Father’s Day is coming soon, and for the language lovers out there, you may be curious how sons and daughters around the world refer to their dads. Interestingly, the answer is simpler than you might think, as you can see from the table below:
| Language | Word for Dad/Papa | Pronunciation |
| Italian | papà | pa-PA |
| Spanish | papá | pa-PA |
| Greek | μπαμπάς | ba-BAS |
| Arabic | بــابــا | BA-ba |
| Korean | 아빠 | a-ppa |
| French | papa | PA-pa |
| Portuguese | papai | PA-pai |
| Japanese | パパ | pa-pa |
| Russian | папа | PA-pa |
| Chinese | 爸爸 | bàba |
Even in languages without a shared ancestor such as Chinese and Italian, we see a striking similarity. Why is that, you ask? Well, if you have children, you may already know the answer. Children across the world start out making similar sounds, not because they come from the language spoken around them, but because they’re the easiest sounds for us to make, and logically, the first sounds we start practicing. Those sounds include what’s called a bilabial stop (/b/ or /p/) plus an open vowel such as /a/. So, children everywhere start making these sounds, and dads around the world have heard their name in these first babbles (sorry, dads!) Hence, the diffusion of variations on the word ‘papa’ in languages all over the world. So, if you are learning a new language, chances are you already know how to say ‘dad’ and probably ‘mom’ too, since an equivalent process occurred with ‘mama.’
Happy Papa’s day, everyone!
