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.

Which word? People from the Midlands aren't typing "Mom" for the word "Mum". They call their mothers "Mom".

And the definitive spelling for bap is bap, not roll.

The point many are making is the UK isn't just England there is also currently Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that is a current fact whether we like it or not. Not a political point.

Yes we use different words even our education systems are different it doesn't mean one is right and one is wrong. It is patronising to say that words and phrases we use are incorrect, they're just different, different upbringing will do that. We are a sum of our environment. As my son would say it's the same thing but different. Whole thing makes me crabbit.

It’s isn’t a misspelling - any more than mum is a misspelling for mummy, or mummy for mother.

Do you understand that England does not equal the UK?

Its just one of the four nations and the Queen's English or King's English is only spoken by some people, not all.

If you’ve talking about the word people call their mothers there isn't a definitive spelling across the UK though.

If you wished to restrict your remarks to what happens in England it might have been helpful it you didn't call it 'the UK' at first....

No, they are saying the word ‘mum’ with a Midlands accent. Brummies don’t spell the ‘i’ in ‘light’ with an ‘o-i’ diphthong even though it is pronounced that way, and the ‘u’, in say, the word ‘cup’ Is pronounced like the ‘ohm’ done in meditations, not like the ‘ahh’ of ‘Queen’s English’.

Why are you insisting we must all speak in the regional dialect of southern England?

We are talking about spelling, not speaking at the moment.

Does it really matter? If so, do we need to revisit the variations of Dad, Grandad, Grandma?

You really think some people in the UK don't write Ma or Mam or whatever?
Do you actually think everyone writes Mum and just pronounces it differently?😂

If an actual school is called that, fine or it’s local thing. Scotland, definitely.

My DH is from Salford and he doesn’t say high school

I wasn't replying to you.

But, glad to see you think regional accents are good ✅

Not sure what you're referring to with "made up" words.

But, as an examiner, I do have to tell you that you're wrong about "gotten" not being standard formal English. As I said upthread, we advise students that as long as their usage is consistent, then any correct and accepted standard form is fine. That's descriptivism for you.

And, yes, of course I've read the thread.

And my first degree was French, Spanish and Linguistics.

I have been trying to emphasise that in each post. I must have slipped up there once though. Apologies for any confusion caused. Although I think I've been very clear, sometimes the threads get confused.

Gosh standards in exams have changed. Although your point doesn't cover the point re standard use. You are just talking about what you accept in an exam.

If you've read the thread that will explain made up words.

Yoi sound terribly clever. You certainly don't need me to translate that french for you! Well done you.

Yep! Another one for Mom here 🙋🏻‍♀️ didn’t realise it was an issue! Saying Mum is odd to us 😆

@ASighMadeOfStone I she probably meant carnaption or to be carnaptious.

Also where I’m from in the UK we have a 3 tier school system which is very rare. It’s first school, middle school & high school. Even our applications are posted as “high school applications”

Nobody spells anything with a diphthong as diphthongs are sounds, not letters.

I'd be interested to hear an example of a regional accent that pronounces the "u" in "cup" as an /ɒ/ though. (Which is how the "o" sound in "ohm" is pronounced. Or an example of it being pronounced as /a:/

Do you have any?

We often think standards are slipping when we see incorrect SPaG, yes.

I see that's not one of your concerns though.

Not really. Not when you have to resort to academic acronyms to make your point rather than writing clearly what you mean so everyone can understand what you are trying to tell us all.

Saying that, stop skiving off on mumsnet! You should be busy marking all those English Alevel papers that presumably you are responsible for, being such a pro at the language! The exams have all finished!!

Ma, mama, pa, papa, are different words from ‘mum/mummy’ and ‘dad/daddy’.
Even though posh people pronounce mama as m’maah and papa as p’paah, the word ‘mammy’ relates more to mama and ma than it does mum, since it isn’t a regional accent of ‘mum’ otherwise other uses of ‘u’ (to use the same as the Brummie example ‘cup’) in Liverpool and Ireland would be pronounced as ‘aaa’ as in a sheep’s ‘baaa’, in the way ‘mam’ is.

You see, I think you're trying to rewrite the history of this thread.

However I will amend it to the British Isles then rather than the UK if we are being pedantic as I have no knowledge of NI. Or maybe amend to just England.

That doesn't sound like you slipped and said the UK instead of England once by accident.

People are annoyed by what you said upthread for good reason. Please don't pretend otherwise.

I have an Aberdeen-ish accent and use Doric words such as fit/foot, sheen/shoes, far/where etc etc when speaking but I don't write these.

We all have different accents in the UK (not England - there is a difference). We should celebrate them rather than arguing endlessly that one is right and all the rest are wrong,