Just look what this little pig has done to us
YOUNG children here are calling their mothers ‘Mummy’ for the first time, according to a linguistics expert.
Pre-school and primary school children are using the Britishadopted term instead of the more traditional ‘Mammy’, language specialists have found.
It means more and more Irish children are beginning to sound like characters from the cartoon series Peppa Pig.
Irish teenagers are also changing the names they use for referring to their beloved mother – switching to the American ‘Mom’ instead of ‘Mam’ or ‘Ma’.
Surprisingly, social-climber parents, rather than the children themselves, are behind the trend, according to Dr Bettina Migge, a lecturer in Sociolinguistics at University College Dublin. ‘The unusual thing about Ireland is that here, what you call your mother is a class marker,’ Dr Migge told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘It says a lot about you, whether you say ‘Mum’, ‘Mam’, or ‘Ma’. Possibly as a result, modern Irish mothers are choosing to steer away from the more traditional names – names that can be polarising.’
She added that the return to economic growth could be behind the shift.
‘When there is an economic shift you see these changes in language,’ Dr Migge said. ‘Having middle-class aspirations is definitely a factor in having your children refer to you as ‘Mummy’.
She said the new moniker could become the norm here.
‘As it grows in use amongst children, professionals like teachers or doctors start using it too while talking to children.’