I'M on my hobby-horse once more, raising an issue with The Northern Echo which I expressed several years ago.

Why does the supplement currently being produced for Mother’s Day use the word mum when relating to mothers in a geographical/cultural area where the word mam is used by the vast majority of children and adults when referring to their mother?

Is The Northern Echo deliberately trying to change local dialect and language or does it feel that it has to move towards what it perceives as a more middle ground circulation or readership?

Perhaps, hopefully, whoever is responsible has not really given the matter that much thought.

Perhaps they should.

Let’s be proud of our language and our heritage. Mam's the word.

Mother’s Day or Mothering Sunday? Now that’s another conundrum.

Alan Jackson, Tudhoe