[Ads-l] [Non-DoD Source] "Niger" or "Niger"?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Oct 22 01:30:18 UTC 2017


> On Oct 21, 2017, at 9:26 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Oct 21, 2017, at 8:52 PM, Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET> wrote:
>> 
>> In my English book in school, where I first encountered this limerick,
>> the young lady was from Riga. I understand that in the original it was
>> Niger, right? Anyway, I don't know if the substitution was to repair the
>> rhyme or to be less racist, or for zoological proximity, but I think
>> it's better.
>> 
>> Chris
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> Unless, like me, you pronounce the Latvian capital’s name “REE-ga”, in which case it’s a non-starter.
> 
> Maybe switching genders:
> 
> There once was an actor named Steiger
> Who went for a ride on a tiger...
> 
> LH
> 

(And as it is written, “Spare the Rod, spoil the tiger”.  Well, maybe that’s a different translation.)

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