Why do British people say "Me" instead of "My"?

[Steveway]

I'm asking myself why those americans say my isntead of mein and me instead of mich.
Why do they do this?
Well to clarify, I'm German and English is just a Language derivated from German.
(You now, when the Angel-Sachsen came up to England and populated there...)
Things like saying me instead of my or mein, mich... have just changed in through times.
And for all those of you who don't know this, most white people from England and America have German Grandparents (or Grandgrandparent, grandgrandgrandparents...) and are also German, theoretically.
If you study a bit about how languages evolve you'll understand why things changed.

[mar225]

A couple of thoughts in reading this gibberish.

I thought it was interesting that the term "Queen's English" didn't come up till reply #80 and not mentioned again.

Me (really "my") daddy says his tribe came here from England in 1620. Something about religious persecution or some such. Mama swears her tribe was hatched on a rock on the banks of the Missouri river. She says the rock is the reason I have such a hard head.

Being from the upper midwest I lay claim to this part of the country speaking the cleanest most crisp version of American English.

Hey teach is there gonna be a quiz on this stuff?

[ComplexNumber]

I'm German and English is just a Language derivated from German.

its only partly derived. english is derived from celtic, pict, scandavanian, french, latin, and others.

EDIT: just as i thought, the percentage of german influence on english is quite low. i remember reading somewhere that celtic and french have a much greater influence into out language than german. after a quick look at wikipedia here, that seems to reflect what i remember:

A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows:

• Langue d'oïl, including French and Old Norman: 28.3%
• Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
• Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25%
• Greek: 5.32%
• No etymology given: 4.03%
• Derived from proper names: 3.28%
• All other languages contributed less than 1%

Other estimates have also been made:

• French, 40%[4]
• Greek, 13%[5]
• Anglo-Saxon (Old English), 10%[6]
• Danish, 2%[7]
• Dutch, 1%[8]
• And, as about 50% of English is derived from Latin--directly or otherwise--[9] another 10 to 15% can be attributed to direct borrowings from that language.

pie chart of influence here.

most white people from England and America have German Grandparents (or Grandgrandparent, grandgrandgrandparents...) and are also German, theoretically.

i think you may find this to be quite false. a significantly greater proportion of white people from england and america have their origins in celtic ireland than they do in germany.

[Steveway]

Ok, not the most but allot of the English Language is derived from German.
But I'm pretty correct with my second point.
If you read a little bit of this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_colonies) you'll see that most of them are Britans.
Britans beeing of course from England, Angel-Sachsen (Or Anglo-Saxons like you said) wich were mostly germanic people, see here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Saxony).
A yes, by white Americans I mean those "native Americans" not those that move everyday to America on a ship, plane...and I now of mexico originating mostly of spanish people.

[Penguin Power]

it's just another colloquialism - nothing to get fussed about

and it's only in parts of England as well I believe, and not in Scotland.

you're right in that it's a totally different word - "me" is the object, me, in the first person, and "my" is possessive.

and don't talk to me about "English" till you start spelling colour with a U, dammit, it CHANGES THE PRONUNCIATION EVER SO SLIGHTLY. I think.

[ZylGadis]

It is a colloquialism and there is nothing wrong with it as long as it stays a speech colloquialism only. Twisting written grammar is hideous, and I see "me mom" entering written text more and more.

In the end, I expect it will turn into something like "try and." How many people here know that "try and" is grammatically incorrect, because the verb "try" is modal, and the correct version would be "try to?" I expect very few people to know that. The reason is that "try and" is so pervasive in written text that mostly everyone uses it.

[RAV TUX]

I've never understood why they say something like "Me wife is coming over." What?! You mean "My wife is coming over." I am sure they see there is a Y there, and not an E.

Its unbelievable, and it makes me go "Huh?" The weird thing about this is that English is their native language, but they still do this. Even people who don't speak English don't do this.

