E  0663                PAPA

The words "papa" and "father" are of Indo-European origin

H 0001          א ב

Concept of root : father

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

א ב

av

forebear / father

Related English words

pa / papa / father

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

א ב

א ב א
av

abba

forebear / father

father

a v

a b

Aramaic

ב א ,

א ב א ,

ב ב
av

        abba,

      bab

father /forebear

a v

a b a

b . b

Latin

avus

abba
avus

abba

forebear, grandfather

father

a v

a b

Greek

αββα

abba

father

a b

 

 

Proto-Semitic "*ABBA" -- "*ABBA" Indo-European

.

 

 

These words are very fundamental, as it must have been important for humans right from the beginning to express the relationship between fathers and sons. Therefore we do not believe that "pa" and "papa", just like the words "ma" and "mama", are mere baby talk. Grown-ups have shaped human language according to their basic needs. Children have learned from grown-ups or they would perhaps not talk at all.

 

We refer to the Table in entry (Hebrew 0001). It is important that the concepts of "older male relatives or forbears (fathers)" and of "older female relatives (mothers)" each often are expressed by single roots, as in the word "abba" , that means both " father" and "forebear" and "amma", that stands for both "mother" and "older female relative". The same goes indeed for the use of other words of which we give as example Dutch "vaders = "fathers" and "vaderen" = " forebears".

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew "B". In Hebrew the "B" at the end of the word is pronounced as "V". The same goes usually for single "B" between vowels. The "B" in "abba" is in fact a doubled "B", which does not show in official spelling. The same thing happened in Latin. The double "BB" between vowels we find in "abba" has remained as it is. But the original single "B" between vowels, pronounced as "V", we already find written as "V" in our Latin word "avus". Clearly spelling comes later than speaking. People write down spoken words and our ancient Roman scholar when he spelled "avus", just followed the pronunciation he knew. At the same early time in history his Jewish colleagues, apparently aware of the origin of the word "av", chose the spelling of the sound "V" with its original "B". Modern English speakers cannot blame them for this choice, as English is absolutely full of such differences between spelling and changed pronunciations.

 

Note:
  • Latin: avus. The Latin word "avus" consists of two parts. The first part, "av", is the root. The second part, "-us", is a common suffix for the shaping of a male substantive in Latin.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew"Av". The Hebrew word "av" in plural, "avot", indicates also the Patriarchs from the Bible.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic according to the common hypothesis already had the same roots that are seen in Hebrew and Aramaic: "* א ב א, abba = father", also "*א ב, av= father, forebear". But besides this also a root " *ב א ב , bab ", meaning " father" as well as "grandfather ".

     

    . In other languages we see Akkadian and Arabic "abu". Ugaritic uses the same root.

 

Note:
  • European forms.The usual European forms for father, as found in modern languages, begin with a labial "P", "V" or "F". But the generally little known popular Greek and Latin forms, begin with the vowel "A" , like Hebrew. And they also have a "B" in the middle, like Hebrew. In fact the three, Latin, Greek and Hebrew are identical here.
    In modern Italian we can find, besides "papa", the even more familiar word "babbo".

     

    In New- Greek there is "μπαμπας", pronounced "babas". Both have kept the consonant "B". Interesting is the spelling of this New-Greek word. As the classic "Bèta" has become a "Wita", an initial "B" is pronounced as "W". But in this case the Greeks did not want to change the word for "papa" from "babas" into "wawas". So they spelled it like "mpampas", which according to the rules requires a pronunciation "babas".

 

Note:
  • Father. This English word is composed of two elements, each with a proper meaning. The first syllable, "FA" is the one related to the above Latin, Greek and Hebrew words. The second part, "THER" is also to be seen in "mother", "brother" and in fact "sister". The Table (Hebrew 0001) shows the words for six relations in the human family in a number of tongues. One can see that English "ther" or "ter" corresponds with "ter", "der" and "dre" in other Germanic as well as in Latin and Greek languages. In Germanic and Classic Greek five words out of six, and in Latin four out of six words have this element. The Scandinavian languages have developed also contracted forms. Today a Swede will usually talk about his "far" and "mor" instead of "fader" and "moder". The contracted forms in Dutch are partially very old and out of use. A special case is French, which has only contracted forms , such as "père" and "mère", besides of course the familiar forms "papa" and "maman". To understand this, one should recall that the Franks, who gave France its name, were a Germanic people. Their way of speaking the local Latin, that already had been changed by the Gallic substrate, has resulted in French.
    Let us now have a further look at our syllable "ther" and its similars.

