Anurag Jain's Blog on Bangalore Events, Travel, IIM Bangalore, IIM, IIMB, Management

Sunday, July 04, 2004

Posted 5:57 PM by Anurag

Ta Ta.

Have you ever wondered what's the deal with this goodby expression called Tata (or Ta-Ta or Ta Ta)? I, for one, have. And, I always sorta thought that it referred to the Tata group. Well, I did some googling on it and found out the following information. Lot of it seems to suggest that it comes from babytalk. But there isn't any conclusive evidence. Judge for yourself:

* From this googlegroups link:
Interjection. Good-bye. Some use since c1895. Usually jocular, as it is associated with English use and is considered an affectation.

* Form this Hindu BusinessLine report
"What is the meaning of Tata?

The group's Web site tata.com educates thus: As a noun, it means `trustworthiness, reliability, ethical business practices', and as verb, `to fulfil a promise, to carve a better future', but there is also an alternative meaning, `an uncommon surname in India'. For the origin of the word, I looked at www.jamshedpurlive.com which states that one of the ancestors of the Tata Family, Behram, took the name of `Tata', probably a nickname meaning `hot-tempered'. It seems his descendants admit that Tatas are somewhat peppery.

Does anyone know who said `ta-ta' to whom?

One school of thought says, the firm said `ta-ta' to the partner who was thumbing his nose at Tata.

According to another school, the affected partner said `bye-bye' to Tata, and nobody told him `ta-ta' at the farewell since that would have been an affront - as much as it would be for Ashram children to sing the nursery rhyme `Ba-ba black sheep'. "

* Another Hindu Report

O.K.'s colloquial partner Ta Ta, British baby talk for good-bye now also adult baby talk, no doubt entered Indianspeak through farewells said to and by baba-log, the children of sahibs. Like papa, mama, dada and nana, it is one of those apparently meaningless words that an infant utters, unless you speak Romanian in which tata means father. Cheerio, another English colloquialism expressing good wishes on parting that I saw and heard being used in
India is derived from "chair-oh", as supposedly uttered by departing guests when hailing sedan chairs in Britain.

* Googlegroups again comes to rescue
In our last episode <83ijln$9jl$2@nw051.infoweb.ne.jp>, the lovely and talented "akoamay" broadcast on alt.usage.english: |There was this phrase, "Is It Ta-ta to Tatami?" (Newsweek International |Edition 12/13/1999), as the title of its article about the news that |demand for tatami mats in Japan's city dwellers is fast declining. | |The word "ta-ta" reminded me of the famous Tata business group in India |but nothing more. So I consulted a very large English-Japanese dictionary |to find that this word means "good-bye" and is used mostly by infants.
This is not quite correct. The origin may be given as "babytalk," but it is almost certainly used by more adults than by infants.
I hope someone will take time to tutor me: | |1. Is this word used by infants both in the US and in UK?
I'm not certain that it is often used by infants at all, unless they are taught it. It is used by adults in both the US and the UK, but is more common in the UK.
|2. In another dictionary at hand, it says the word "ta" is used by infants | in the UK and Australia and means "thank you." Then, how come "ta-ta" | means "goodbye" instead of something like "Thank you, thank you," I | wonder.
Again, the origin may have been something an infant originated, but this word, so far as it is used, is used by adults. "Ta-ta" may have come from an attempt to teach "goodbye" as "bye-bye."
|3. Perhaps do they say "ta" for "thank you" because they as infants still | find it hard to pronounce the "th" sound properly? Perhaps the first time. Insofar as infants use it, they use it because it taught to them by adults. Almost all adults address infants in a language that is not quite English. Babytalk is how people talk *to* babies (and so is the first part of language that babies learn), only then does babytalk become the talk *of* babies.
If you observe native speakers talking to infants and small children, you may not recognize babytalk, but you should be able to detect the special intonation it uses.

* Also checkout one more googlegroup discussion on this issue.

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