ADS-L Digest - 24 Jan 2009 to 25 Jan 2009 (#2009-26)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:43 AM -0500 1/26/09, Amy West wrote:
>Do you think it's a broadening of what's identfied in MWC11 sense 3?
>
>: a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons  *it's time
>for somebody to lead all of America's niggers . . . all the people
>who feel left out of the political process - Ron Dellums*
>
>Or something else? Outgrowth of the term used non-offensively within
>the group?
>
>---Amy West

I've always taken this use of "nigger" (meaning essentially 'guy' [+
black], if I'm not mistaken) to be parallel to the use of "yid" in
Yiddish, mostly known to me from Jewish jokes (in Yiddish) that begin
along the lines of "There was this yid" or "This yid bought a cow" or
whatever, the interpretation of which is not 'There was this Jew' but
'There was this guy', with the 'Jewish' part presupposed or
backgrounded.

I could be wrong.

LH

>
>>Date:    Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:39:04 -0500
>>From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject: Heard on The Judges: "nigger" = man, person
>>
>>Judge:
>>
>>"You're just a old, no-good, crack-addict!"
>>
>>Mid-forty-ish, black male speaker:
>>
>>"No, judge, I'm not! I'm a *recovering* addict, a recovering
>>*marijuana*-addict! I'm a changed _nigger_, your honor!"
>>
>>-Wilson
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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