To ask if you're British why would you spell 'Mum' as 'Mom'

[MoonStar07]

#firstworldproblem! Does my head in it's Mum! Mummy etc not Mom. Point made. Thanks

someone needs to go and stand in pedants' corner but I'm not sure which of you it is. (Checks that I've not fallen foul of Muphrie's Law myself)

What point you are making by deliberately substituting homonyms for the correct words in your post, I think only you can tell.

I decided to write as many mistakes as I could using homophones and tenses... It was pointed out I had made an error - I was very happy to admit I had done so as my phone autocorrects or I don't bother to change it and typos will happen.

You've studied languages; yet it's left you unable to assess the most appropriate lexis for an audience?

It's mom in the Midlands.
Not in the East Midlands. I don't know anyone who says "Mom"

My 81 year old Brummy MIL had a mom.

Not even remotely trying to be American!

In fact, when we first met DH used to mock me for calling my mum "mum"! It's unusual in these parts.

I'm a Brummie, from a long line of proud Brummies! I'm a Mom (never a Mum and absolutely never a Mummy). It's always been 'Mom' in these parts as far as I can tell. I know my great-great- grandmother called her Mom 'Mom'.

We're not copying the Americans - they got it from us! Can be annoying when you're looking for a nice card for your Mom and lots of them have 'Mum' on. I wouldn't give my Mom a card with 'Mum' on - she'd be all "Who is this Mum you refer to?"
You should visit the Midlands OP

I see many different types of lexis used on here - formal, technical, professional, colloquial. I very rarely talk like this. I did for one post - I might or might not again. Not something I am going to dwell on.

It annoys me when people are dismissive or possibly superior about 'Americanisms' - though that's probably not the main thing being discussed here. I have family from the Birmingham area so have some experience of this example.

At the beginning of the year I get my students to list/ interview their family regarding their words for proper nouns/ certain emotions/ exclamations / nicknames / references from the media etc. It is always really interesting to explore with them where they get their speech habits (idiolect) from. There are always words I have never heard or ones with new definitions.

I'll leave it there - I do not want to takeover a thread that isn't mine, and this is long enough.

It's Friday, gone midnight, and this is the home of some of the most overeducated and underoccupied human beings in the Western world. 'Undergraduate in an essay crisis' is not a tone that's likely to go down well...

Not in the East Midlands, but it the West Midlands it's mom. I like that.

This really winds me up too. I KNOW people from Birmingham and the Midlands say Mom and have always said Mom, but I just do not believe that everyone on MN / FB etc who is British and says Mom or Mommy if from Birmingham. It is most definitely the fault of the slow creep of Americanisation into our language and our culture.

I'm not even English and I still know that people from Birmingham/Black Country say Mom. Some people really live in a tiny regional bubble.

There are many 'Americanisms' I welcome: gotten; and 'Monday through Wednesday' for example, for clarity. I am stupidly attached to the extra 'e' in 'colour' and 'behaviour'. And I have no issue whatsoever with how anyone chooses to describe their maternal parent (mine is 'mmmsss', fwiw).

Language is a funny, partial business.

It's a hidden 'e' :-)

Mom is commonly used in Ireland. And Mam. I've never said Mum or Mummy. I consider them very English!

Nope leave Many people in Ireland use Mom not said in an American accent
It didn't start in America..

But what's the issue with Americanisms "creeping" in? Are they the Americans a different species?

'It is most definitely the fault of the slow creep of Americanisation into our language and our culture.'

This is such a MN fear and I imagine these words being said in the tone of those terrifying 1980s AIDS awareness ads.

And I'm sure it's said by people who say 'OK', wear jeans and watch American films.

I'm from the Black Country, am a Mom and have a Mom. None of my local friends would use Mum.

It's regional, just like Mam.

I get it that Mom, written and spoken, is a regional (midlands) variation -- but I have never actually heard it said in RL. I've visited the midlands a few times (love Birmingham) and have had friends from the area etc. So, Brummies, tell us how you say it, please.
Is it sort of halfway between the US Mom (definite 'o' sound, and the northern mum (with a short U, rather than the long southern muuum) . Genuinely curious.

Leave Blank alone, what she said was fine and perfectly readable.

I'm sure she knows the difference between its and it's - autocorrect often has its own ideas though.

Leavemywings

"I just do not believe that everyone on MN / FB etc who is British and says Mom or Mommy if from Birmingham. It is most definitely the fault of the slow creep of Americanisation into our language and our culture."

What's your basis for this belief? I can't see much evidence for it. I've never seen "Mom" on my FB feed and every single time I've seen someone picked up for it on MN it's turned out they are from Birmingham or its environs.

Dear Lord next you'll be ranting about Halloween being an American import and the Scots and Irish will do their nut.

It's an Irish thing, possibly fed back from America. Pants for trousers too. Birmingham and other northern cities are still very connected to Irish culture hence it being used there.

tortoise I imagine Mom was brought to America by the Irish not the other way round.
I've known 40 to 80 year olds from Cork and Galway and they use Mom.
Although I've nevet met an Irish person who says Pants for trousers

I think the reason it's said in the West Midlands is because their accent lends itself more easily to mom rather than Mum. Although they don't say a full American 'mom'. It sounds more like a mom/mum mashup.

Rather than it being an Irish immigrant thing.