Nah, it&#x27;s more of a &quot;ma&quot; sound with a short &quot;a&quot;.<p>Now what&#x27;s interesting is that this sound is closer to how an American might pronounce a short &quot;o&quot; (I think of a southern belle fanning herself and saying &quot;lawd it&#x27;s haaaht&quot;) and how an Englishman might say a short &quot;u&quot;. It&#x27;s not exactly the same vowel but I can see how it develops.<p>Both versions of English think babies say &quot;mama&quot;, but you can&#x27;t shorten that to &quot;mam&quot; because you&#x27;d use a different &quot;a&quot; to pronounce that.