ADS-L Digest - 7 Mar 2007 to 8 Mar 2007 (#2007-68)

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, in my entire life, I've heard "nigra" used only once by a black
person and he spelling-pronounced it as [naigr@]. Clearly, he knew the
word only from having read it somewhere. OTOH, he pronounced "Negro"
as [nigro], possibly because he was a native of Minneapolis.

An older person that I once knew, a black man who was born in Virginia
ca.1890, always pronounced "Negro" as [nEgr@].

My personal experience is that the "standard" BE pronunciation of
"Negro" is [nIgro].

-Wilson

On 3/9/07, Landau, James <James.Landau at ngc.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Landau, James" <James.Landau at NGC.COM>
> Subject:      Re: ADS-L Digest - 7 Mar 2007 to 8 Mar 2007 (#2007-68)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In replay to Joel Berson's question, "are you sure GWTW uses "nigra"?"
>
> I read GWTW exactly once, during the 1962-63 school year, and it was
> during a train trip through the South, which underlined just how
> unrealistic the novel was.  I recall the spelling "nigra" because I did
> not recall ever having seen it before, or since.  All I can tell you of
> the edition I was reading is that it was a mass-market paperback.
>
>     - Jim Landau
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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