Proto-Gondi-Kui : *aj-
Meaning : mother, woman
Notes : The root was heavily used with posessive prefixes. The most frequent form is *yay- 'my mother'. In some dialects this form became generalized, with the following shift of meaning: 'my mother' > 'mother in general', 'mother' > 'woman'. A new form, based on the 1st person pl. pronoun (Gondi māy-, Kuwi māya) resulted from the loss of initial y- and the secondary merger of the simple and the prefixed forms.
