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I noticed that British people sometimes use me instead of my. For example, Liam Gallagher does it quite often. Example:

The wind was strong I have nearly lost me pants

What is a story behind this alteration? Is it appropriate in formal language? Do people really speak like that? Or is this a dialect rather than a widely spread manner?

Void
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Untapped Soul
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    It's one of the main features of Northern accents. – Void Aug 15 '20 at 16:26
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    @Lambie - The sentence itself is not idiomatic by a long stretch, only the mi for my. More idiomatic would be 'The wind was so strong I nearly lost mi pants." Though if your accent would use mi like that, it would also transform I into à like in lad – DoneWithThis. Aug 16 '20 at 10:27
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    @gonefishin'again. or indeed almost pronounce I as uh especially when talking fast. – mdewey Aug 16 '20 at 12:33
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    @mdewey - In Northern BrE? Interesting. What town, if you're a native? It's not one I'd think would shift to a schwa [though many others do in N.BrE ;) – DoneWithThis. Aug 16 '20 at 16:32
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    @gonefishin'again. no quite generally. I think the use of me for my is quite widespread in fast informal speech in BrE. – mdewey Aug 16 '20 at 16:50
  • There is no "generally" in BrE, there is a line drawn across the country - Liverpool to the Wash, very roughly - one side speaks one way, the other side another. – DoneWithThis. Aug 16 '20 at 16:52
  • @mdewey - btw, I was talking about your schwa for I not mi for my. – DoneWithThis. Aug 16 '20 at 18:29
  • @gone fishin' again: Plus lots of regional dialects/accents. Perhaps less so today than in the past, given electronic media, but still lots of differences perceptible even to a casual visitor: https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/english-in-the-real-world/rough-guide-british-dialects/ – jamesqf Aug 17 '20 at 16:55
  • @jamesqf - yup, I'm a N.BrE native, now living in London, hence my questioning the schwa for I earlier. – DoneWithThis. Aug 17 '20 at 16:58

2 Answers2

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This is not a substitution of me for my but a common dialectal pronunciation of my (Northern England and some Australian accents).

According to Wikipedia, other areas of the North have regularised the pronouns in the opposite direction, with meself used instead of myself.

Moreover, the vowel in 'me' (the one you're referring to) is shorter ([mi]) than that of the regular 'me' ([mi:]) and this pronuncation of 'my' is usually used where 'my' is unstressed.

The pronunciation of emphatic/stressed 'my' was [mi:] in Middle English (before the Great Vowel Shift) and its unstressed/unemphatic form was [mi].

The Great Vowel Shift was a vowel change (1400-1700) that shifted almost all the long vowels to diphthongs but it did not affect short vowels. So the pronunciation of emphatic 'my' shifted to [aɪ]* but the short vowel in 'my' [mi] in its unemphatic form remained unaffected in some accents (Northern British, Irish, some Australian accents etc).

*GVS shifted [iː] to [aɪ]. For example, the pronunciation of 'bite' was /bi:t/ before the GVS.

Void
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    It is important to stress that this is not a substitution of "me" for "my" as the question asserts. It is a pronunciation of "my", and can also be observed for many other words ending in "-y", including the word "many" in this very sentence. – JdeBP Aug 16 '20 at 03:00
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    @JdeBP I didn't understand the example about "many". Is "many" ever pronounced "man-eye"? – Pedro A Aug 17 '20 at 13:28
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    @PedroA No, and that, I believe, is the point. – Asteroids With Wings Aug 17 '20 at 13:57
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    @PedroA It's men-ee and the ee is the same sound in "me", but it's spelt with a "y" – user253751 Aug 17 '20 at 14:09
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    @AsteroidsWithWings ah, I get it now, thanks – Pedro A Aug 17 '20 at 14:31
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    So is this related to the phenomenon of pronouncing the the "y" in "my" as a schwa? – Tim Seguine Aug 17 '20 at 15:23
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    No. 'My' in its weak form is often pronounced [mə] (in fast speech) in many accents, not just Northern British accents. – Void Aug 17 '20 at 15:33
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    "the pronunciation of emphatic/stressed 'my' was [mi:] in Middle English (before the Great Vowel Shift) and it's unstressed/unemphatic form was [mi]": was that also true in the north? Did the vowel shift introduce a regional variation in pronunciation that didn't exist before? If so, why did it affect this word and not (for example) "dry"? (Or did it?) Also, this being an English language site, I would change it's to its, but I don't have sufficient reputation to do it /maɪˈsɛlf/. Also, wouldn't beet have been pronounced /be:t/, so still differently from bite? – phoog Aug 17 '20 at 15:47
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    @phoog, You're absolutely right. Re "was that also true in the north? Did the vowel shift introduce a regional variation in pronunciation that didn't exist before?": As far as I know, it was also true in the North and it introduced regional variations in pronunciation. There are lots of remnants of Middle/Old English in the North For example, people in the North pronounce 'but' with [ʊ] rather than [ʌ]. You also hear 'house' being pronounced with [u:] (hoose) in the North. It's because GVS didn't affect some words in the North. I don't know why. – Void Aug 17 '20 at 16:11
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    Re "why did it affect this word and not (for example) "dry"? (Or did it?)": Because words like me, myself, the, at, an, them etc (I'm not a grammarian so I don't know the umbrella term for these words, sorry) are often reduced and pronounced in their weak forms. For example, you might've noticed that them is reduced to em in fast speech. However, you cannot reduce the words that have meaning on their own like 'dry' so it does not have a weak form. – Void Aug 17 '20 at 16:14
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    Re "Also, this being an English language site, I would change it's to its": Ah.... it's my annoying but useful 'autocorrect' feature. I was typing on phone so the autocorrect turned its into it's. – Void Aug 17 '20 at 16:15
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    Re "Also, wouldn't beet have been pronounced /be:t/, so still differently from bite?": Yes, that's my bad. I was talking about the pronunciation of 'beet' in Modern English. I should've written /bi:t/ instead. – Void Aug 17 '20 at 16:18
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It is very common to avoid pronouncing the long "ai" sound in "my" when speaking fast and/or informally.

Some people use a schwa as in "I've lost mə keys."

In Britain a short "i" sound is common, e.g. "I've lost mi keys."

My guess is that Gallagher said "...lost mi pants" rather than "lost me (mee) pants."

chasly - supports Monica
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    I have to note that this was not the Gallagher‘s quote. It was just a sentence I have made up. I have heard him say me in some interview. And yes, it sounded more like mi. – Untapped Soul Aug 15 '20 at 16:23