Niger/Nigger (etc.)

[Joel S. Berson]

How much about pronunciation does one infer from
18th c. and earlier spelling?  In my recent
reading of 18th c. texts, there's so much
variation I  have to think it's just
idiosyncratic -- or poor spelling -- or before Johnson.

Joel

At 9/20/2006 07:57 PM, you wrote:
>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:
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>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.
> > >
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> > --
> > 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
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>
>--
>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
>
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