Q: Did Latin's "niger" (black) originate from an African word for the Niger River?

Sun Oct 23 02:04:29 UTC 2011

At 10/22/2011 05:14 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
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>On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Q: Did Latin's "niger" (black) originate from an
> African word for
> >              the Niger River?
> >
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> >
> > <html>
> > <body>
> > In <i>Black History and Black Identity</i> (p. 99), William D. Wright
> > says:<br><br>
> > <font size=3>"Yet the etymology, the root of the word Negro, has to be
> > traced to Africa. That root is <i>Niger</i>, which was an ancient African
> > word that found its way into Roman Latin. The word itself, in its usage
> > in ancient Africa, had nothing to do with color or race, but was a
> > reference to a river in Africa: the Niger River. Rome brought northern
> > Africa under its domination, which also drew some central Africans under
> > its domination, including those from the area of the Niger River."
> > <br><br>
> > </font>And later (p. 100), Wright says:<br><br>
> > <font size=3>"J. A. Rogers brought clarity to this etymological matter
> > back in the 1950s: 'The word comes from the River Niger, and Nigritae
> > means the people from the River Niger. "Ni" probably means "great" and
> > Ger, or Geir, is African for river. At first Niger had nothing more to do
> > with black than the waters of the river itself. "Ater" was the Latin for
> > black.'[10]" <br><br>
> > </font>[Wright's footnote here is probably only for the quotation from
> > Rogers, and not for the statement on p. 99.]<br><br>
> > All true, partly true, or all false?<br><br>
> > Joel</body>
> > </html>
> >
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>
>Was Plato black? Was Cleopatra black? If these are questions meriting
>attention, then I guess random claims WRT the etymology of Latin
>_niger_  and the etymology of the name of the Niger River also merit
>attention.

I didn't ask about attention, I asked about correctness.

Joel

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