friend of mine

If you need a possessive after "of" then how come you can say:


color of the rainbow but not color of the rainbow's
sound of music BUT NOT sound of music's



Why isn't it acceptable to say "Friend of me/I"?

I even heard phrase like

friend of Jane


But if it has to be "friend of mine" then shouldn't you also say "friend of Jane's"?

<<But if it has to be "friend of mine" then shouldn't you also say "friend of Jane's"? >>

You can say "a freind of Jane's", which in fact sounds more natural than "a freind of Jane". I think this is called the "double genitive", or something like that.

If that's so then can you just also say "friend of me"?
Why does "Friend of mine" need a possessive but others don't?

"a friend of Jane" is wrong. You have to add the "'s" if it's a person.

This is a situation caused by confusion over which function the preposition "of" should mark (priority of function):

"A friend of me" is fine (just like, "It's a picture of me"), but there is confusion over whether this means:

'a friend belonging to me [i.e. "my friend"]' (genitive)
'a friend from me' (ablative)
'a friend by me' (instrumental) --*in this example makes little sense
'a friend concerning/about me"--*in this example makes little sense

*the examples here that make little sense however do make sense in other situations, like in "I'm sick of working" and "picture of me"

"A friend of mine"/"A friend of his" clarifies the clause as being genitive. It may not be a "double genitive" as suggested above. It may be the combination of one of the other senses conveyed by "of" plus the genitive.

<<"A friend of me" is fine (just like, "It's a picture of me"), but there is confusion over whether this means: >>

Around here (New York State), you don't hear "a friend of me" very much.

'A friend of me' certainly isn't standard English and I would never use it nor do I recall ever having heard it from a native speaker.

I have however wondered why we don't use that construction, as in German you would say 'Ein Freund von mir' which translates as 'A friend of me'.

"mine" tacitly includes a noun or nouns.
Here, mine= my friends, "a friend of mine" = one of my friends.
"me" is just a personal pronoun, not possessive; of course in substandard speech you can hear "me mother" instead of "my mother" .

<<"mine" tacitly includes a noun or nouns.
Here, mine= my friends, "a friend of mine" = one of my friends.
>>

I agree. Here "mine" refers to all that belongs to me, and not 'me' so it is not a "me" equivalent.

You *can* say such expressions using 'of me':

"You're not the boss of me (i.e. you're not my boss)"
and
"I gave you all of me (i.e. I gave you my all)"
etc.

>>Why isn't it acceptable to say "Friend of me/I"?<<

'A friend of I' would not be correct anyway as it is the nominative case. True, English speakers do sometimes use the nominative instead of the accusative, and vice versa (i.e. he came to the cinema with Jane and I), but not where there is just one pronoun after a preposition.

Actually, that's made me think. If you are talking about someone being a friend of more than one person, maybe these construction are more acceptable.

'He's a friend of John and me/I'

Now I have thought about this I can't actually decide whether it sounds wrong or not. What do others think?

<<'He's a friend of John and me/I'
>>

In a compound such as 'John and I', I normally say:
"He's a friend of mine and John's" OR "He's a friend of John and me"

granted, in the first example, "mine" precedes "and John's" which is maybe not 100% acceptable, but it's what sounds right to me.

"'a friend of Jane' is wrong. You have to add the ''s' if it's a person."

Sorry, but no. The construction "a friend of Jane" is fine.

>>"'a friend of Jane' is wrong. You have to add the ''s' if it's a person."

Sorry, but no. The construction "a friend of Jane" is fine.<<

I am not sure where you got that from, unless you happen to speak a dialect in which that is indeed acceptable, but in most English dialects it is "a friend of Jane's" *not* "a friend of Jane" (which would be understandable but sound rather off, to say the least).

<<but in most English dialects it is "a friend of Jane's" *not* "a friend of Jane" (which would be understandable but sound rather off, to say the least). >>

I think that "a friend of Jane" is not a grammatical error but a usage error. It *technically* is/can be correct, though not customarily used.