Where’s Mines Pencil?

“Where’s mines pencil?”

“That one’s mines!” shouted a kindergarten student.

“He stole mines paper!” I heard the other day.

Students at all ages and grade spans in my city are using this word mines. It’s an interesting take on the pronoun mine. Sometimes it seems to mean mine + is- as in “that one’s mine’s.” And other times it seems to mean mine + ’s= mines’ in the genitive possessive sense.

Mysterious Origin

As a descriptive linguist, I like to look at how people around me talk. The diverse city where I live offers a fascinating study in language. I love the mixture of peoples and cultures; and, more importantly, the impact of cultures upon the English language.

Hearing mines repeatedly used -even by recent immigrants – causes even the best descriptive linguist to cringe inside. I wonder, where did such a word orginate? Does it interact with the word mines as in a coal or landmine? Or is it related to the slang usage of mines?

New Learning

After a few days of constantly correcting mines in my students, I have given in to the mines craze. As long as I don’t see the word in writing, I really am happy my students are talking in English – their new language.

Now, where’s mines coffee?