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

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I've never heard "renege" pronounced as other than [rInIg] by
black people, with "renigger" occasionally heard as a lame (IMO) pun.

-Wilson

On Dec 10, 2007 8:47 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "nayger" [WAS: Re: Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose
>               Like" (1917))]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Can anyone explain the relationship between the spelling "renege" and the (standard) pronciation of the final syllable as [-nIg]?
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- 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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