So, I am sure they wouldn’t regard Sanskrit to be the mother of their family of languages!

In fact in Mandarin, the word “ma” can have different connotations depending on the stress given when it is pronounced and how long and how nasally the syllable is spoken!
The meaning can range from simply, mother, to horse, a piece of linen, to a swear/curse word!
Strange, huh?

But from what I have read, Sanskrit is the core language of the Indo-Aryan-European family of languages that has continued to the present day! That most, if not all, European languages are derivatives of this language family is well known! But its influence on the Proto-Dravidian family of languages of which Tamil is the oldest is a matter of dispute!
The proponents of the “Aryan Invasion” theory subscribe to the idea that Dravidian civilization flourished in the pre-Vedic times in the areas of South-Asia, South-East Asia, Australia and parts of Central Asia and that their Proto-Dravidian family of languages pre-dates the other family that came along when the Indo-Aryan branch invaded South Asia! The proponents of the “Aryan genesis in South Asia” theory would believe otherwise that Indo-Aryans and their languages originated in India and then migrated to the rest of the world! And conflicting evidence has been gathered to support both theories in one way or another!
But Sanskrit has the distinction of the oldest written literary record that is available in the present day that dates back to 1500 BC; [the seals of the Indus Valley civilization although supposedly more ancient, have not been deciphered to date, and one can't really attribute any one of the Proto-Dravidian languages to them as a result!] The oldest written record of Tamil in the modern Indo-Brahmi script family dates around 500 BC [200 say some], but absence of the written records cannot be a proof of the non-existence of a language at a certain period!

So much for the history lesson, so amma derives from the word roots, ma and mata common to both Sanskrit and Tamil independently! Mata is the root that gives way to “mutter” in German and “mother” in English and the colloquialized mama, mamma, mom, mummy, mommy and so on!

Even English varies from country to country; have you ever heard the Scottish Gaelic or the Irish for that matter? You wouldn’t discern that they are speaking English! Yet they are all offshoots of the same English that you and I seem to know like the back of our hands!

What one needs to do is to move out of the box and shake off the prejudices that one might have about languages, religions and cultures alien to one’s own; instead of being led by historical and religious myths one might have about people in lands other than your own!

What do you think?

I have learned something today. I had no idea there was a Tamil language. I assumed Hindi.
Bad Reader no treat for Scott.

I managed to get through Spanish class always answering “no se, yo soy es muy estupido”