John McWhorter, Columbia linguistics professor, Time columnist and the author of The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language (Oxford University Press, 2014), gives insight into why the words, "mama" and "papa" sound eerily similar across many languages.

@BrianLehrer Oh buzzkill! Every new mother's heart has just been broken!

— Virginia Rietz (@ginzinger) October 21, 2015

.@aqjuvenal "If you're under 10 months and this sounds familiar to you, tweet/call in to discuss: 212..."

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) October 21, 2015