James Bond: Skyfall

[Dave Ward]

And "British" doesn't even begin to cover it. Within England itself, you've got RP (a.k.a. "BBC English"), west country accents, estuarial accents, northern accents (Geordie, Yorkshire, etc.).

It's as varied as here in the states where, for example, a New York accent doesn't sound the same as a Boston accent or a Philly accent or a Baltimore accent. And that's just bits of the northeast corridor, not even touching on the range of southern accents here in the states.


But anyway, yes, to American ears, "mum" and "ma'am" are nearly indistinguishable.


Personally, I always thought Bond was saying "ma'am," but now that I have the blu-ray, I suppose I could just skip to that scene and turn on subtitles...

Mine is westcountry via London with 10 years in Baltimore added in.:lol

 

[Solo4114]

Mine is westcountry via London with 10 years in Baltimore added in.:lol

I can't even begin to conceive what that'd sound like.

 

[Dave Ward]

I can't even begin to conceive what that'd sound like.

Haha, it's not too bad. Others may disagree. A little more mid-atlantic than I'd like, with a touch of the Baltimore "O" sound, but mostly just a normal middle-class English accent.

 

[MickyG63]

Old thread I know, but simply put, 'mum' is the equivilant of the American 'mom'. When adressing the queen ('your majesty' in the first instance - after that it's 'ma'am') it's ma'am', as in 'ham', 'Sam', etc. It's a definite no-no to call her 'ma'am' using the 'palm' analogy. 'Ma'am' has nothing to do with 'mum'. 'Ma'am' is simply a contracted form of 'Madam'.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Old thread I know, but simply put, 'mum' is the equivilant of the American 'mom'. When adressing the queen ('your majesty' in the first instance - after that it's 'ma'am') it's ma'am', as in 'ham', 'Sam', etc. It's a definite no-no to call her 'ma'am' using the 'palm' analogy. 'Ma'am' has nothing to do with 'mum'. 'Ma'am' is simply a contracted form of 'Madam'.

That was my feeling as well.