"nayger" [WAS: Re: Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917))]

Sun Dec 9 18:02:53 UTC 2007

"Niger" was apparently pronounced / i / until, perhaps, it became an archaic form learned from print.

  JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: "nayger" [WAS: Re: Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose
Like" (1917))]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JL,

I don't understand the concept of levelling here. If "Niger" was
pronounced /ay/ (LIGHT) (forget the quality of the 'g') and "Neger"
was pronounced /ey/ (FACE) or /e/ (BET), what is the levelling
process that yields /I/ (HIT)?

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>Subject: "nayger" [WAS: Re: Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and
>Loose Like"
> (1917))]
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>"Nayger" is a dial. remnant of 16th C. "Neger."
>
> I once did a good deal of research on these forms. Some of the
>results are in HDAS. Some further upshots:
>
> 1. "Nigger" is not a variant pronunciation (or
>"mispronunciation") of "Negro."
>
> 2. a. "Niger" (one "g") was until the early to mid 18th C. a
>mostly neutral term.
> b. "Nigger" results from a leveling of both "Neger" and "Niger."
>
> 3. Runaway slave notices, slave auction ads, etc., which would not
>seem to require euphemisms, uniformly employ "Negro," as though
>"nigger" were inappropriate for polite use..
>
> 4. The earliest printed exx. of "nigger" as a term of
>white-against-black abuse are from the early 19th C.
>
> JL
>
>Wilson Gray wrote:
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>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917))
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Makes sense to me, Mark, although I'd call it more "unpopular than
>"pejorative," mainly because it's been rare in my experience - I've
>seen it in print; I *may* have heard it very rarely when I was a
>child, but it wouldn't have had any special meaning. Besides, to the
>extent that I remember it at all, it was used about as often for
>cartoon, po'-white, hillbilly types as for blacks in literature of the
>day. I've known "nigger," well, "nigguh," since I was four or five
>years old, when it packed less than the emotional weight of, perhaps,
>"dumbbell." Being called "nigger" by another nigger wouldn't send
>anybody home crying, but being called "dumbbell" by someone else who
>wasn't one might. It was only when it was used against me by white
>people that it became truly hurtful. E.g. I was waiting for the bus in
>Central Square Cambridge to go visit my girlfriend in Boston, so you
>can imagine where my mind was. I vaguely noticed a white man walking
>toward me. As he passed, he sneered at me, "You Goddamned nigger!" and
>continued on his way as though nothing had happened. I was caught
>completely off guard and totally discombobulated, not knowing whether
>to shit or go blind. Had I been a child, I might well have broken into
>tears.
>
>Then, when I got over to my girlfriend's house, she was in a foul mood
>and, with the down-so-low-that-I- had-to-look-up-at-my-feet mood that
>I was in, it killed the relationship.
>
>But, speaking from the point of view of dialect, I'd read somewhere or
>other that, back in the day, the Irish referred to blacks using a
>pronunciation that sounded to the authors like "naygurs." The white
>man of whom I speak said what sounded to me like "naygah" [ne:ga].
>(Unforunately, this wasn't the first time that I had heard this
>pronunciation. I've merely supplied a sample anecdote.) Supposedly,
>Boston is the most Irish of American cities. So, WAG, perhaps this
>pronunciation is a cross between the old-time Irish pronunciation and
>the ah-less New England pronunciation.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On Dec 5, 2007 1:42 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Mark Mandel
>> Subject: Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917))
> >
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> (thread in ADS-L; cc to ANS-L)
>>
>> On Dec 3, 2007 2:38 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>
>> > check out the wikipedia on Rastus, which suggests that the name Rastus
>> > was from Erastus and was given by slave-owners to their slaves -- and
>> > quickly became generalized as a pejorative term used by whites for
>> > blacks. (the Cream of Wheat guy is named Rastus, by the way, though i
>> > suspect that the company no longer uses the name.)
>>
>> On Dec 4, 2007 12:39 AM, Wilson Gray replied:
>>
>> > I pretty much agree with "Rastus" as being derived from "Erastus." But
>> > "Erastus" is a Latinization of Greek "Erastos." This is derived from
>> > _era-_, love (in the sexual sense). Would a slave, especially a male
>> > one, have been given such a name? It seems unlikely, from the
>> > contemporary impression of what that period was like. But, who really
>> > knows, nowadays?
>>
>>
>> That argument is based on the assumption that the namer (owner, blech!) kne=
>> w
>> the Greek etymology. ISTM just as likely that many knew it only as a Latin
>> name, and some may have known that it came from Greek, but very few would
>> have known the origin within Greek.
>>
>> And for that matter (I continue with WAGgery), all it would have taken was
>> one or a few masters applying the name, and others picking it up with littl=
>> e
>> or no knowledge of its antecedents. Does the historical documentation allow
>> any inference on diachronic spread?
>>
>> The article has been modified since Arnold's post, including deletion of th=
>> e
>> sentence "During the period of [[American slavery]], it was common practice
>> for owners to give their slaves historical, and particularly Biblical,
>> names."
>>
>> The article now reads in part (latest
>> revision: 00:01, 5 December 2007; lists of examples snipped; emphasis
>> added):
>>
>> Rastus is a pejorative term traditionally associated with African Americans
>> > in the United States. It is considered highly offensive
>> >
>> > The name is sometimes given as 'Rastus, and it is likely a shortening of
>> > Erastus, a disciple of St. Paul mentioned in Acts 19:22, Romans 16:23, an=
>> d 2
>> > Timothy 4:20. "Rastus" has been used as a generic, often derogatory, name
>> > for Black men at least since 1880, when Joel Chandler Harris included a
>> > Black deacon named "Brer Rastus" in the first Uncle Remus book. **Contrar=
>> y
>> > to popular belief, however, "Rastus" has never been particularly popular =
>> as
>> > a Black name.** For example, the 1870 census reported only 42 individuals
>> > named "Rastus" in the United States, of whom only four were Black or
>> > mulatto. Rastus=97as any happy black man, not as a particular person=97be=
>> came a
>> > familiar character in minstrel shows (...), in books (...), in popular so=
>> ngs
>> > (...), on radio, and in films, most notably the Rastus series of short fi=
>> lms
>> > (...).
>> > (usage for Cream of Wheat )
>> >
>>
>> m a m
>>
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>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>-Sam'l Clemens
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu

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