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Three out of those four are Indo-European, and indeed the similarity between mother, madre & mata is no coincidence.

English: mom, dad

Arabic: ami, ab

Chinese: ma, ba

Zulu: umama, ubaba

IT's interesting how they all use the same vowels for the names they use to call mother/father. IS there a reason they use vowels vs say consonants?

Small children have trouble with pronouncing most consonants. Unformed palate, small tongue, lack of teeth.