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.
Most people in the world understand what “fuck off” means
“mhm” to signify you’re still listening and following along seems pretty universal to me.
Caca: that’s and ancient word that many speculate is older than even the proto-indo-european roots and may have been part of the same lexicon of the originating humans who migrated into East Asia.
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
