Related to the question about whether facial expressions are universal.
Are there words/verbal expressions/sounds that exist in every language and have the same meaning in every language?
(I’d also count words that are very similar.)
One example, that I believe is universal is M followed by a vowel followed by another M and optionally another vowel, meaning “Mother”.
At least in any language I know, this seems to hold true (mom, Mama, mamma, Mami, …).
Any other examples?
Edit: To clarify, I am not looking for very popular words that have been imported into most languages (like how almost everyone worldwide knows what Ketchup is), but about words that are “native” to humans. So if you pick someone from an uncontacted native tribe and tell them nothing, they would be able to understand/use that word/sound/verbal expression.
I read somewhere recently that “OK” is the most widely used expression accross languages. Not universal per se, but close enough.
I had just recently watched some documentary or something, and part of it was about what might be considered a “universal” word. “OK” and “Coca Cola” were like the only two that fit the bill.
And while it’s kind of neat to see how even unrelated language groups adapt, it’s sad that “coca cola” of all things is leading the charge.
Hi! I’m a linguist, and this topic is one that comes up commonly.
The answer is no. There is no such thing as languages/words that are native to humans. You can have things that are widely shared (mama/papa based on baby-talk as an example), but seeing as language itself is not universal to humans, there is no such thing as a word that is universal.
Feel free to ask any questions if you’re curious!
How common are things like the bouba/kiki effect in linguistics? It seems there are some sounds that are based on something other than learned behavior, how much does this cause commonality in real language?
Hi! Sorry for the delay, took a break from social media.
It’s often an effect of local convergent evolution, effectively.
Like if the group next to you has certain associations, well you’re likely to have similar associations. It’s also hard to verify some of that research due to the nature of how it’s conducted.
No worries, thanks for the response!
Interesting answer, scanning through the Wikipedia article on kiki/bouba it makes sense that we don’t really have solid evidence that it isn’t a learned trait. It may be hard to get a population of people who developed language independently of all other humans ever and see if they maintain the strong correlation with naming kiki and bouba.
So I guess that brings up another question I have kinda wondered about. What is the most “isolated” spoken language on the planet? By that, I mean the language that evolved most independently of other spoken languages. Is there anything interesting that can be learned by comparing such a language to the European languages that are dominant among the global population?
“mhm” to signify you’re still listening and following along seems pretty universal to me.
There is reason to believe that there is some fairly universal mapping of sounds to meanings, even if the sounds are made-up nonesense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect
Just to counter the “Mother” example, in Finnish the word is “äiti”. One could argue “mamma” is also used, but in my opinion it’s just Swedish influence and not really used in the Eastern parts.
The topic is very interesting however, and recently I’ve read about the theory of universal grammar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_grammar which is a theory roughly saying that every human has an innate biological understanding for certain rules of grammar - independent of upbringing, culture and the like. For example, every human language will distinguish between nouns and vowels and verbs. The concept is fascinating, but so is the criticism. You could argue that the whole idea is just unfalsifiable pseudoscience or post-hoc explanation for what has been observed.
Regarding the “mother” example: Most languages also feature words that describe “mother” but don’t follow the pattern (e.g. “mother”).
I meant the word that is used by babies/small children and in connection with babies/small children.
Does this apply to “äiti”? (Serious question, I have no idea of the Finnish language).
I always figured it’s because it’s one of the first sounds a baby can consciously make.
Universal grammar sounds very interesting, and the criticism is a well. But yeah, it’s kinda hard to falsify this.
On the other hand, these basic elements that universal grammar identifies seem to me (=>not a linguist) like something you can’t do without. I wouldn’t know what a language would do e.g. without a noun/verb separation. There are things and there are actions, which are two fundamentally different concepts. Makes sense that this separation exists in every language.
Funny enough, in Russian side Karelian they call mother “muamo”.
Äiti is a loan word from Gothic “aiþei”, which is quite interesting as such words aren’t usually loaned to replace the original. The original Finnish word for mother is “emä”, but this is not used about humans anymore.
