Don't call me Ma, young'un!!

Tobias Greeshman

OK was talking to my house mate last night, who's from the north.

Anyways we were talking about slang up there and the like, when he came out with that it's disrespectful to call your mother "Ma" for some weird reason. Apparantly "Da" is ok for your father, and most of them up there call there mother "Mum" or "Mother".

Anyone from the North here know of this, and why the hell is it disrespectful to call your mother "ma"?

And a special prize for the first post that says "Yo're Ma!".

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Yo're MA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Yyyeeeeaaaaaaaa!!! what did I win?



On a serious note loads of people I know call their mums ma.... I think your friend is crazy!

FlutterinBantam

Its a skanger thing.... your friend isn't long down south I would surmise.

Most skangers call their mothers 'me Ma' so he probably never heard of it before???

Snivilian

I think your friends ma doesnt like to be called ma

And she bet the ma out of him a long time ago

Tobias Greeshman

Nah this was when he was only a kid, he's been living down here for last six years or so. Maybe skangers up the north call their mothers "me ma".

Hail 2 Da Chimp, the prize is that you got to use boards long running "yo're ma" phrase, consider yourself lucky, it can't be used just anywhere you know. Don't you feel special about now, ya I bet you do!!

Hail 2 Da Chimp

I win, I win!!!

connundrum

FlutterinBantam wrote:

Its a skanger thing.... your friend isn't long down south I would surmise.

Most skangers call their mothers 'me Ma' so he probably never heard of it before???

I can readily assure you that I am not a skanger. And sometimes I do refer to my mother as 'my ma', 'me ma' and sometimes I might refer to a friend's mother as 'you're ma'.

pffffft.

Siogfinsceal

im from Kildare and when I was little my mum would go mental if you called her 'MA'. Aparently it was 'common' and 'disrespectful' so we had to call her mammy or mam instead.
I think 'common' was the parental buzz word in the eighties. 'ma' was common as was the word 'crips' and chewing gum loudly according to the mothership

peepsbates

my girl calls her ma.....moot. no idea why, must find out

HelterSkelter

FlutterinBantam wrote:

Its a skanger thing.... your friend isn't long down south I would surmise.

Most skangers call their mothers 'me Ma' so he probably never heard of it before???

So what do you call yours, Mum or Mummy? Like the Brits do?

J.R.HARTLEY

i used to call her ma, but now i find it easier to call her "MRS TESCHMACHER"

Mrs_Doyle

When I was in school I would say things like "Oh me ma will kill me for dah", and "I'll have to ask me ma." - but that was just because I was Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddd!

I never once referred to my mother as 'ma' in her company, because she would have slapped the legs off me for being so disrespectful.

Tobias Greeshman

Mrs_Doyle wrote:

When I was in school I would say things like "Oh me ma will kill me for dah", and "I'll have to ask me ma." - but that was just because I was Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddd!

I never once referred to my mother as 'ma' in her company, because she would have slapped the legs off me for being so disrespectful.

Oh you mad thing

Yeah I got the impression it was disrespectful in some way or another. Still don't know why? pfffttt! feckin parents in the 80's eh!!

Sp@rtacus

Ah yes, moi aussi. Manys the "leathering" I got across the back of the legs for saying "Ma". Particulalry perilous when wearing shorts as I seemed to do (ie: be made do) at llllleast 10 months of the year back then..?!

Of course, you couldnt call her Mam or Mammy in the company of your pals. That was prime country for getting an almighty slagging. So twas very interchangable. "Ma" (usually followed by a pfft) with the boys, "Mam" if you knew what was good for you with the Mammy.

As an aside, did anyone ever experience the ma-hortification of sticking up the lamh in school adn going "ooh Mam, Mam" instead of "Miss"...?? Twas a dark day for my fledgling self esteem.

Nevyn

silas wrote:

Anyone from the North here know of this, and why the hell is it disrespectful to call your mother "ma"?

Who said it had anything to do with being from 'up North" ?
I grew up in finglas and I was never allowed to use the term Ma.
My children don't use it either, is sounds awful and is to my mind disrespectful.
But then again i don't agree with children calling thier parents by thier first name either, my two only have one Mammy/Mam and that is me and i only have the two of them to call me Mammy so they should use it.

Sp@rtacus

silas wrote:

OK was talking to my house mate last night, who's from the north.

..eh, the Op did

Rb

I've never called or referred to my mother as "Ma", nor will I ever. It sounds awful and I've only ever seen/heard skangers using it.

