‘Cher’ and ‘Mee’

In Singapore, pupils often call their teachers ’Cher. And in Chinese- and Singlish-speaking homes, kids often call their mothers Mee (with a rising intonation). Contrast this with English-speaking societies, where mothers are called Mum/Mom, and, in colloquial American English at least, a teacher is Teach.

All this has to do with stress. Not the stress that comes with being a mother or a teacher, of course, but where the stress/accent falls in a word. Because teacher and Mummy are stressed on the first syllable in Western native varieties of English (i.e. British, American, Australian, New Zealand, South African), it is this syllable which is retained when the word is abbreviated. In Singapore the opposite holds true: teacher and Mummy are stressed on the second syllable; hence it is these that survive.