| This Proto-Mon-Khmer entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence. |
| Although the label of Proto-Mon-Khmer has mostly been abandoned or rejected, this reconstruction, which sourced from Shorto (2006)'s reconstruction for Proto-Mon-Khmer, currently does not have an appropriate Proto-Austroasiatic reconstruction. This reconstruction therefore should not be taken at face value as a state-of-the-art reconstruction for Proto-Austroasiatic, but instead ought to be treated as a valid cognate set. |
Likely a nursery word, although its distribution throughout the various branches of Mon-Khmer suggests that it could be genuinely ancient.
Shorto (2006) and Blust & Trussel (ACD) relate Javanese ibu and Malay ibu to a language, which may be of Austroasiatic descent, ancestral to Indonesia prior to the arrival of Western Malayo-Polynesian speakers.
*(ʔ)boʔ