Mum's the word Mum's the word Mum's the word is a popular English idiom. It is related to an expression used by William Shakespeare, in "Henry VI, Part 2". The word “mum” is a slanged version of momme, which was used between 1350-1400 in Middle English with very close to the same meaning: Be silent; Do not reveal "Mum's the word" means to keep silent or quiet. "Mum" is a Middle English word meaning 'silent', and may be derived from the "mummer" who acts without speaking. Note the similar English word "mime" (Old English "mīma", Latin "mimus") meaning silent actor or imitator. The
Old English phonology Old English phonology Old English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative since Old English is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of the language, and the orthography apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology. Old English had a distinction between short and long (doubled) consonants, at least between vowels (as seen in "sun" and "son", "to put" and "to steal"), and a distinction between short vowels and long vowels in stressed syllables. It had a larger number of vowel