What's with everyone writing 'Mom?'

[Ottersmith]

Why is everyone writing Mom in their thread instead of 'mum'? Are you American? Are you from the Midlands? If neither of these then stop doing it. It's everywhere and it's so annoying.

I have consistently said I am just staying in my lane and discussing England which is what I know. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't have any views on the other parts of the British Isles and tried to make that clear. I can't help it if people want me to talk about their region..I can't really be much help!

The very post she quoted.

Don't play the innocent, it doesn't suit you.

And I'm saddened it wasn't a compliment.

It has always been totally normal in some parts of the UK to say 'high school'. I live in Manchester and loads of the secondary schools are literally called '[whatever] High School' and most of my northern friends/colleagues have always called it high school.

I've totally missed your point I think. That's different language for you!

How would you even know what posters call their mothers in real life?

I'm starting to think this is 'bollocks navel-gazing thread' day today and nobody's said.

Aside from the fact that I'm typing this from NI, which is in the UK, you cannot seriously claim that this:

I have noticed that Irish people do come on UK mumsnet and get upset if we are focused on England too much. I get it.

Was meant in any way other than a passive aggressive dig at Irish people.

Btw, it's not "UK Mumsnet". You're online, there's no national boundaries. There are more British users here than other nationalities but those of us who aren't British aren't guests or lower tier members.

It's all fine. Don't get so stressed. It's just mumsnet.

I'm not stressed. I'm procrastinating.

When I was a kid, people used to refer to the ‘Queens English’ to be definitive, and I am pretty sure the monarchs of the UK spell it “mummy” with a U. So that would apply to the whole of the UK.

It’s getting boring, people who are terminally offended all the time. Mumsnet was set up in England, its predominantly people from the UK using the site. It’s ridiculous if people from outside the UK are offended by the ethnocentric bias. It should be expected of anything. I don’t go to an Irish folk gig and get offended that they aren’t singing songs about Essex.

Our language changes all the time (ignoring the Irish for these purposes as this is a UK site).

Umm, what about the Irish people in Northern Ireland @Workasateamanddoitmyway?
Do they not count?

I did have a chuckle to discover that some folks outside the US think "MeMaw" was unique to Sheldon. As previous posters have said, it's a standard grandmother name in the South, but lessening in popularity as Baby Boomer grandparents are choosing "cooler" GP names. But my personal favorite for Southern GP names is Big Momma. I had a friend in childhood whose grandmothers were Big Momma (who was tall) and Little Momma (who was short).

I'm sure they do count but I haven't included them in the scope of my original comment as I don't know anything about their language differences.

Oh I see. You wanted me to be exact again. Only commenting on English in England. No views on anywhere else so hopefully that doesn't offend anyone else.

Wise move. I haven’t a clue how you pronounce ‘Taoiseach’ for example.

Which is not a NI word.

I say high school because my school was called K L High School.
Most of the schools around where I live for 11-18 year olds are called something High School.

Nobody is offended that the demographic of Mumsnet is mainly British women.

They're perhaps a tad offended that some of those British women keep asserting that their own English is the only correct one, when anyone with a modicum of knowledge about language knows that that isn't the case. (Linguists are currently debating the whole topic of world Englishes, and for how long the UK one will be considered (by some) superior, given that it's spoken by a tiny percentage of native English speakers worldwide.

It's sad that what could be an interesting discussion on regional, national, and international differences within the same language use degenerates into ignorant little Englander tendencies.

Many people of Caribbean descent do too.

Gotten isn't correct in any formal situation in my area of Scotland. In fact I've never heard it used conversationally.

It’s not ‘little Englander’ to say that spellings are uniform across the United Kingdom and that it is weird when people from the United Kingdom are using American spellings. Or to get a bit annoyed that people are making this silly argument - claiming that because people from the Midlands informally use an American spelling for one word, it follows that there isn’t a definitive spelling across the UK for that word.

Have you actually read any of the thread?Personally, as an "ignorant little englander" I have been very clear that regional accents are good, made up words are good and in a formal setting (in England only, mind, for the umpteenth time) "gotten" is not standard formal English. I fear your post sounded a little de trop. (That's actually French btw in case you aren't a linguist yourself?)

@DreamDictionary but there isn't a standard spelling (or pronunciation) for that word? Or if you prefer there's a standard spelling for mum, a standard spelling for mam, and a standard spelling for mom.

There is a standard spelling in the UK for that word.

See the 2nd part of my post, then. Noone writing"mom" is misspelling "mum". They are correctly spelling "mom".

The written English of the UK doesn’t work like that. I mean we might have completely different words for a bap, a cob and a roll, but there is still a definitive spelling.