Mum can be a noun or an adjective. As a noun , mum has two meanings. A mum is a type of flower often grown for decorative purposes. It is also an alternative spelling of mom , where it means mother. Mom is more common in American English, while mum is more common in British English.
The charts below show the relative usage of mum vs. That said, I just want to add that a working class pronunciation of "my mum" mother is "my mam" in some BrE.
Could it be the case that in attempting to avoid the working class "mam" for mother they over-compensate by saying mum for madam?? Otherwise, how does one explain it? Would an Oxford graduate say mum like that for ma'am? Lambie: You're quite right about mam as a "Northern UK" variant pronunciation.
Oh - and I obviously meant to write farm above, not form. FumbleFingers Thank you for the acknowledgement. Yes, one hears: Me mam, whereas in the south one would hear: me mum or my mum, depending on education etc. Add a comment. Sarriesfan Sarriesfan 1, 8 8 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges.
Trish Trish 1. It is an informal usage, but them relationships with one's mother tend to be informal. But in the youtube link, he is definitely not speaking to his mother. I saw it several times and always if they address a female who is higher up in the chain of command. Sorry, I do not have headphones or speakers on my present computer, but if this is what I think it is then they are using ma'am, short for 'madam' and an equivalent of the 'sir' used for men. In a criminal gang run by a woman, then the gang members could refer to the boss as 'mum', but I cannot think of a source for that.
The British military also use "ma'am" to address female superiors. Show 3 more comments. Featured on Meta. What do police call their bosses? What do Brits call a boss? Does AC 12 exist in the police? What does AC 12 stand for? What is a Chis police?
Where is AC 12 supposed to be? What is the 12 in ac12? England had successive waves of Dutch settlers throughout its history. Easily researched I am sure. I grew up in Birmingham and am reasonably familiar with its history. The English language has been evolving for thousands of years. Words or spelling we use today may be centuries old. There were two substantial waves of Dutch immigrants to England — one in the 12th century and another in the 16th century.
Many of the Flemish immigrants settled in the north although the largest groups were in London and Scotland. Or rather, it could be applied on many counts. 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.
It could also have come from African slaves who were often wet-nurses and nannies. The term mammy is found amongst African Americans. A lot of the American slaves came from Angola — a place where I lived for four years — and the Portugese word for mother is — mamae. They are usually among the first language-like sounds made by babies. I grew up using Mam north east england and never heard Mum used in the region until post when aspiring middle class mothers encouraged their children to do so.
Yes, We say Mam in South Wales! 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.
The curiosity was about why? My view is that the South Africans and Americans got mom from Dutch and the others got mum from the English. Still, its great to know that we are so diverse around the world. Words are spoken so differently, but with the same meaning!
Born and raised and I call my mother mum, mummy, or ma. Hear is the bottom line Mum is a slang and informal word that generally means humming not specifically to the the mother … therefore mum is relating to mother is not formally accepted. So lets universal accept just Mom. Email Address. Dialect Blog. Skip to content. Comments Policy. Mom, Mum, Mam: Different words? Posted on April 7, by Ben. Louisa May Alcott. Share this: Facebook Twitter. About Ben Ben T.
Smith launched his dialect fascination while working in theatre. He has worked as an actor, playwright, director, critic and dialect coach.
Other passions include linguistics, urban development, philosophy and film. Bookmark the permalink. Ros says:. April 7, at pm. July 12, at pm. Roslyn Ross says:. July 30, at am. Ros, It probably depends on the dialect. Jon says:. April 8, at pm. Emma woods says:. October 26, at am. Geoff S says:. February 24, at am. Tom says:. May 10, at am.
Kelv says:. April 9, at am. April 9, at pm. Mark Flowers says:. The OED seems to share your guess, but without substatiating it: mama, n.
0コメント