelk) and
sometimes even women's milk (kvinnemelk), though this last one is rare and
getting rarer since the dairy just launched a new milk beverage, sweetened
and with some kinds of artifical flavors, for women, and called it 'womens'
milk'.  The rules in Norwegian call for combining words without hyphens and
certainly without spaces, whenever compound notions like breastmilk are to
be expressed.  (oops - sorry if I expressed breastmilk on your computer
there.)
Francoise Railhet, are you there (or Danielle?)  Kika?  Rosa?  Denise Both?
What are the non-medical words for breastfeeding in French, Spanish, Italian
and German?  Expanding out of Europe - what is it in Hebrew?  Arabic?
Swahili?  Russian?  Others further afield from here?
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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