I am not trying to start a fight over who speaks English the best and everything, but this is just odd. It's somewhat like saying "Hyllo" when the word is "Hello." A fight over the English language is not a good idea, because NO ONE today speaks original English (Old English), and original English is nothing like today's English.

By the way, don't get me wrong. I may be getting the countries wrong. I don't know who is British, UKish (yeah, I know), English, etc. I am not interested in a history lesson either.

The same reason:
Australians say "norr" instead of "no"?

[PainInMeGulilver]

Im from Chicago. I also lived in a redneck town in central Indiana, Boston, and Ive been in London now for over a year. And yeah, I used to think that this "me" instead "my" thing was just something from old, jingoistic movies to portray the English as idiots.

But no. In all the time Ive been in London, I can say with authority that I have NEVER heard ANY English person say "my". Its always "me". And it is indeed infuriating.

Im not talking about Scottish, Irish, or Welsh people because they have their own, semi-legitamate reasons for speaking as they do (extremely poorly). Im focusing solely on English people. And not once have I heard "my". Always "me".

Also nice is their saying "were" instead of "was". As in "I were sad when the Spice Girls broke up" instead of "I was sad was S-Club 7 broke up". They do this in other ways quite often with using the plural form of a verb when refering to a singular noun and a singular verb when refering to a plural noun.

The reason -- I have no ******* idea. Gross, long-standing, and chronic inbreeding is my guess. I wont even mention things like "innit" which are mostly just things that kids say.

But no. They definetely say "me" instead of "my". All of them. Its not a regional dialect.

But of course England has different dialects. But how many times have you heard the term "American accent"? What the **** is that? If we can accept that a small, heterogeneous island has many dialects, how much moreso a large, diverse, continent?

Fortunately, I live in London so I dont come across many English people. I only have to endure this bastardization of the language on tv. And indeed, EVERYONE there says it. From the guests on Jeremy Kyle to the contestants on University Challenge. Its not a class thing. Its an English thing.

Fortunately, even the uneducated, barely-literate, foreigners here in London (who comprise 90% of the city from my estimates) generally speak English properly. And they would NEVER say "me" instead of "my" or any of these other completley asinine things.

p.s. I found this forum by searching for "me instead of my" because its beyond annoying and I was seeking answers as to why they do this. I never used Linux in my life, nor do I plan to. Naw mean, guv'nor?

[xmastree]

But no. In all the time I've been in London, I can say with authority that I have NEVER heard ANY English person say "my". Its always "me". And it is indeed infuriating.

It's not that we say me, but that we pronounce my as mi.
'Me' is a drawn out 'e', like mee.

Oh, and we do say my all the time, but in different context.

e.g.
Typical:
I'm having fish and chips for mi dinner.

but:
Your car is a Ford, my car is a Honda.

In that second example, the word my would always be pronounced correctly (as in, rhymes with eye). If we're emphasising the word, then it's my.
Let's go to my house. That's my pint. My car is faster than yours.

Also nice is their saying "were" instead of "was". As in "I were sad when the Spice Girls broke up" instead of "I was sad was S-Club 7 broke up".

That's just bad grammar, and we don't all say that. It were, we was, they was. All wrong.
I must admit that I sometimes use that mode of speech. Not because I don't know better, but in certain situations one doesn't want to appear superior, or posh. When in Rome etc...

[PaulFXH]

@PainInMeGulilver

They definetely say "me" instead of "my". All of them.

Then you say

Fortunately, I live in London so I dont come across many English people.

How can you say "All of them (English people)" when by your own admission you "dont come across many English people". If you're going to pontificate convincingly, it is as well to avoid contradicting yourself.
BTW, I'm Irish and therefore your supplementary thesis is of interest to me which you summarise in the following:

Im not talking about Scottish, Irish, or Welsh people because they have their own, semi-legitamate reasons for speaking as they do (extremely poorly)

Care to elaborate?
If you do choose to answer, please try to avoid the multitudinous misspellings that you included in your last post (see "definetely" and "legitamate" above) as it makes it difficult for us lesser races to comprehend.