Note: Coptic was the spoken and written language in Egypt. It was in use from the first to about the sixth century A.D.
Mu meant “mother” in old egyptian (Mu = Mut = Maut, the great earth mother in early egypt).
Over time it mutated into mou, mau, and finally maau in Coptic (though some dialects still use mou).
Coptic (Hametic Language Group)
ma place
maau mother
me truth
meeue thought, belief
moou water
mouh burn, flash
mou death
moue island
Indeed a link between mu and the nearly universal worship of an “Earth Mother” can easily be traced in various language groups.
The mu sounds in various cultures (pronounced moo like a cow utterance), these all seem to be diachronically linked to a similar ancient root.
In late Egyptian (Coptic) moue (means both “island” and also “brightness”), moou (water or flood), mou (death), mouh (several meanings according to context: burning, glowing; fullfillment, completion; appearance), me (means love or truth or justice), ma (place or location), maau (mother) and a several other mou- based words.
Now then, if the pattern follows normal diachronic mutation (i.e. people are lazy and make words easier over time) then the common root may have been ma, mae or mau.
This is interesting because the indo-european languages all have “ma”, “me”, or “mo” as the root for mother:
Sanskrit matr
Old English modor
Latin mater
Old Irish mathair
Greek meter
Avestan matar
Russian matka
In the Greek, the verb root mu implied closed lips, silence, unspoken and is hence the basis of the word musterion (mystery) as in the Elesian mysteries, which involved worship of the great earth mother.
A weird sidepoint is that the ancient Chinese earth mother goddess was called “shing moo”in some places and “ma tsoop” eslewhere with
the moo and ma meaning mother.
Greek (Indo European Language Group)
mu, muo verb closing of the lips
mu silence or unspoken
muth myth, story
muse muse, music
musterion mystery
It is highly likely Demeter is De- Meter: The-True Mother.
Sumerian (Semitic Language Group)
ama mother
eme tongue, speech
ma boat, depart
mamu dream
marru flood
maruru flood storm
mer storm wind, violent storm
mi woman
mu woman
mu name
mumu always being reborn
munus woman
mul star, constellation
mur storm wind, violent storm
umu older woman, nurse, teacher
By J. Warren Wells. Please cite as source if you quote from this.
“J. Warren Wells is a well-known Greek and Coptic researcher.” Logos Software.
His books on Greek and Coptic can be found here:
http://www.logos.com/Products/search?Author=Wells%2c+J.+Warren
One also has to consider that the name “Mu” used by James Churchward could just be an arbitrary phonetic construction drawn from previous studies by Augustus Le Plongeon who himself took it from the earlier and controversial Mayan translation of Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg. Thus, a link between an arbitrary “Mu” transliteration and a theoretical sunken continent, either in the Atlantic Ocean (as Le Plongeon theorized) or in the Pacific (as James Churchward believed), could just be completely artificial. I think we have to keep that in mind while examining possible etymological roots.
I also wouldn’t consider the Greek term “muses” (μοῦσαι) as using the same root as the verb “muo” (μύω), these are clearly not related, as can be seen from their Greek transliteration which are orthographically different.
As for Demeter being the “True mother”, the consensus among scholars is that Demeter is either a deformation of Γῆ Μήτηρ or of Δημομήτηρ, which both translate as the “Earth mother”. Your proposal is interesting but would you care to expand your argumentation as to why your proposal might be more likely?
— Y.D.