my and me

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I have always thought that we must use "MY" in phrases like "my job", "my thought", "my honor", "on my own", but I found several examples, then they used "ME" instead of "MY":

"And it's all me own work from me own memory"
Mary Poppins film 1964

"Sometimes I don’t know me own strength."
Proulx, Annie / The Shipping News

“I have me own course,” Catti-brie replied, her face suddenly stern.
Salvatore, Robert / The Halfling’s Gem

Do these examples have any special meaning because of using "ME" instead of "MY"? Do you know any rules about that?

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[+3] - hightor - 06/20/2020It's not considered "proper" English but it's used regionally and in slang. That's why your examples are all quotations â�� authors will use it to emphasize aspects of character,...

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@fume19,

It's not considered "proper" English but it's used regionally and in slang. That's why your examples are all quotations — authors will use it to emphasize aspects of character, often that someone is unschooled, from the rural back country, or old-fashioned. You'll often hear it in Cockney speech and in Irish accents as well. But you wouldn't use it in formal writing.

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

You'll often hear it in Cockney speech

Which rules out the Mary Poppins quotation.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Quote:

Which rules out the Mary Poppins quotation.

How? She's a fictional character.

1 Reply

@hightor,

The quotation was from the film and the worst accent in film history.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

Ah, well I never read the book(s) nor saw the film but even I've heard about Dick van Dyke's terrible attempt. Was Andrews's accent equally bad? I don't know if the film was trying to give Poppins a cockney accent as much as just establishing her eccentricity.

1 Reply

@hightor,

Julie Andrews is English.

Dick Van Dyke’s accent is regarded as the very worst in cinema history. Google Dick van Dyke accent if you don’t believe me.

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@izzythepush,

there are few things more distracting than a bad accent in a film.

not saying it's easy, but a little practice can go a long way...

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

Robert Downey jnr’s accent has been criticised in the remake of Dr Doolittle. For some inexplicable reason he decided to do a Welsh accent. Michael Sheen is also in the film and he’s Welsh. He said Downey asked him every conceivable question about the Welsh accent apart from the most obvious, “Should I do this in a Welsh accent?”

No Robert, you shouldn’t.

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@hightor,

Sorry, I mean the quotation was from the film "Mary Poppins", not by Mary Poppins herself. It was said by Bert (Dyke Van Dyke), who is expected to be unschooled indeed, as he belongs to the lower social class, doesn't have any job and do what he can to earn money - paintings,performs,chimney-sweeping. So I believe it is not a problem of Dyke Van Dyke's accent, but his hero's characteristic.

1 Reply

@fume19,

Dick Van Dyke’s accent is atrocious.

If you want to talk about English accents why don’t you ask the English person on A2K?

That would be me.

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

The quotation was from the film and the worst accent in film history.

THE WORST ACCENT in film history was Marlene Dietrich's cockney accent in Witness for the Prosecution.

The "surprise" of the movie depended on the testimony of the witness (Marlene) disguised as a whatever. The accent was so bad, I wondered, "Why didn't they hire a Brit for the part?" Little did I know that the idea was that she was supposed to fool a British court with the disguise. The accent wouldn't have fooled anyone...even an American who had just lived in England for a couple of years.

1 Reply

@Frank Apisa,

I haven’t seen that little masterpiece.

The problem with Dick Van Dyke’s is so many people think they can do it and sound Cockney.

They can do it all right but they sound like Dick Van Dyke and that’s not Cockney.

I the word that sticks out like a sore thumb is love-Er-Lee.

Nobody ever says that. Lovely has two syllables not three, nobody says the Er.

Although I don’t know if we should be laying most of the blame on Van Dyke’s shoulders. Audrey Hepburn had a part to play in that.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

Dick Van Dyke actually apologized, belatedly, for the awful quality of his accent in the film. I think he said that his voice coach was Irish and he only spent an hour practicing with him — and that nobody working with him in the film ever mentioned how bad it was.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

I haven’t seen that little masterpiece.

The problem with Dick Van Dyke’s is so many people think they can do it and sound Cockney.

They can do it all right but they sound like Dick Van Dyke and that’s not Cockney.

I the word that sticks out like a sore thumb is love-Er-Lee.

Nobody ever says that. Lovely has two syllables not three, nobody says the Er.

Although I don’t know if we should be laying most of the blame on Van Dyke’s shoulders. Audrey Hepburn had a part to play in that.

Accents are funny. Nancy and I have a friend who is a major league beauty...I mean truly a stunner. She's actually from Turkey, but grew up in London. I'd hear people talking about her "English accent"...and how lovely it was.

But I heard it as pure East End.

It was kinda funny, because I knew...and she knew I knew.

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@hightor,

I know. He has put his hand up, well I suppose he had to.

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