 

Note:
  • -ther, -ter thus is a common element to many family-"titles", as we have seen. What can it mean ? A strong characteristic of the family in the narrow sense, composed of parents and children, lies in the fact that its members look after each other, each caring for the others and curing their interests and well-being . Perhaps "ter" could indicate this characteristic ?
    In fact we find in Greek the word "τηρεω" which practically indicates this. And it has "tèr" as its root. So this may be the answer to our question. Meanwhile one should observe in our table all words for "son" lack this item "ter". Perhaps because sons go more their own way and look after themselves ? Especially in an era of so-called "matriarchy"? We say "so-called", as t women are in command. In reality in those ancient societies we call matriarchal, women, especially the mater-familias, were more of a non-commanding core of the family-structure. Their role was certainly extremely important. There being the "core" can be seen in the use of the sound "M" in words expressing belonging, community and nearness, as shown in the chapter "The Mother and the People" and relative Table. See (The Mother and the People.) and (The Mother and the People, Table. ).

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. All Germanic languages use for "father" three comparable elements : "F/V . D/T/TH . R". Consequently one must presume that Proto-Germanic was placed in this ambience. Comparisons with other groups may lead to a probability of "*F T R" for Proto-Germanic.
    Yet we also see a supposed root without the final R. This seems to be based on the existence in Old English of a word "fadhe, fadhu" = paternal aunt", We note that "faedera" means "paternal uncle" and that "faeder" and "fadur" mean "father". We see as more probable that "fadhe" is a contraction or abbreviation, in which the existing "R" has disappeared. Something of the kind happens in German when children call their parents "Vati" and "Mutti". The contraction might have origin in a word "*faedrige", as Old English has "modrige" for "maternal aunt".

 

Note:
  • Note: Indo-European .There are two groups of words to be considered, those with a suffix "ther-" , like Latin "pater" and those without suffix, like Latin "avus" and "abba". There is little doubt that "-ther, -ter" are suffixes, In the case of "pater" and "mater" thesuffix is linked to respectively "pa-" and "ma-". These are often doubled into "papa" and "mama" and are variations of words like "abba" and "amma".

     

     

    ---"AVUS, ABBA" . The root of these two Latin words is "A B". The " B " of "avus" is witten and pronounced as "V", whereas in "abba" the "B" is doubled and remains pronounced as such. Latin here follows the same rules of Hebrew, in itself an interesting fact. Latin has "A B-".

     

    Armenian "hav = grandfather" with a neutral prefix "H" is interesting.

     

    In "Baltic there is Old Prussian "awia = uncle" and Lithuanian aw- for "A W/B"

     

    Tocharian has "āwe for "Ā W-. Regretfully we have no indications regarding these briefer forms from Old Indian.

     

    Indo-Europeanon the basis of all this information probably had a form "*A B-, with the "B" in some cases pronounced as "V" or "W". But besides this in Indo-European, when directing oneself to an older male relative, probably "*A B B A" was used. This besides "*A M M A" when addressing an older female relative.

     

     

    ---"PATER". Old Indian and Avestan both have "pitar- ", also "pita, Sanscrit "pitrí". The use of the vowel " I ", also present in forms without the final "R", may be due to the influence of that latter version. It must be noted that the concept of "protection", mentioned in the above note "-ther -ter" in Sanscrit has a cognate "trâ-", for example in "trâya = to protect". More difficult to understand is Armenian ""hair, gen haur = father", but it has a root "H A-" that is near the category of "avus".

     

    Greek has "π α τ η ρ, patèr, with a root "π α τ ε ρ, pater. Greek has "P A T E R".

     

    Celtic with Old Irish has abolished the initial "P" in "aithar, gen, athar". Cymric "gwal-adr" and Breton "val-art" are further off. And there will be "AV-" in composed words regarding relatives.

     

    On the basis of Greek, Latin, Germanic and Celtic a hypothesis for Indo-European of "*P A T E R" seems justified.

     

 

Note:
  • Note: Finno-Ugric
    Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish do not belong to the group of Indo-European languages, but to that of the Finno-Ugric tongues. In fact in our table we do not see much kinship between the two groups, with some exceptions: Finnish "emo" and "emä" meaning "mama" and looking a bit like Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Hungarian "apa" and Turkish "baba" look rather like "abba" and "babas" we find for "papa" under Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The Turkish word "birader" may well be a loanword, used besides the orginal Turkish "erkek kardes," for "brother" and "kiz kardes," for sister. By the way, "erkek" means "male" and "kiz" female. One finds those in that table. "Evlat" is "child" and akin to the Hebrew words "walad" and "yeled" with the same meaning! Interesting are the Hungarian words for brother and sister. "Vér" means "blood" and "test" says "body". Thus a brother or sister in Hungarian is also a "bodyblood".

 

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 21/09/2012 at 14.04.32