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.

Phrasal verbs (swap out, change up etc) are very much British English rooted, and not used nearly as much in US English.

Again, as with much of our language, they have their origins in old English/Anglo Saxon English.

What's so useful about them is the added nuance of meaning. Both your phrasal verbs are perfect examples of that extra meaning.

To claim that the particles are unnecessary is concerning. They frequently (as in your examples) completely change the meaning.

🤣🤣
Oh god, that's going to break the forum!!

I’m West Yorkshire and it’s been going around here since the 80s.

I’ve always said “mom” I’m 34. I’ve no idea as to why this little town says it, we have no American connection. We also say “pants” instead of trousers. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sheldon!

Our language changes all the time (ignoring the Irish for these purposes as this is a UK site). People call their mothers all sorts of things which is normal. Americanisms creep in every so often as do so many other parts of their culture due to tv etc. I've noticed "smart" in the last few years is used more often in the context of being clever rather than well/tidily dressed. Gotten may well be old English but it's now an Americanism and I personally wouldn't use it and don't like it in newspapers or formally written things etc. But thats just my own personal aesthetics and if people want to use these Americanisms themselves it's up to them. And I'm all for retaining regional quirks as that's what makes a country as old as ours interesting.

I appreciate that American English has developed from older British English but in modern English those formations only scream US to me and are jarring nowadays in British speakers.

I don’t see swap out as adding any additional meaning at all, or certainly not in the way it’s used in the U.K. What additional meaning does “I’m going to change up my shoes” add to “I’m going to change my shoes” ? Certainly none in Britain, and the British users don’t use it in a way to add meaning, just as a constant addition to swap or change.

And sometimes US English omits a preposition, which also sounds jarring, eg I’m going to write my mom, rather than I’m going to write to my mum.

If you would RTFT, you'd see this has already been addressed.

Gotten is the original word, that travelled from the UK and Ireland to the US. In some parts of the UK it evolved to got, but not in Ireland, Scotland or some parts of England where gotten remained.

Correcting gotten (or Santa, Halloween, can I get, haitch, mom etc etc etc) just shows you don't know much about language and have a very narrow perspective.

I just did a search near me and of the 14 schools 12 have High School in the name, 1 is a College, and 1 is an academy. Not a single secondary school in the lot of them..

oh, and my children call me Mama despite me never using the term myself. I guess the OP would be horrified by it all.

We say ‘doozy’ in Australia and New Zealand too @marmaladeandpeanutbutter

I lived in America so I’ve also picked up American-isms, the same as I’ve picked up British-isms too. Shocking I know 😱

I say mummy, hope that doesn’t give @Ottersmith the vapours too.

Scottish people and approx half of NI are British.

You mean English. But MN isn't just English.

My 80 yr old dad is a Yorkshireman and he's always said Mom. I must re-educate him!

There are so many misconceptions about language in one short paragraph, I'm not sure where to start.

But:

US English tends to be generally more formal (I have the feeling you won't like that, but there you go, it is what it is) than much British English.

Phrasal Verbs (coming from Norse languages via Middle English) are informal. (Most commonly used phrasal verbs have almost synonyms which derive from Latin languages- long considered "superior" or "better" and infinitely more formal than words derived from Norse languages.

So: Phrasal verbs aren't used in US English as much as in British English due to the face that US English tends to be more formal in tone.

The reason why these words/phrases are jarring to you in "modern" English is that "modern" English has changed far more, and far more quickly than US English. ("swap out" being a perfect case in point- it has a very specific technological meaning- nothing to do with "ordinary" swapping. US English (with more technology based industries than the UK) saw that British phrasal verb and thought, oh, this explains perfectly what we do, we'll have this one.

All of which leads to people who don't know much about language a) thinking the particle is redundant b) not understanding the meaning of the verb and so applying it incorrectly just to mean "swap" c) complaining about Americanisms d) thinking that US English is a "contagion" influencing British English when it's almost always the other way round.

I think there are an individual schools that have high school as part of their name. I just think as a general thing “high school” as a coverall phrase doesn’t seem quite right.

Dedicated to soreandtired1

there’s nothing wrong with mam, mamy or mama.

Agreed

Erm, did I say this was at silly level???? Nope

@ASighMadeOfStone it's been a while since I told you I love you, so: I love you

However many years and however many usernames and I'm still learning from your posts.

Yes @ASighMadeOfStone that was indeed a fabulous post. Thank you.

You edited as I was answering, apologies.

"Swap out" has a specific tech meaning.
"Change up" means to change for something better. You'd use it with models of car or phone etc.

Unfortunately, you find that a lot of people (mainly in the UK) don't understand this and use them incorrectly. Particularly "swap out". There are a fair few threads in PC about this if you want to learn more.

"write + to + direct object" or "write + direct object" are both obviously correct, though the former as you say is British English and the latter US English. I'm not sure if "write me" was in common usage before "write to me". I'll have a look. It would be an irregular outlier in language development if "write me" was the neologism, which makes it fascinating for us descriptivists, and I imagine what prescriptivists would consider a gotcha moment. We'd let them have that, as we'd be too busy musing on how the change happened. (I'd hesitantly say it would be a syntax not a lexis based development)

Often students ask which they should use, and the answer is whichever they prefer, as long as the are consistent in its use.

I'm from the WM and was lucky enough to hear my grandmother call her mother "Mom" and my GGrandmother referred to her mother as "Mom".
Sadly we moved south, and my children had to use "Mum" as that's what the school presumed everyone used and that's how their Dad referred to me. They are all grown up now but I might demand they change it back to " Mom" to protect our Midlandish family heritage 🤣
I know that there is a company in the Midlands producing greetings cards with "Mom" on and there is definitely a surge in West Midlands pride which is wonderful to see. If you'd all like to adopt our words, that's fine - we have some bostin ones. 😆

It's my wee mummy/mammy for us and always Daddy.

It baffles me that America is such a new country in the scheme of things and phrases and these words are meant to have originated from there, how do you think they got there?. Large parts of America are made up of Irish and Scottish people who made their homes there over many generations. Ever heard the term Hill Billy?

I live in Northern Ireland and my area is very much Ulster Scots as many Scottish people settled here as they came off the boats they brought with them their own culture and language. When asked in school what he would grow in his garden my son proudly answered prittas to a very baffled teacher.

On the other hand this year has flown hasn't it? longest day yesterday, we've only H or aitch, Halloween and Santa to go and another year bites the dust.

It's not that poster who sounds immature.

Really. It's not.

Wagon and sedan instead of estate and saloon. Bonnet and boot not hood and trunk though.

I get the spelling of MOm being short for MOther, but surely mother is usually pronounced Muther, not rhyming with bother, so in that case Mum makes more sense. Having said that, I say Mum, my DH says Mom, and I couldn't give a shiny shit what term anybody else uses.

I don't have a problem with it
Id rather hear mom instead of some Mumsnetters that want to be called mummy and won't respond to their kids unless they say mummy.
Or the parents that call eachother mummy and daddy.