In an extraordinary number of unrelated languages, the word for 'mother' starts with the sound 'm' — mama, mère, madre, Mutter, māma, mā. Linguists believe this is because 'm' is one of the easiest sounds for infants to make, and the sound naturally emerges during nursing. The same pattern appears with 'p' or 'b' sounds in many languages for 'father' — papa, père, padre, Vater.