[Ads-l] More on Niger

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Oct 22 15:06:20 UTC 2017


Except Riga is pronounced "Reega."

But maybe the mispronunciation is part of the fun, or dates from the heyday
of anglicizing furrin words.

So maybe the same goes for Niger/tiger.

Or maybe "NYE-jur" was thought close enough to "TYE-gur" for limerick use.

Makes my head hurt.

PS: Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon correspondent, says "Nye-ZHEER-iun."
Probably not the best choice.

JL

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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



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