Mom or Mum?

[The Blackangel]

It's pretty much everywhere that people say one or the other, and it's usually a geographical thing. Me being American, it's Mom. Considering that our base language is English English, maybe it's something to do with us speaking American English. But at some point we started saying Mom. It had to be recent, because not too long ago is was Maw and Paw. Mama and Papa were randomly used. Typically it was kids in the foster system.

I saw an argument on YouTube a couple years ago from an American asshole. I remember him asking "Is it mother or muther?" as if that proved he was right. I had seen him around on other videos as we apparently subscribed to a couple of the same channels and he was a major racist. One time I even saw him say"N*****s have no place in hockey. Hockey is a white man's game." which in all honesty made me almost ashamed to be a hockey fan.

But as usual I'm getting off topic. So which do you say? Why do you think it's different from area to area? For that one I have no concrete opinion, because aside from what I mentioned already, I honestly have no clue.

[Crazycrab]

In Scotland I see "Mum" more often, but both are pretty common.  Like you touched upon I think it comes down to how Americans tend to favour phonetic spell rather than traditional English which is derived from other languages that don't necessarily "sound like how they read".

 

For whatever reason the letter "u" seems to be a particularly contentious character in this debate.  A simple example would be the word "Colour", which is spelled with a "u" in British English but in American English it's left out although it's pronounced pretty much the same. 

Then there's "Aluminium", except this time it's spelled the same but pronounced completely different.  In British English the first "u" has it's own syllable (All-u-min-ium) where as in American English it passed over and a break happens after the "m" instead (Allum-in-um).

One I always thought was a particularly odd is "Jaguar".  In British English, much like the case of Aluminium the "u" has it's own syllable, so it's pronounced Jag-u-ar.  Once again Americans drop that syllable and even seem to replace the "u" with a "w" sound, so it's "Jag-war"  One point I remember the confusing state of affairs being particularly well framed was in the movie "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me".  Mike Myers is an American actor but he plays a British character that uses an English Accent and inflections pretty much the whole time expect once.  He's driving a Jaguar which he has nick names a "Shaguar" and at one point he yells it out loud as "Shag-war" and it sounds absolutely ridiculous coming from a British character.

 

 

It's like the UK and US got "divorced" and couldn't decide how the fucking letter is supposed to be used!  It's actually kind of fascinating.  I do think the British use is a little more consistent but there could also be a bit of bias at play.  Sorry if went off in bit a tangent there but this is something that has always interested and bothered me.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Crazycrab

[Kyng]

Definitely 'Mum' for me, since I'm from the UK. 

[Kale]

I use mom or mother usually. I am from the USA, so obviously why I say 'mom'. 

[killamch89]

Mum for but it's because I'm from Jamaica and we mainly speak UK English.

[The Blackangel]

On 12/26/2022 at 10:02 AM, Crazycrab said:

Mike Myers is an American actor

I know this is off topic, and just a petty thing, but Mike Myers isn't an American actor. He's Canadian. That said, he probably has a closer correlation to the way the UK does things, as I think Canada is to the UK, what Puerto Rico is to the US. Correct me if I'm wrong on the Canada/UK thing.

[Crazycrab]

19 minutes ago, The Blackangel said:

I know this is off topic, and just a petty thing, but Mike Myers isn't an American actor. He's Canadian. That said, he probably has a closer correlation to the way the UK does things, as I think Canada is to the UK, what Puerto Rico is to the US. Correct me if I'm wrong on the Canada/UK thing.

 

I didn't know he was Canadian.  I honestly don't know if Canadians in general use American or British English.  It seems they would take French over either of those and it's hard to blame them.  So it's impossible to say weather his pronouncing of that word was his choice or that of a producer and/or director.  All I can say for sure is that NO ONE born and raised in the British Isles speaking English natively would pronounce that word like that.

[The Blackangel]

Just to clarify, so that I understand, in the UK you would pronounce it jag-you-are right? Here in the states, yes we say jag-war.

[Reality vs Adventure]

1 hour ago, The Blackangel said:

Just to clarify, so that I understand, in the UK you would pronounce it jag-you-are right? Here in the states, yes we say jag-war.

Actually, I pronounce it jag-wire. I've never heard it called jag-war before. But I still have pronunciations from the western USA. But even then, I used to own one and even the dealership pronounced it jag-wire. Even the USA itself has different pronunciations from the west coast, south, to the east coast. And Minnesota up north has a Canadian accent. My step dad's parents lived there and we used to visit. Their pronunciations were annoying I remember. lol

[killamch89]

On 1/16/2023 at 11:03 AM, Crazycrab said:

I didn't know he was Canadian.  I honestly don't know if Canadians in general use American or British English.  It seems they would take French over either of those and it's hard to blame them.  So it's impossible to say weather his pronouncing of that word was his choice or that of a producer and/or director.  All I can say for sure is that NO ONE born and raised in the British Isles speaking English natively would pronounce that word like that.

It depends on the region of Canada, British Colombia speaks Spanish and I think the other region is French? and the other English. I don't fully remember the story as I left there many years ago and haven't returned.

[The Blackangel]

If I remember right, it’s Quebec that speaks French more than English. I didn’t know that Spanish had much of a presence in Canada. It shouldn’t be a surprise though. Just because they don’t share a border with Mexico doesn’t mean the language is absent.

[Kyng]

On 1/16/2023 at 5:34 PM, The Blackangel said:

Just to clarify, so that I understand, in the UK you would pronounce it jag-you-are right? Here in the states, yes we say jag-war.

To me, it's more like "JAG-you-er". The final syllable is completely unstressed 😛 .  

(Or, to make it completely unambiguous, I'll just give you the IPA: /ˈd͡ʒæɡ.juː.ə/ 🤣)

Edited January 24, 2023 by Kyng

[Shortie]

I have always said Mum as that is what I was brought up to use but I did have friends and still do have friends who tend to call their mum 'mom' so I think it is a preference more than anything. 

Some even go as far as to say Ma which my daughter has done a few times. 

[svjiminfxv]

I have always used Mum as it was what everyone around me used. 

I've only ever seen Americans use Mom.