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Origins of the Brummie accent

I have always noticed that Midlanders usually say MOM rather than West Country folk who say MUM. I guess it is quite regional and probably all comes down to whoever controls greetings card designs.
However there are many people, such as me, who cannot (except when a small baby) remember calling anyone mom or mum.
 
My wife (Kings Heath - born & bred) always says mom. In Liverpool it's mum. After 50 yrs of marriage still don't agree on this but I guess both are just as correct. Mind you, in Liverpool if you were from an even rougher part than I was, it was mam or our mam..

When in Rome........................
 
It's "Mum" in this part of Cheshire too.
Funnily enough, when I was in the Army I was told the correct way to address the Queen, (just in case, like!). You were to start off by saying "Your Majesty" and from then on you called her "Mum".
I wonder what Prince Wagga calls her ?
 
In the RAF I was informed it was Ma'am, pronounced mam with an elongated 'a' rather like the 'a' in jam. Of course it depends on the accent, if any, of the person who informs you. ;)
But that was in the time before tv changed our language. :eek:
 
As a staff car driver in the army, i had occasion to drive a "Lady" & was told to address her as "My Lady" but i never did. Always addressed her as Mam. She was ok with it & we often had a little chat as we drove along.
 
Mom is definitely a regional West Midlands term with Mum in the rest of the country. Incidentally, Mom is the term which has gone over to America. A few years back I was in a newsagent/card shop and the young daughter of the Asian shop owners was talking to one of the staff (a white lady) because she could not find a Mother's Day card that said Mom.

In answer to Maypolebaz, I think the Royals use Ma and Pa.
 
As a staff car driver in the army, i had occasion to drive a "Lady" & was told to address her as "My Lady" but i never did. Always addressed her as Mam. She was ok with it & we often had a little chat as we drove along.
My God, Smudger, did this staff car have Front Four steering ? Was it pink in colour ? Was "My Lady"'s Christian name Penelope ? Is your real name Parker ? Thunderbirds are Go !
 
I moved to South Wales thirty years ago and as a nurse I had to learn to speak English with a South Wales (think Niel Kinnock) accent as many of the older patients had trouble understanding me. You never loose your accent.

Many years ago my wife and I were in Paris and walked into a bar and I ordered (in my best French) drinks...the barman asked me in English which part of Birmingham I was from!!! Turns out he'd worked there for a couple of years
 
My God, Smudger, did this staff car have Front Four steering ? Was it pink in colour ? Was "My Lady"'s Christian name Penelope ? Is your real name Parker ? Thunderbirds are Go !
Stourbridge Nan said mom, mum called her muth, dad from Cov said mam, I said mum
Mum's posh boss's children said Mater. She couldn't believe it.
 
When requesting copy changes (when I was working at the newspaper, ) from a stately home, I forget the name, I used to ask for The Lady Bray, or Braye and I had to address her as such, dropping the 'The' when directly speaking to her, and I addressed her proofs to The Lady Braye. One of the journalists was the daughter of Lady Ashe - Roy, but there was no The, in front.
 
Always used Mom, always will. My wife uses Mum but doesn't practice what she preaches. I've taught our kids Mom, but I think I've lost that particular vernacular.
 
Upon trawling this site I have also come across - [h=2]Alleyways Gulletts and Snickets[/h]
Names for passageways and alleys. Great new Brummie words to keep.
I think "Gullies" for alleyways. Snicket? Never come across that one in Brum. Hope I'm Being helpful, not critical. Life long Brumy.
 
I think "Gullies" for alleyways. Snicket? Never come across that one in Brum. Hope I'm Being helpful, not critical. Life long Brumy.

I always thought a ‘snicket ’ was a blind alleyway, leading to either a doorway, or a just a blank wall.
 
We always called the passageway, to access the garden, between our terraced houses the entry.
 
It's "Mum" in this part of Cheshire too.
Funnily enough, when I was in the Army I was told the correct way to address the Queen, (just in case, like!). You were to start off by saying "Your Majesty" and from then on you called her "Mum".
I wonder what Prince Wagga calls her ?
prob,mattor
 
We always called the passageway, to access the garden, between our terraced houses the entry.
A “snicket” is an alleyway or passageway, the word is used to mean a path, typically between fences or walls, in an open space or field, or between gardens.for a passageway between two houses, namely 'Snicket' This was known as 'the gulley' or 'the gullet'. .... are often quite long alleyways or passages.
 
I had not heard the word snicket before. When I was describing the Back-to-backs to a friend from Liverpool she said 'so there's no ginnel behind them?'.

This is a quote from Wikipedia.
Informants from the north west of England speak up in favour of the snicket, a noun of uncertain origin first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in a Victorian glossary of the dialect of the Lake District. Another term, ginnel, is also widely used in Greater Manchester and parts of Yorkshire.

I once lead a walk through what I have called the 'alleyway' and at the end of the walk, the walks programme organiser in thanking me said. 'We have walked through some narrow gullies and some long gullies but that was the longest, narrowest gulley we have been through'.

I shall copy this post to the Alleywaya thread
 
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