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According to Webster at www.m-w.com, Amah comes from Portuguese and it means a Chinese nurse. So what is it? Portugese or Chinese? Also the English spelling "amah" instead of "ama" seems to imply some kind of Chinese origin of this English word. I assume the Chinese term "阿嬤" (amah) is a foreign word imported from Portuguese. The outreach of European influence over Asia started with Portuguese first, then Spanish, and at last English. So it is reasonable that this word is imported to Chinese centuries ago and then re-exported to English in the last century. Can some language experts add more about this topic?
The Chinese word "amah", depending on its tone and how it is written, can means a range of different things. "阿瑪" means father in a Manchuian family in Qing Dynasty. "阿媽" means mother in Cantonese, but means grandmother in Taiwanese. "阿嫲" means grandma (on father's side) in Cantonese. "嬤嬤" means maidservant. And of course "阿嬤" means wet nurse as described here. Kowloonese 23:41, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
