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

[Charles Doyle]

Can anyone explain the relationship between the spelling "renege" and the (standard) pronciation of the final syllable as [-nIg]?

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2007 10:02:53 -0800
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>
>"Niger" was apparently pronounced / i / until, perhaps, it became an archaic form learned from print.
>
>  JL
>
>"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
>>
>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
>
>>
>>"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

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