Well, because of where I grew up I had no idea what “grits” were, and I did not know that asking for a “diced hash brown” actually means it has roast tomato on it.
I suspect this is the inverse of what you’re intending, however.
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Actually that’s the complete intention! This topic started based on language differences, which as we know unless you’re speaking The King’s, you’re wrong.
It’s more that on a global level there’s so many cool things we had or did growing up that other cultures may not know about. For example, I know what a Tim Tam Slam is, but I bet most people here aren’t lucky enough to know what that is, or even a Tim Tam for that matter. I for one am fascinated with how different it is between countries growing up, especially being married to someone who didn’t grow up geographically speaking that far from me, but culturally we’re almost on different planets.
We learn together, we grow together. Even with grits!
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My brother, my two cousins and I were all definitely blown away when we first saw it. That lasted for about 30 seconds, then it quickly sat in why my brother was able to purchase the thing for like $20 on clearance from K-Mart. The thing was terrible and had no interactivity. Worst console I’ve played by a large margin. We had initially played it at my grandma’s on a Sunday afternoon after church. My brother didn’t even bother bringing it home and so it just sat in the back of my grandma’s closet the rest of my childhood.
I just learned that Blue Thunder is based off Blue Thunder, a John Badham(Saturday Night Fever, Wargames) movie I’d never heard of. Neat stuff.
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What a 30 seconds that was though!!!
That makes two of us. Of course I never knew there was an Action Max so today has just been a rollercoaster of learning for me!
I think mome might be more of a southern california thing. Maybe a generational component as well. I’m 100% sure there are people saying mome in california. Not a bad thing, just an observation
I’m going well down the rabbit hole on this, but I searched for descriptions of Californian vowel differences and found this article from Ace Linguist on the German-American singer/songwriter Kim Petras, based on Los Angeles. The linguist documents how her dialect and accent have shifted from general American English with a touch of German to something more local. One of the miscellaneous changes she notes is this:
Kim normally uses an American [ɑ] in words like “lot” and “not.” However, she sometimes pronounces /ɑ/ words with a rounded [ɒ] sound instead. This is most common when /ɑ/ is preceeded by /p/, sincce the bilabial /p/ has a rounding effect on the vowel and turns it into [ɒ]. Although labialization can occur with /p/ in English, it does not usually affect the quality of the next vowel.
[ɑ] (Wikipedia) to [ɒ] (Wikipedia) may be the actual vowel change you’re describing, yeso. It’s a California shift, like from the vowel in “cot” to “thought” (Dialect Blog). It’s a more subtle shift than “mome,” but it’s the difference between the American standard /mɑm/ and a vowel with a bit more rounding or raising to it, /mɒm/. American English and ears usually don’t distinguish between it, whereas “mome” proper (/moʊm/) would be considerably raised and a diphthong.
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Lol, edited my post to make that clearer-- I’ve still got ‘old forum’ brain so I always think it will be more clear.
Don Salieri says this at, what I presume, is a “dinner”.
As I drove him to the restaurant, he said “I like to eat early. It’s not early. In fact it’s getting late”.
(Except it looked like high noon outside. It could have been lunch)
Does he mean last night’s supper? Or his degenerate supper habits in general?!
I just want to hear an example of what you’re describing (I lived in southern california for 4 years among college students who would be more prone to saying the word mom than older adults). It sounds like my pronunciation of “mom” is not what you are talking about??
Listening to this kim petra thing (I feel like songs don’t count because many pop singers are very annoying with vowels in songs now) I am still not hearing a moam.
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I’m struggling with this too because when I see ‘moam’ my brain wants to think yes is saying it rhymes with ‘foam’ or ‘tome’, which… can’t be right? Unless? I mean I have a bunch of irl friends from California and I’ve never heard anything strange (to me) about the way they pronounce mom. Am I just missing something? (Probably)
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no that’s exactly right. They have started saying mome/moam/mohm out there
well you’re going to have to show me an example then because I have a hard time believing it! That does not sound like something a california native would say since we have a tendency to flatten things out, and this is kind of the opposite.
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The only way I can imagine someone saying “moam” is hearing the “cartoon” surfer skateboarder woah dude cali accent.
“Dude my moam said I can’t go do hella gnarly kickflips in the 7/11 parking lot cuz I totally bombed my algebrahh test”
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is there a specific place in california you have lived in, or know certain people from a certain place that do this? maybe it’s like, a micro-regional thing?
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This won’t solve the moam issue, but:
For several years I had Siri on my phone set to British english (for amusement - I am in the US)
My mom is a contact in my phone, called: Mom.
I would say “Siri, call Mom” and it would reply “What is your mum’s name?”
“MOM.” …“What is your mum’s name?”
I never solved this.
I bet my mom misses me.
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OH. I can’t imagine a surfer doing it but I can imagine a long islander saying something close, like “mwom.” Still not “moam,” but closer. The stereotypical surfer accent would turn it into an uh sound. “my muuhm”
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this is the only thing i can think of re: californians and malm mohm meem or whatever it is the hell you all are talking about:
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don’t know how to be more clear than I already am in reporting that people in california are saying mome, in some cases. I admit I shouldnt have framed this as saying the word “wrong” though, that was unkind of me and I apologize
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if nothing else, this is at least some respite for Tom having to explain english stuff to us
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I just want to hear a person doing it because I have a hard time believing it, wrong or otherwise!
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