Do you say mum, mom, mam or ma

mfceiling · 09-05-2011 10:14am

I started the same thread before...you're bang on OP...there's no letter O in ma!!

alexjk · 09-05-2011 10:14am

You do realise you're talking about aping another culture while speaking in English?

onlyrocknroll · 09-05-2011 10:24am

Orando Broom wrote: »

**** say Mom, to be fair. It's an Americanism. It shows the paucity of our culture when we have to ape a foreign country. Mum is also the preserve of the wanker. Their use shows further evidence of the deep seated self loathing we have for ourselves through the denial of Hiberno-English.

In Ireland it's Mam or Mammy.

Good God did you not read the post two up from yours where the poster from the Gaeltacht said that they use mom there because it sounds most similar to the Irish.

I think it shows the paucity of the culture on the internet when people like you stupidly call others w**kers without even reading through the thread.

Orando Broom · 09-05-2011 10:41am

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

Good God did you not read the post two up from yours where the poster from the Gaeltacht said that they use mom there because it sounds most similar to the Irish.

I think it shows the paucity of the culture on the internet when people like you stupidly call others w**kers without even reading through the thread.

No need to read through it. Mom, is an Americanism, full stop.

At any rate the people who use Mom are not doing so as a tribute to their Irish heritage and language. You know this and I know this. For you to say otherwise is ridiculous.

xaoifsx · 09-05-2011 10:47am

At the end of the day its your decision what you call the woman who gave birth to you. It doesn't matter!
Ireland's language is Irish and I see most the people talking English.

onlyrocknroll · 09-05-2011 10:52am

Orando Broom wrote: »

No need to read through it. Mom, is an Americanism, full stop.

At any rate the people who use Mom are not doing so as a tribute to their Irish heritage and language. You know this and I know this. For you to say otherwise is ridiculous.

You're being ridiculous.

Spadina said that growing up in a

Gaeltacht area in Kerry, every single person I knew growing up said Mom, because it comes from the Irish, Mamaí, a Mham, which has the same sound as the "o" in Mom

He/she also said

my dad and all his siblings call their 90 year old mother Mom since forever, and they didn't even have a tv never mind watch enough to know about American culture.

This surely discounts that the use of Mom is an Americanism, unless you're calling Spadina a lier.

Nobody said anything about "paying tribute" to the Irish language, rather it's just the nearest phonetic equivalent.

Also using an Americanism is not a sign of the paucity of our culture or self loathing. Like all English speakers I use expressions derived from many languages everyday, as well as Irish idioms.

Acoshla · 09-05-2011 11:07am

Orando Broom wrote: »

No need to read through it. Mom, is an Americanism, full stop.

At any rate the people who use Mom are not doing so as a tribute to their Irish heritage and language. You know this and I know this. For you to say otherwise is ridiculous.

Honestly, my 52 year old mother called her mother Mom since she could speak, because it was what my grandmother called her mother, same with my Dad's side, and this is in a very tiny village on the tip of the Kerry Peninsula, some of my relatives who say it still don't have a tv, never mind back in the 60's/70's etc. How are you suggesting it is an Americanism when I'm saying that my family and others around us have said this word for more than 50/60 years?

The word Mom is actually written on the back of photos in my Grandad's house that go back to the 1940's.

Orando Broom · 09-05-2011 12:14pm

Spadina wrote: »

Honestly, my 52 year old mother called her mother Mom since she could speak, because it was what my grandmother called her mother, same with my Dad's side, and this is in a very tiny village on the tip of the Kerry Peninsula, some of my relatives who say it still don't have a tv, never mind back in the 60's/70's etc. How are you suggesting it is an Americanism when I'm saying that my family and others around us have said this word for more than 50/60 years?

The word Mom is actually written on the back of photos in my Grandad's house that go back to the 1940's.

How does your subjective experience translate back to the entire u.21 population of South County Dublin and beyond in relation to using the word mom?

It is an Americanism. Are you denying this?

It appears that you are engaging in revisionist horse manure that is saying that the Irish invented Mom?

kingtut · 09-05-2011 12:21pm

amdublin wrote: »

What's wrong with mother/mam/mammy/ma like we used to always say??

Mammy/Mam ?

You're from Dublin right :pac:

XxMCRxBabyxX · 09-05-2011 12:23pm

Orando Broom wrote: »

How does your subjective experience translate back to the entire u.21 population of South County Dublin and beyond in relation to using the word mom?

It is an Americanism. Are you denying this?

It appears that you are engaging in revisionist horse manure that is saying that the Irish invented Mom?

Because if you had read the rest of the thread you would know that she's not the only one to have had that kind of experience. From the impressions of the posters on this thread the phrase has been around for years, before the Americanisation of Ireland.

You say anyone who calls their mother mom is a wanker. I grew up in Africa and must have learned "mom" over there, it was something that I was later bullied about in secondary school. Does that make me a wanker?

michelledoh · 09-05-2011 12:27pm

If you think the whole "Mom" thinkg is bad you should hear my younger sister. This may seem cliched but she litterally says "oh my god, what everrr, totally..." and the customary "like..." between every second word!

At least she admits its because she watches to much TV (we all say telly in our house but her) and american movies!

onlyrocknroll · 09-05-2011 12:28pm

My God!

Orando Broom wrote: »

How does your subjective experience translate back to the entire u.21 population of South County Dublin and beyond in relation to using the word mom?

It's not 'subjective' if there's actual written evidence!

