Related to the question about whether facial expressions are universal.
Are there words/verbal expressions/sounds that exist in every language and have the same meaning in every language?
(I’d also count words that are very similar.)
One example, that I believe is universal is M followed by a vowel followed by another M and optionally another vowel, meaning “Mother”.
At least in any language I know, this seems to hold true (mom, Mama, mamma, Mami, …).
Any other examples?
Edit: To clarify, I am not looking for very popular words that have been imported into most languages (like how almost everyone worldwide knows what Ketchup is), but about words that are “native” to humans. So if you pick someone from an uncontacted native tribe and tell them nothing, they would be able to understand/use that word/sound/verbal expression.
In the 13th century, Frederick II was the Holy Roman Emperor. He supposedly carried out a famous language deprivation experiment where he had infants raised by foster mothers who were not allowed to talk to them–they could only feed and bathe then. This was to see if there is a natural human language, he thought Greek or Hebrew might emerge. It turns out that the children all died. In sociology this is taught as proof that humans need language and social interaction to survive. But the whole story comes from a single Franciscan monk who was apparently not a fan of the emperor, so there’s some doubt.
I would put some doubt on that story, since most children that were born deaf still survive.
Also, in many orphanages throughout the centuries, children often didn’t get much more care than described in that experiment.
If that story is true, there was no communication with these children. But children born deaf still learn to communicate via sign language or other motions. The language becomes non-spoken, but is visual and very rich and expressive.