Tobias Greeshman

Well my friends from up there, and I never heard of it down here, so I wanted some opinions of people who are from the North. Was that not obvious?

Still don't for the life of me understand how it's disrespectful.

Definitely agree with you about not calling parents by their first name, it's just wrong.

Sp@rtacus

I apparently called my mother by her first AND maiden name together when I was a little lad. She let me away with it because it was cute I'm told. Grew out of that though, much to her relief I'm sure.

Scraggs

Siogfinsceal wrote:

im from Kildare and when I was little my mum would go mental if you called her 'MA'. Aparently it was 'common' and 'disrespectful' so we had to call her mammy or mam instead.

Same here except my mother hated the sound of me and my sister whining 'maaaaammmmmy' so we were bet into calling her 'mum'. Nowadays we call her 'Ma' to annoy her:p

Donegal Lass

never heard of 'me ma' being disrespectful but its a phrase thats never used up here at all! if any of you have ventured to Donegal you'l probably have heard a few of the local refer to their 'ma' as 'the aul doll'- now if thats not disrespectful i dont know what the hell is haha!:D

snickerpuss

I would never be allowed to call my mam 'ma'. I just call them by their first names. Which they don't mind, because thats their names... Why would their first names be a problem?

Lurk

'Mam' is probably the best word. A friend of mine and his siblings call their mother 'Mom,' which irritates the bejaysus out of me. They're all in their 30s so I don't think it's an american thing that they picked up.

Sp@rtacus wrote:

As an aside, did anyone ever experience the ma-hortification of sticking up the lamh in school adn going "ooh Mam, Mam" instead of "Miss"...?? Twas a dark day for my fledgling self esteem.

I did this to a teacher in 6th class and got flayed by mates for it. She didn't mind it too much though...she was a nun and left the nunhood a few years later to start a family.

Ruu_Old

Lurk wrote:

'Mam' is probably the best word. A friend of mine and his siblings call their mother 'Mom,' which irritates the bejaysus out of me. They're all in their 30s so I don't think it's an american thing that they picked up.

I did this to a teacher in 6th class and got flayed by mates for it. She didn't mind it too much though...she was a nun and left the nunhood a few years later to start a family.

Yep Mam is teh one. Mom is annoying, must..resist..Americans.

J.R.HARTLEY

Sp@rtacus wrote:

As an aside, did anyone ever experience the ma-hortification of sticking up the lamh in school adn going "ooh Mam, Mam" instead of "Miss"...?? Twas a dark day for my fledgling self esteem.

more than once:o , (where's the hans moleman smilie.)

theTinker

I used to say "ma" until i was 15ish years old. It sounds terrible.... I remember hearing some kids using it and i remember thinking "god tell me i dont sound like that". So i changed to "mum". Ma is like mam but you just couldnt give a **** to finish it.

I wouldnt consider it disrespectful at all. Its just a word thier 'ma' told them to use most likely.

daiixi

I went from "mum" to "mother" to "ma". My father I called "Dad", "Daddy" and "Pa". My brother and sister even call our parents "Ma n Pa" nowadays however I have picked up and starting saying "mam"..

Victor

I think its mostly down to intonation, but I do think most people see it as crude.

MaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oral Slang

I think "ma" sounds horrible, a word I've only heard scumbags use or when messing the usual "your ma" comment. Don't really know anyone that would refer to mother as "ma"/. Mum & mummy sound stupid & mom sounds american. The only word we ever used was mam, or mammy when I was very small. When I'm messing with my parents I sometimes call them by their first names, but never did as a kid.

Ruu_Old

What about Richard O' Brien and his "Mumsie".*shudder*:)

Badly Drunk Boy

'Mam' is okay. 'Mom' is American. 'Mum' is English. 'Mammy' is childish. 'Mother' is Norman Bates-ish. But I call my mother 'Ma'. It doesn't sound too bad though, 'cos I don't have a dodgy (or any sort of) Dublin accent. And I'm fairly quiet-spoken.

Endasaurus

When I was growing up in Dublin she was "ma" or "mammy" till I was like six or so..

Then we moved to Galway and she became "mum" or "mam"..

But usually when I'm calling for them around the house or something I just call them by their names, its not disrespectful now that we're all adults! It kind of puts us on a more even standing relationship, it makes it feel like we're friends as well as family.

Do ya get me?

theTinker

We get you sir!!