I'm sure this has been asked before, but why do you call your mother Mum?

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Norman_debris@reddit

You'd have a point if mother rhymed with bother.

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CrossCityLine@reddit

I don’t, I called her Mom.

Standard Brummie vernacular.

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Milotiiic@reddit

Yah big time this - mother is from Black Country and it was always ‘mom’

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merlin8922g@reddit

The accent pronunciation is 'mom', you should still be spelling it mum though, unless you're American.

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merlin8922g@reddit

Well by your logic the entire English language would be all over the shop with hundreds of different spellings for the same word from town to town depending on how it's pronounced.

That would be ridiculous..... which is why we don't do it.

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CrossCityLine@reddit

https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=Mom

Glad to be of service.

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merlin8922g@reddit

You are aware the OED includes American English....?

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I was unlucky enough to lose my father at an early age (7) and from then on I called my mum by her first name. We’ve talked about it and thought it was a way for my young self to not remember I didn’t have a dad. As she’s got older I’ve reverted to mother or mum

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atheist-bum-clapper@reddit

Cos that's her name

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littlerabbits72@reddit

It most definitely is not She for that's the cats mother.

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wtf_amirite@reddit

You’d be surprised how many cultures the word for “mother” is a babyish word starting with “m”. Presumably “muh/mah/mae/moo” type sounds are the first ones babies master control off.

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I_waz_Perce@reddit

In fact, brummie is the closest remaining dialect to the language spoken by Shakespeare. Some of the phrases could be taken straight out of one of his plays. They just don't sound the same because we now portray the Shakespearean dialect in a cut glass posh modern-day English accent.

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giantthanks@reddit

For us it's mummy because we have a mum who is the children's grandmother and we can't say granny without upsetting our granny! This way each person knows what the hell is going on sometimes.

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

We don’t pronounce mother like bother.

The “mo” sound is more like “muh”

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UmpireDowntown1533@reddit

Because it’s shorter and it’s easier for a baby to say. After a year of parenthood “mamamama” or “dadadada” is a big win.

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Drewski811@reddit

I mean, you don't call her Muther?

Have you ever heard a person with one of the genuine British accents provide the word? Because that's exactly how it sounds.

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nasted@reddit

Well, actually we do.

The vowel sound in Mother is more similar to the vowel sound in muther phonetically.

In other words Mother does not rhyme with Bother. But instead it rhyme with Other.

Take that first syllable and stick an M on the end and you get Mum (and not Mom).

Mom feels awful to say.

But I think Mum and Mom (or Mum and Mother) might actually have different origins (so perhaps go ask on an etymology sub instead).

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Hippymam@reddit

I don't. I call her "mam" 😊

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Purple_Bureau@reddit

I'm in my late 30s so I'd feel stupid if I called her mummy

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E5evo@reddit

In the North East it's 'Mam'. Scotland it could be 'Ma' & in MI6 it's just 'M'.

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Real_Run_4758@reddit

this has to be a troll.

say ‘mum, mother’ then say ‘mom, mother’.

unless you are the kind of person who says ‘an university’ you likely already understand the difference between pronunciation and spelling

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riscos3@reddit

Mum, short for mummy... it isn't rocket science. Why do you call yours mom?

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TheDarkestStjarna@reddit

I don't, I call her by her first name.

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LJ161@reddit

Because we have English accents and so a large part of England would say "muther" shortened to "mum"

But up to the midlands it's more like mom.

To the west it's more like mam.

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AuggumsMcDoggums@reddit (OP)

Thanks.

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Milotiiic@reddit

Because it’s not 1887 anymore

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AuggumsMcDoggums@reddit (OP)

Huh?
Brits called their mother's something else in 1887?

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AcceptableDebate281@reddit

I think they're referring to how formal sounding "mother" is compared to "mum", and the high Victorians are thought of as rather formal.

Also people I've known from the north east of England say "mam", scousers I've known say "ma", people from the black country and Birmingham I've known say "mom" etc etc etc, it's pretty varied from region to region.

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AuggumsMcDoggums@reddit (OP)

Thanks.

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Milotiiic@reddit

Mother/ Father is a really really really old way to call your parents unless you’re getting smert with them.

Mum and dad is just what it’s been for generations now and mother / father slowly has died out like most colloquialisms / slang / pet names

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Poddster@reddit

The same reason Italians call theirs mama:

https://youtube.com/shorts/e64k5lPT5zk?si=Uu_Kfd0oIszDIW0-

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Inevitable-Height851@reddit

Because 'mum' is the spelling that most closely represents the informal word we use in place of 'mother'.

'Muther' would actually be the most phonetic spelling for how the word is pronounced in both the UK and North America, but of course English spelling of words is not phonetic most of the time, and so we continue to use the antiquated spelling of the word, 'mother'.

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