What is the correct pronunciation of the word “ma’am”?

Question

Back in the day, the word ma’am (when addressing the Queen) was always pronounced “marm”. British TV shows from before the 80s confirm this.

In the movie The Queen, we are told that the correct pronunciation for ma’am is “ma’am” as in “ham”, and not “ma’am” as in “farm”. Some people seem to think this has always been the case. But it has not.

Is this pronunciation a modern development?
Is it a preference of the current sovereign?

Or have we been pronouncing ma’am wrongly throughout the centuries?

PLL · Accepted Answer

This is an interesting question!  I can’t find any documentation specifically on the issue, so I don’t have a conclusive answer, but here anyway is a lot of relevant information, and a bit of further speculation.

The OED lists various pronunciations:

Brit. /mam/, /mɑːm/, U.S. /mæm/, /mɑm/; (unstressed) Brit. /məm/, U.S. /əm/, /mˌ/.

It also sheds some light on the recent historical usage:

The γ, δ, and ε forms [respectively mem, mim; mum, mom; and ’m] represent pronunciations formerly common in British regional usage and in the speech of domestic staff and others of similar status; such forms and pronunciations are also well attested in U.S. regional use, especially in yes ma’am (see yessum adv.) and no ma’am, and as the second element in school-marm n. Compare marm n.
  
  Buckingham Palace protocol (c1990) directed that ‘the Queen should be addressed as “Ma’am” (to rhyme with jam).’

It also includes, later:

In 1936, R. W. Chapman ( S.P.E. Tract ii. 241) observed that ‘Except to royal persons, the contraction (whether mahm or măm) seems to be going out.’

This is all informative, but also a bit confusing.  The main thing that’s clear is that the variety of pronunciations goes back quite a long way.

The second thing is that in modern BrE, the usage of ma’am is so restricted that it’s very hard to disentangle “what people now use” and “what Buckingham Palace asks for”.  It’s a prescriptivist’s dream!

The third is that the OED itself seems a bit confused: the very pronunciation that the Palace asks for, /mæm/, is one which the OED lists only as U.S. usage.

The big question this leaves unresolved is: is it only recently that the Palace has asked for “jam”, or was this already officially preferred in the past?

Another factor which might be involved is how in many words, the vowel /a/ (of farm) is partly shifting to /æ/ (of ham) in prestige BrE accents, and the vowel of jam/*ham* in these accents has changed.  In eg the early 20th century, in upper-class British accents, the vowel in ham, jam etc. was more raised and fronted than today, somewhat closer to hem.  Conversely, words like glass, class were uniformly pronounced with the long ah vowel, /a/.  In many lower-class accents, ham was much like today, with /æ/, and grass, etc. were also pronounced with this vowel.

Since then, the stigma of perceived lower-class and regional accents has decreased, whereas a stigma of being ‘too posh’ has become more widespread; so the raising/fronting of ham is now very rare, and the pronunciation of grass with the ham vowel /æ/ is somewhat more common among RP speakers.

Given that this shift involves many class issues, and the alternation of /a/ and /æ/, I suspect it may have influenced the pronunciation of ma’am somewhat.  I’m pretty sure that the shift in the vowel of ham is relevant, given the older spellings of ma’am as mem, mim listed in the OED.  The relevance of the change in grass is much more speculative.

horatio · Answer

This is called "intrusive r," and is tied up with what is called rhoticity (basically variants of the pronunciation of the "r"). It is part of regional dialects and is encountered in certain areas of the US (such as Baltimore and parts of Pennsylvania "wash"pronounced "warsh"), and I know it also exists in the UK (obviously).

Answered by horatio on June 1, 2021

Lynn · Answer

M-W also has it as "mam like ham".   If you look at the origin of the contraction:  "madam" --> "ma'am", it would seem a little unusual to throw an "r" sound in the mix.

Rhoddy · Answer

Interestingly in spite the proletarian implications, it's always 'ma'am as in harm' to a lady judge (who doesn't happen to be your worship, your honour, or my lady...so usually a District Judge)!

Henry · Answer

Just from personal experience, it has always been "ma'am as in ham" for female royals after first using "Your Majesty" or "Your Royal Highness".

Always in the sense that this was what my parents used when they needed to, and taught me to use with Princess Alice of Athlone; my father helped organise the Coronation in 1953, so it certainly covered the second half of the twentieth century, and probably earlier.

"Ma'am as in hem" was a traditional Indian Empire pronunciation for European women.

austendw · Answer

Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whately), in Lewis, addresses his chief as “Ma’am”, and uses the long a that rhymes with the one a Londoner uses in both father and farther, rather than the a that rhymes with ham.

Tristan · Answer

From my experiences of military personnel and police officers in the UK, both of whom use the word ma'am to address female, superior officers; I can tell you that it is commonly pronounced as "marm" (with the letter r, being a non-rhotic one). This has been the case for several decades, at least.

Answered by Tristan on June 1, 2021

Peter Shor · Answer

The spelling "schoolma'am" seems to have been replaced by the spelling "schoolmarm" between 1870 and 1920, while "schoolmam" seems to be mainly American English (and quite rare even in the U.S.).

Google Ngram for British English:

This would imply that "ma'am" was pronounced "marm" in RP.

Mani · Answer

A current example may be found in the latest James Bond movie, 'Skyfall'. Bond addresses M as 'marm'. So does his co-agent, Eve. This is consistent with the military pronunciation reported by Tristan, above. Despite MI6 being civilian, Bond and Eve have military backgrounds.

Answered by Mani on June 1, 2021

Alex B. · Answer

Here's some interesting info.

ma'am

Walker's PD (1828): no data

The Phonetic Dictionary of the English Language (1913): /mæm/

EPD-11 (1956): /mæm/

EPD-17 (2006) and EPD-18 (2011): /mɑːm/ or alternatively /mæm/

LPD-3 (2008): mæm (main variant), mɑːm

Fowler's 2004: /mæm/

Room 1986, The Dictionary of Britain: /mæm/

Kate · Answer

In my personal experience, the Queen and other female royalty are the only people who would be called ma'am (to rhyme with jam) in this day and age. We were taught that this pronunciation is restricted to the royal family. Female judges and senior officers in the forces would be ma'am (pronounced as mahm). In the days of domestic service, ma'am had many variations from mahm to 'um (e.g. 'yes 'um'), but not the 'royal' pronunciation.

Answered by Kate on June 1, 2021

What is the correct pronunciation of the word “ma’am”?

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