#3WordsToDescribeMyMom. Mum is the English spelling, and used in Australia and New Zealand.

In fact when I’ve heard Americans say bum, they were usually imitating Tom Green.

Just as you could be forgiven hearing some Americans speak, that it is English, but it is. The ‘o’ and ‘u’ like many letters can be interchangeable depending upon how the word is pronounced. Although, I only say “Mum” when I’m talking to my mother directly. There isn’t a merger of those vowels in any North American accent as far as I know. mum derives from england and but not british.

Not really.

Yes they all derive from the word for mother in English but the reason someone wrote about it is because most English speaking cultures use mum and some like the US and South Africa use mom.

No longer. All rights reserved. Part of HuffPost News. I’m reading Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women right now. My mammy is a native speaker of Munster Irish; when she says “mVmmy” (in English) it rhymes with “Commie”. Here in Birmingham, UK everyone seems to spell it as “Mom”, which made me wonder if that’s where the word originated, or if there’s another reason for why this is the case, and why it was followed by Americans. What are some descriptive words for Mother & Mom ? There is no doubt that Americans have their own colloquialisms, which are sometimes home-grown, but so do all English speakers around the world and for that matter, around Britain. Latin died (OK, mortally wounded then) because the Romans would not let it evolve. Brit. We have several informal words for “mother” in English: mum (heard in much of England), mom (heard in much of America), and mam (heard in Ireland and Northern England). ©2020 Verizon Media. England had successive waves of Dutch settlers throughout its history. There were two substantial waves of Dutch immigrants to England – one in the 12th century and another in the 16th century. My view is that the South Africans and Americans got mom from Dutch and the others got mum from the English. Accents, like language evolve. Can this or does this derive from the Welsh word for mother? Words or spelling we use today may be centuries old. This got me thinking. I’m from London and would say the pronunciation here is mʌm (with the STRUT vowel).

That is the way it’s broadly transcribed, but this vowel is usually noted to be a bit lower and fronter in London English. From the root word “Ma” we derive in our language “mammals” “mammaries” and the rest.

In one of those lovely ironies, talking language, those who study accent have decided that the ‘modern’ English accent is actually very like the Australian accent – a development which has come about through the addiction British children and teenagers have had to Australian television programmes in the past 40 years. But are these actually different words, or are they just, in some sense, the same word? Although even this distinction has been diluted in the past 20 years and with the American accent so pervasive through radio and television, may well disappear anyway. Americans may speak in what equates to regional colloquial English at times but it remains English. That’s right! Instead it was the Australian accent which prevailed. I’m from Manitoba Canada myself. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Perhaps the fact that both nations are marginally younger from the US has made the difference because there are regional accents in the US. This sounds nothing like any of the above. Although there are similarities to the South Africans and some English dialects. I would say that “Mom” is the most common with “Mum” being less common but in free variation and “Mam” almost unheard of. This can be pronounced as ‘mum’ but as often as not is now said as ‘morm.’. I’m assuming the more cumbersome “máthair” isn’t used as much? The equivalent Irish Gaelic word is spelt “mamaí”, and the vowel can map to the Irish English TRAP, LOT, or CLOTH depending on the speaker’s accents (in both languages). Personally I say Mom in a way an American might hear as Mawm, and this seems to be quite common, although more urban/general Canadian accents might sound more like the General American variety. I also add R to some schwa’s while constantly dropping R after some schwa’s, 2, Selena=Selener, quoted as saying from Nicki Minaj ft. Justin Bieber “But I gotta keep an eye on SelenER”. They’re just different ways of transcribing a very similar sound. The major difference, so as not to be in error, Canadians don’t like being taken for Americans just as New Zealanders don’t like being taken for Australians – although the ‘bigger’ country doesn’t care – is the ‘out’ sound, which is clearly Scottish in origin, but which has remained in the Canadian accent. Don’t mean to suggest all three are merged. This post is super duper old. I don’t know but perhaps Birmingham had more than others, or rather, the percentage was high enough, as opposed to London, to influence accent. My guess is that is the case because of the connections for the Australian accent must in origin be a combination of Scottish, Irish and the numerous English dialects given that was our original immigrant base for the nation. The “butt” vs. “bum” question is interesting too.

…since the vowels in “strut,” “lot” and “caught” all seem to hover around in a similar vowel space. I always thought they were just different ways of writing/pronouncing the same word. Then again, the Australian accent is an amalgam of various English regional accents, various regional Scottish accents, various regional Irish accents and no doubt a good pinch of German as these were our main early settler groups.

