[Ads-l] "me" = "my" in NYC

[Jonathan Lighter]

In the role of the character "Flossy" - a working-class woman in her
sixties - NYC-born actress Mabel Paige ( b. 1880) consistently pronounces
"my" as "me" in _Behind the Green Lights_ (1946).

Otherwise, nothing that sounds like an  Irish accent - real or stage - to
me.

JL

On Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 12:13 PM Paul A Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu>
wrote:

> Sounds like first-generation irish-American to me--plus stereotyping, as
> what you've quoted would all be fine in Ireland.  Thst would account for it
> becoming less popular later in the 20th century, too.  I never heard it,
> and I lived  with a second-generation Manhattan-born grandmother, born in
> 1879.  But her parents?
> ________________________________
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> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2022 11:38 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: "me" = "my" in NYC
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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> Subject:      "me" = "my" in NYC
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>
> In the movie _Flying Wild_ (1941), inimitable New Yorker Leo Gorcey
> (1917-1969) says, "I'll give ya the back o' me hand!"
>
> This pronunciation "my" is stereotypically British and Irish, and I don't
> think I ever heard it "live."
>
> However, it's prominent in circa 1900 accounts of lower-class life in the
> city.  E.g.,
>
> 1895 Edward W. Townsend _"Chimmie Fadden" Major Max and Other Stories_
> (N.Y.: Lovell) 166: We chases down town and meets me friend de barkeep.
>
> JL
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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