Re: [tied] "Niggers of India"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Abdullah Konushevci" <akonushevci@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] "Niggers of India"


On 12/15/05, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- Patrick Ryan <proto-language@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
> > To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 1:45 AM
> > Subject: Re: [tied] "Niggers of India"
> >
> >
> > > Daniel J. Milton wrote:
> > >
> ****GK: As Dan and Piotr have pointed out, "niger" is
> a Latin term of doubtful origin meaning "black"
> (etc..). It takes a very special kind of logic to
> believe that an original meaning of "incapable of
> growing a lock" (or something along those lines) in
> some non IE language would have developed into the
> attested Latin sense of "dark" "black" etc. You seem
> to say that the "original" "lockless" was
> misinterpreted by Latins (or others, or other IE's if
> there are such indications) to mean "black" etc..
> because those so designated happened to be black, a
> characteristic more evident to the IE's than that they
> were "lockless", and that SUBSEQUENTLY this term
> ("niger") began to be applied to things "dark" etc..
> OTHER than humans. Not very likely.******
> ************


Why we don't not assume that *nekW-t is a denominal from verbal root *negW-
'to be dark, be night' and to see <nigger> as derivative in suffix -er.

Konushevci


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Patrick:

Abdullah, /nigger/ is a slang term employed by black-haters (including some
black ones).

We should really be discussing /niger/, which, of course, could involve
/Negro/, which used to be, at least, a fairly neutral term.

Having said that, I would like to see a discussion of *nekW-t- since I have
struggled with it for a very long time.

Perhaps regarding it as an assimilation from *negW + -*t- might open a new
door or two.

However, 'naked' was much nearer by. The Egyptian called the Aegean isles
/H3.w nb.w/, 'isles of the naked'; and my recent delvings into Etruscan
culture convinced me that naked beaches have been around for a long time.

***