This hypothesis—that there was once a “Proto-World” language—has led some researchers to scour distant languages in search of commonalities, which can then be used to try to reconstruct the parent words.

这种假设（即曾经有一种“原始世界”语言）已经促使一些研究人员在远古的语言中搜寻共同点，然后用这些共同点来重建母体词汇。

But such work is rejected by most mainstream linguists. Human language is maybe 100,000 years old, possibly much older. Languageschange vastlyeven in meremillennia. “Proto-World” proposals remain controversial at best.

但这样的研究遭到了大多数主流语言学家的反对。人类的语言可能有10万年甚至更久远的历史。即使仅仅几千年，语言也会发生巨大的变化。“原始世界”的假设仍然充满争议。

There is another reason so many languages might have an m-sound in “mother”. Linguists generally argue for “thearbitrarinessof the sign”: no connection exists between the word dog and the furry quadruped.

许多语言在“母亲”一词中带有m音可能还有另一个原因。语言学家普遍认同“符号的任意性”：“狗狗”一词和毛茸茸的四足动物之间不存在任何联系。

A rare exception isonomatopoeia, where words representing the bark of a dog (bow-wow or Spanish’s guau-guau) vaguely resemble the sound. Yet most things are not subject to naming this way.

一个罕见的例外是拟声词，其中代表狗叫的词（英语中的 bow-wow 或西班牙语中的 guau-guau）与狗叫声隐约相似。然而，大多数事物都不受这种命名方式的约束。

What about mama? It does not sound like a mother, but it doespiggybackon another feature of language: the fact that some sounds are more widespread than others around the world.

那“妈妈”一词呢? 它听起来不像母亲，但它确实包含了语言的另一个特征：事实上，在世界上，有些声音比其他声音传播得更广泛。

Thereare many dozens of observed consonants, from the clicks of some African languages to the “ejectives” (which make use of air pressure built up in the mouth) ofCaucasianones. These sounds are rare and hard for non-natives to learn.

我们观察到的辅音有几十种，从一些非洲语言的咔嗒声到高加索语言的“喷射音”(利用口腔中形成的气压)。这些声音非常罕见，非母语人士很难学会。

In contrast, a few—such as b, m, p, t, d and k—show up far more frequently, in nearly every spoken language in the world. That is almost certainly because they are easy to make.

相比之下，b、m、p、t、d和k等少数几个音出现的频率要高得多，几乎出现在世界上所有的口语中。这几乎可以肯定是因为它们很容易发出。

A babyvocalisingwill, at first, make a vowel-like sound, usually something like “ah”, which requires little in the way of control over the mouth. If they briefly close their mouth and continue vocalising, air will come out of their nose, thus making the m-sound that is used in “mother” around the world.

婴儿最开始发声时会发出类似元音的声音，通常是像“啊”这样的声音，这对口腔的控制几乎没什么要求。如果他们短暂地闭上嘴并继续发出声音，空气就会从他们的鼻子里出来，从而发出世界各地“mother”一词中所使用的m音。

Though the “mamas” bear the most obvious similarity, the “papas” have striking commonalities, too. Babies can easily stop their breath when they close their lips (rather than going on breathing through the nose).

除了“妈妈”一词有着最明显的相似性外，世界各地的“爸爸”一词也有着惊人的共性。当婴儿闭上嘴唇时很容易停止呼吸（而不是继续用鼻子呼吸）这就产生了b音或p音。

This produces a b- or a p-sound. It is surely for this reason that so many names for “father” use these consonants: papain English, abb in Arabic and babain Mandarin. T- and d-sounds are similarly basic, involving a simple tap of the tongue against the teeth: hence daddy, tatay (Tagalog) or tayta(Quechua).

也正是因为这个原因，许多地方的“爸爸”一词都会使用这些辅音：英语中的 papa、阿拉伯语中的 abb 以及汉语中的 baba。t音和d音同样是基本音，只需用舌头轻抵牙齿即可：因此有了 daddy、tatay（塔加洛语）或 tayta（克丘亚语）。

(红色标注词为重难点词汇)

重难点词汇：

exodus[ˈɛksədəs] n. 大批离开

arbitrariness['ɑːrbɪtrerinəs] n. 任意；霸道；武断

onomatopoeia[ˌɑːnəˌmætəˈpiːə] n. 拟声构词法；声喻法

piggyback[ˈpɪɡiˌbæk] n. 肩驮；背扛

来源：每日双语经济学人

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