"Obsolete," but still in use

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has "neger," "naygur" (and other equivalent spellings) from 1568, but its two 20th C. exx. appear to be from Hibernia.

  The latest OED revisions have "Niger" from 1574 and the double "g" version from 1608.  Regional variation between / i / and / I / was presumably common throughout the 17th and 18th C.'s, but early printed documentation much favors / i / (i.e., with one "g" following).

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I recall that Mark Twain once wrote that some people pronounced
"nigger" as "naygur," but I don't think that he said much more than
that. That is, he didn't specify what particular group used the latter
term.

Of course, the people that I referred to weren't necessarily racists
or even thugs, though I've seen such carloads of white guys hassle
(white) women on the street by shouting "Show us your tits!" while
ignoring my presence. If the woman was hit by the beer, the guys would
shout, "Wet t-shirt!" You never know, I guess.

One time, I was sitting waiting for my order in a pizza joint in
Watertown Square, MA, the only black person on the scene, when a wino
stumbled in, staggered over to the table where I was sitting, though
there were plenty of empty tables all around, pulled up a chair and
copped a squat. After about five minutes, the wino suddenly FREAKED!!!
(My guess is that he was so fucked up on alcohol that it took him a
while to realize that he had sat down with a black person.) Then he
starting shouting at the top of his lungs, "Girls! Girls! Watch out!
There's a colored guy in here! There's a colored guy in here! Don't
let him touch you! Get away from him, girls! There's a colored guy in
here! Watch out, girls! Don't let him get at you!" Etc., etc. It was
an amazing display. He didn't use "nigger" even once!

Also, in Cambridge, "neegah" appears to be the preferred
pronunciation. So, as a consequence, I'd hesitate to claim that the
peculiar local pronunciation(s) had any particular historical basis,
having no real evidence to support that claim.

Speaking of historical linguistics, somewhere or other I read the
claim that "nigger" was really simply Latin _niger_ [nIgEr], which
had somehow survived among the lower orders [description in the
original] of white America.

-Wilson

On 9/20/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> You mean Obs. _Neger_ has survived underground in the white racist thug community ? Provincial !
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I bleeve y'all done missed a impawtant change. Nowadays, it doesn't
> matter, at least in my experience and what I hear from relatives,
> whether the woman or the speaker be black or white. Innih ladih be
> cawl "Miss [First name]" by innihbidih ales. Nothing's perfect
> anywhere, of course,
> but I like to give credit where credit is due: 2006 is not 1946.
>
> The last time that a carload of white thugs drove by me shouting
> "Naygah!" as they say it up here, and throwing beer on me, it was in
> Boston's Kenmore Square, not in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, or
> Texas.
>
> Surprisingly enough, even back in the '50's and 60's, when I was in
> the Army, it was Northern whites, not Southern whites, who pushed the
> racist envelope. It was as though the Yankees told themselves that
> racism was a peculiar institution of the South. Therefore, any racism
> that Northeners displayed, and there was plenty, was, simply by
> definition, *not* racism. OTOH, I even had a white buddy from
> Pascagoulah, Mississippi. Well, he was a native of Weslaco, Texas, who
> just happened to be living in Mississippi, but y'all know what I'm
> saying. And there was the guy from Albany, GA, who was so cool that
> his nickname among the brothuhs was "The Southern Gentleman."
>
> -Wilson
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 9/20/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC"
> > Subject: Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > >
> > > I remember "Miss [woman's first name]" as the standard way of
> > > formally addressing or referring to a woman, whether black or
> > > white, down home in Texas. I think that this locution is /
> > > was also used by Southern whites, though not when speaking to
> > > or of black women, of course.
> > >
> >
> > Thirty years ago in Middle Tennessee, such usage was not uncommon to
> > this white boy.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
> a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
> race. He brought death into the world.
>
> --Sam Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org