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

Fri Jan 26 22:05:09 UTC 2024

Universally recognized as English and Hibernian, but allegedly unknown in
non-immigrant U.S. speech.

JL

On Fri, Jan 26, 2024 at 7:01 AM Edward Aveyard <edwardaveyard at hotmail.com>
wrote:

> It is extremely common in England to say this as in a weak form of "me":
> /mi/ or /mə/. I don't think that it is ever said with a strong form in "me"
> as in /miː/.
>
> It is even used in traditional upper-class English and not just
> traditional dialects. I'm reminded of a line in the film Brief Encounter,
> where the speech is now laughed at as old-fashioned upper-class speech that
> has largely died out in England, when the uncaring husband says "I want me
> dinner" [a wɒnt mə dɪnəː]. If I've got the time-stamp right on this YouTube
> video, it should go to 52:30 on the time.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguRis_h1qc&t=3150
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: 23 January 2024 22:08
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "me" = "my" in NYC
>
> "Guadalcanal."
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 5:07 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In _Gudalcanal Diary_ (1943), actor Lionel Stander (not trying to be
> > Irish) repeatedly says, "Where's me helmet?! Where's me helmet?!"
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 6:56 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> 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?
> >>> ________________________________
> >>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> >>> 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
> >>>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>> -----------------------
> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject:      "me" = "my" in NYC
> >>>
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> 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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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >> truth."
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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