gendered "nigga"?

[Michael Newman]

>Interesting discussion on use of "nigga". I'm under the impression that
>"nigga" is almost always applied to a male person. In my limited experience
>men also seem to say "nigga" more than women, although it's not strange or
>inappropriate for women to use it. But I don't think I've ever heard a
>woman call another woman "nigga". (More likely for a woman to call her
>friend "my bitch" parallel to a man calling his friend "my nigga".) Any
>observations?



Absolutely. Not only that, but I've heard it used to indicate males.
I don't have any authentic examples recorded, but it would something
like, "They was three niggaz for every girl" (or "shorties"). Just as
with "guys," when it is used as a plural marker (redundant in this
case) this male reference disappears, so that "y'all-niggaz" is
neutral. (p.s. I use the z because that's how the kids usually write
it.).

--
Michael Newman
Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
Dept. of Linguistics and Communication Disorders
Queens College/CUNY
Flushing, NY 11367