Most of the English words have more than one meaning and in different parts of speech as well. But there is one word in the Tamil language that has about seven meanings.
Tamil is the State language of Tamil Nadu, in Southern India.
And the great word is Amma. Its other variants are Mamma, Ma, Mummy and so on. It is used for "mother" all over the world. The first word a baby learns and utters is Amma or mma or mamma. Whatever the spelling, an young mother would interpret the sound as one pointing at her and would fly in cloud 9 at the music of the word.
Amma is used in various situations by various age groups with different connotations. For instance, a husband would address his wife by this term. It is then supposed to be a title of high warmth. So, we can assign the meaning "darling" here to it.
An young man, after having courted his love for several weeks, may call his girl friend suddenly one evening, "amma" suffixing it to her real name. Thus, Priya becomes Priya amma; Lakshmi turns into Lakshmi amma and so on. The girl would then gloat over it.and feel mightily titillated at the term. Here, "amma" would take the meaning "sweetheart".
A sixteen year old young thing one day rushed to her mother after she returned from her evening outing, “Mummy, Suresh, our next door neighbour, addressed me suddenly, “Rani amma.” Rani knew at once that Suresh had fallen for her. However, she wanted to cross check with her mother. ”What did he mean by it, mummy?”
The disturbed mother underplayed the whole thing. “He meant nothing by it, Rani. Probably he wanted to say ' you are mental'.” Then suddenly raising her voice, the mother shouted, “Now, will you concentrate on your studies? Keep away from any boy friends, understand? You are spending far too much of time with the opposite six. And at the age of 16, that too!” Poor Rani. She slipped into her room, cried quietly for five minutes and went back to her books.
In the Southern parts of India, one could address any lady as "amma". The hearer would feel quite enchanted and attend to you immediately. See the magic of the wonderful title! As regards the meaning, it might be just "dear". An English man would use "dear" to any feminine gender. But in my State, it is simply 'amma'.
A mother would call her little baby daughter too as "amma". Here it would mean, “my adorable child'.
When an adult son or daughter calls the mother "amma", it means "mother" but with much affection. Mamma or Mummy wouldn't convey the same volume of love. So, inside the same house, "amma" would be equivalent to "mother" from the children's angle and 'darling' from father's.
If "amma" is used for older women, it may not be accepted well by them at all. “Haven't I gone past that age?' they would debate. But if you use the term as suffix to her usual title, she would feel honoured, something like "granny amma" or 'paatty amma' and so on.
If an organization is headed by a lady, she becomes amma to everyone in it. In my State, a leading political party is headed by a bachelor lady by the name Jayalalitha. She is a very powerful leader indeed and she is referred as amma. In fact, many of her admirers may not know her real name at all. But you pronounce the word Amma and everyone would know who she is.
So, the next time you visit any city in Southern India and you want to talk with a lady or even ask for direction, jut greet her as "amma" and she would bend over backwards to listen to you and minister to you most devotedly. So versatile and so sovereign, is this marvellous title.