A common pronunciation for “strut” words (i.e. The Canadian accent is very American, and one presumes it did not happen the other way. They used mam. They are most definitely not two different languages anymore than French Canadians are speaking a different language to the French. A mother is a person who loves and cares for you. A tad weird, huh? As for the STRUT vowel it’s my opinion that rural westerners tend toward a more back sound especially when being emphatic, while urban accents are more centralised but not necessarily lowered. One of the more interesting ‘accent’ impacts, and for Australians as ‘ex-colonials’ satisfying, has been the Australianisation of the general English accent which, the experts deduce, comes from two generations of British school-children brought up on Australian television soaps! Mom is pronounced as MAHM. mammy, mam

In my part of America, ‘mom’ is most common. The Americans have worked hard a couple of times in their history to ‘remove’ traces of their English connections and despite changing spelling, they were rather stuck with the English language. I always distinguish COT from CAUGHT. I always find it interesting listening to old – 30’s, 40’s – radio and television programmes where the American accent is much less pronounced and quite English. Then, of course, there are all the regional variations and the influences of languages from all over the world. I won’t dispute your observation that the Vancouver accent is “very, very American”, since that was your experience. Although “mum,” “mam,” and “mom” read differently, they’re often pronounced in a very similar way. The rest of her speech sounds pretty Irish, too. What 3 words would you use to describe your mom? Perhaps the biggest influence on Canada though has been the American accent. I never thought about it before, but I don’t recall being different because I used mum, mummy, or ma. We humans derived the words in our language from many sources but I am firmly convinced that the word for our mother “Ma ” comes from goat language. Given the number of Kiwis in Australia however, should they return, the accent may well change back to a variation of Australian. Easily researched I am sure. Wait until they say ‘about’ and catch the ‘out’ sound and you generally know if you have a Canadian. I’m from NYC where people pronounce ER quite like people in Boston do. So sorry, We do say m but I was miss informed and the word Mangi not Mamgi means Grandmother and not Mam. Then again we could both be right and your ‘back vowel’ may be of Dutch origin. There are two different languages that happen to have a close connection. Why the change it is hard to say, but change it has, so that now it has more in common with the South African accent than the Australian. I perceive the spelling of a word which is used in two English speaking nations with a strong Dutch settler influence and in a part of Britain with long historical connections to Flanders where the language is Nederlands and not found in other English speaking nations which did not have a strong Dutch settler influence. My mum is Australian, so I switch between calling her mum and mom. Having spent time in Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto I could not perceive too much difference between them and a Vancouver accent but then someone visiting Australia would not pick up the very slight differences between Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide…and they are slight. Now that you mention it, I do know plenty of people that also say “MAH” when talking directly to their mother. But modern communications have gone a long way toward diminishing accent differences and therefore helping all of us English speakers to understand each other. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote!

A possible spanner in the works is the East Midlands (at least certainly in Nottingham), where we use “mum”, but pronounced in a *northern* manner, i.e. Words are spoken so differently, but with the same meaning! As is pointed out above, Birmingham accent in England also has “Mom” (which there signifies a rounded not-fully-open back vowel). preceding technologies, it’s amazing article. ma ma (first words)

American spelling may make it easier for the less bright to learn to spell but it rather subtracts from the substance and depth of the words which have been tinkered with. In years since, I have thought that “Mummy”, or “Mum” was felt to be more “posh” by the Irish young people…just as it became common for them to return to Ireland, having spent a short 2-3 months in England, but already sporting the London accent !…, Given that the South Africans also say Mom I suspect the use of it in the US is sourced in Dutch immigrants. But the lowering of STRUT and the backing of TRAP in many Canadian accents makes things a little crowded. The language is English it is not American and neither is it French, Russian or any other language. To be fair, there are some regions where this is not the case. trawicks, “mom” pronounced with a Brummie accent would be closer to [mʊm] so I think we can discount this explanation. I think Canada is a lot like Australia when it comes to accent – fairly homogenous – with slight differences sometimes.

I would agree with rya about the homogeneity of English from Ontario (except maybe the Ottawa valley, which I’m not familiar with) westward to BC. Many of the Flemish immigrants settled in the north although the largest groups were in London and Scotland. New Zealand is an interesting example because that accent has changed dramatically in the past decade or two. I’m curious if perhaps mam is the earliest of these, and mom and mum were just different ways of rendering this.

Our baby goats, when a bit uncertain or worried call out to their goat mother. It would be interesting to know why. Western Ireland, for example, would probably pronounce it so it sounds like “ma’am.” But the difference between how a Londoner says “mum” and someone from Northern England says “mam” is much more minimal.

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