Nigger vs. Colored, et al.

[Jonathan Lighter]

I thought all disciplines were like that.

But back to the point.  What I can tell you from personal investigation is
that the large number of eighteenth-century escaped-slave notices reprinted
in the 4 vols. of Lathan A. Windley's _Runaway Slave Advertisements_ _all_
use the word "negro" and eschew "nigger."

Slave-trade advertisements similarly use "negro" - I'm tempted to say
exclusively.

In fact, well into the 19th C., the "n-word" appears almost exclusively in
colloquial contexts. My feeling is that the Abolition debate tended to bring
out more heated language in the South.

So whatever even slave-holding whites may have been *saying* in the 18th and
early 19th C., they seem to have regarded as the n-word as too crude or
low-class for formal use.

This may have contributed to the misapprehension that "nigger" is simply
a contemptuous "mispronunciation" of "Negro."  See HDAS.

JL

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 10:59 AM, Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC,
71700 <lynne.hunter at navy.mil> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC, 71700"
>              <lynne.hunter at NAVY.MIL>
> Subject:      Nigger vs. Colored, et al.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> `A propos of "Negro/Negro, black/Black," can anybody tell me when
> "nigger" began to be avoided in polite company in various parts of the
> US (or the British Isles)? Any info about the circumstances under which
> that term came to be replaced by "colored" or "negro"?
>
> Droll (I thought) observation from a student's paper: "...linguistics:
> the discipline that never apologizes for itself."
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lynne Hunter
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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