Mama Baba!

I’ve wondered this a few years ago, and I have renewed interest over this question. Did 妈妈 (mama) and 爸爸 (baba), meaning mother and father or such variations, develop by itself in China or did westerners influence the language? When I had asked my parents years ago, they replied that children usually just say mama and baba. They are easier sounds to make. However, in the past, Chinese people in the north referred to their parents as 娘 (niang) and 爹 (die). That’s why in most Chinese historical dramas, the mothers and fathers would be niang or die! It would never be Ma or Ba until later. Thus, from that, I believed that westerners brought in the terms Mama and Papa, and the Chinese just changed Papa to Baba. But then, I learned that in 客家话, my home dialect, we call our parents as a ma and a ba. I do not know if we have always called our parents in those terms, but it seems so.

So the question goes back to: where did the term mama and baba originate? Was it because babies are more apt to pronounce those words in the early stages of childhood or is it because westerners influenced the Chinese language and brought in those words? I think this would be an interesting mystery to solve!