I have no idea what you mean here unless you don't understand what 'subjective' means.

It appears that you are engaging in revisionist horse manure

Using evidence is revisionism, and therefore horse manure? Also why can't you argue civilly?

...saying that the Irish invented Mom?

No one has said this.

It is an Americanism. Are you denying this?

Conclusively disproving would be more accurate.

cowzerp · 09-05-2011 1:39pm

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

What, I say Mam, that's normal isn't it? Everyone I know around here says it, Northside Dublin that is. If you go down a couple of pay scales it's Ma, we add on the extra M because we get paid more.

Very good!
Mam would be used when saying my mam, but when calling it's Ma! drives her mad but thats how it is, Mum is just poshies or wannabe poshies/Yanks
Mammy is just for kids or weirdos.

Freddie59 · 09-05-2011 1:52pm

amdublin wrote: »

What's wrong with mam?

Not posh enough I'd say. Almost a stigma attached to Mam/Mammy (which our children use and which we used with our parents - no problem with it). Where it's nuts is when you see someone who's called their mother Mam/Mammy for years; then marries someone who wants to call the children Mum (which i dislike). To hear that person saying 'go to Mum/Mummy' is as alien a thing as you'll ever hear!:D

Snobbery's alive and well in Ireland apparently.:rolleyes:

Posy · 09-05-2011 1:59pm

I say 'mam' or 'my mother' if I'm talking about her.

starlit · 09-05-2011 2:02pm

Does it really matter? It means the same thing which ever way people call their mother! I usually call mine Mam or Mom sometimes mother. I don't like 'Mum' that much find it a bit posh and 'Ma' is a bit hard-nosed really. 'Mammy' well a bit too mammyish. Everyone is different, everyone has their own way of calling their Mother what ever they and their mother feel comfortable with saying, no business of anyone elses.

krudler · 09-05-2011 2:25pm

grown adults calling their parents mammy and daddy is a bit odd tbh

Orando Broom · 09-05-2011 2:27pm

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

My God!

It's not 'subjective' if there's actual written evidence! I have no idea what you mean here unless you don't understand what 'subjective' means.

Using evidence is revisionism, and therefore horse manure? Also why can't you argue civilly?

No one has said this.

Conclusively disproving would be more accurate.

One person's experience proves the rule, is that what you are arguing?

flas · 09-05-2011 2:52pm

because a lot of irish people think that mam or ma or mammy is common and too "irish" so insist on copying what they see on tv or in films!

XxMCRxBabyxX · 09-05-2011 3:23pm

Orando Broom wrote: »

One person's experience proves the rule, is that what you are arguing?

You've ignored my point completely so.
This thread has shown that it's more than just one person's experience

Liam Byrne · 09-05-2011 3:47pm

yawha wrote: »

Some of us aren't fúcking boggers/scummers.

How does who you're sleeping with have a bearing on what you call your mam ?

[ clink ]

Oooooooooohhhhhh! :eek:

Liam Byrne · 09-05-2011 3:50pm

Spadina wrote: »

Jeebus H Christ I hate these stupid threads. Where I'm from is near to a large Gaeltacht area in Kerry, every single person I knew growing up said Mom, because it comes from the Irish, Mamaí, a Mham, which has the same sound as the "o" in Mom. My friend who grew up in the Gaeltacht says Mom whether she's speaking English or Irish, and my dad and all his siblings call their 90 year old mother Mom since forever, and they didn't even have a tv never mind watch enough to know about American culture.

Don't get me started on Mammy, my God, it just conjures images of Brenda Fricker beside a stove with a pot of tea.

But isn't "a Mhamaí" pronounced "Wommy" ?

That's nothing like English unless you're David Norris or Jonathan Ross.....

joseph brand · 09-05-2011 3:52pm

Mom is D4, very D4.

I say Mam.

I rule.

OneArt · 09-05-2011 3:59pm

I say mom because that's what people say in South Africa. It's only when we moved to Ireland did I hear about this 'mam' malarky.

Then I again in recent years I've been using mam instead...

XxMCRxBabyxX · 09-05-2011 4:12pm

OneArt wrote: »

I say mom because that's what people say in South Africa. It's only when we moved to Ireland did I hear about this 'mam' malarky.

Then I again in recent years I've been using mam instead...

That's where I picked it up as well!
My mother would kill me if if I called her mam though!

onlyrocknroll · 09-05-2011 5:52pm

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

You've ignored my point completely so.
This thread has shown that it's more than just one person's experience

Remember that he acknowledged not reading the thread earlier though

No need to read through it. Mom, is an Americanism, full stop.

Yet he still confidently claims it's only "one person's experience".

XxMCRxBabyxX · 09-05-2011 6:15pm

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

Remember that he acknowledged not reading the thread earlier though

Yet he still confidently claims it's only "one person's experience".

You would think that'd he'd read the replies aimed at him though!

DeadMoney · 09-05-2011 7:22pm

I've called my Mother Mom all my life and so have my brothers. And as for sounding 'American' or what ever, good! The less Irish I sound the better imo, bloody backwards country

PinkFly · 09-05-2011 7:25pm

cuz wer so like omg turning into the Americans like :rolleyes:

Mr. K · 09-05-2011 7:45pm

I've always said Mum...people think I'm a bit posh though, I dunno why. Do they think they I'm posh because I say Mum or I do say Mum because people think I'm posh?!

Do you say mum, mom, mam or ma

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