nigger, nigger…(nei ge, nei ge…)
It’s a rum old world where the Mandarin (world’s most spoken mother tongue) for “umm” “ah” “hmm” “well” “erm” “er” happens to sound exactly like what is perhaps the worst insult in English (world’s most spoken language) for a big and understandably touchy community.
The Pinyin is “nei ge” but when spoken it sounds exactly like “nigger”.
In some (prissy/politically correct) circles “nigger” is simply referred to as “the N-word.” In some circles it’s used as a greeting/term of endearment. In any case, it’s not a word I would ever use lightly – I mean in banter – because it just has too much baggage, and because I’m a Sussex countryside boy who’s lived in Hungary and Asia and so hasn’t really got any black friends, perhaps.
I was reminded of the whole issue this during my debate classes last week. My students, who are good at English and by and large did a great job of debating difficult topics, would often fill in their nervous pauses with “nigger,nigger’ or sometimes just “nigger’. I told them it sounded weird and tried to discourage them from saying it when speaking English.
When I first heard this Putonghua “vocal filler”, I really couldn’t believe it. First off, it’s two syllables for Christ’s sake. To my mind, fillers should be an economical one syllable: Hungarian “Haht”, French “hein”, “ben”, “Errrrrrr” (shrug shoulders), German “doch”. Though there are doubtless some languages where the main vocal filler is five syllables or something. Anyone know? But also it’s just such an unfortunate coincidence that one of the most common words in Mandarin should cause a cringe for most anglophone listeners.
My Chinese wife knows this and tries her best not to use “nei ge” when speaking Mandarin in England. On one occasion in a “Chinese circle” in Brighton she got quite uncomfortable when a white British girl kept on using it. “Doesn’t she know she shouldn’t say that in England?” she asked me later. Too sensitive? Perhaps, and I told her I thought so, but at least she’s trying not to offend people.
And I can’t help wondering whether it has as yet caused offense in America. Some Chinese yakking away near a group of black people who keep on overhearing the word “nigger” and decide to do something about it? Total incomprehension and indignation on the part of the Chinese; conflict ensues…perhaps. A silly scenario, but that, or something similar, does not seem so implausible to me.
And “the N-word” can cause real trouble, even when embedded in another word! One notorious example is when “David Howard, a white city official in Washington, D.C., resigned from his job in January 1999, when he used niggardly in a fiscal sense while talking with black colleagues, who took offense at his use of the word.” (Wiki)
It’s still a loaded word then, and I hope the Putonghua filler doesn’t cause trouble. I also hope that if any disputes do occur over this, the parties concerned will later check out this post and see that no offense was meant.
Hah! And I also hope to be made President of North Korea when Kim Jong-il pops his platform clogs.
K
As a loosely connected postscript, here’s a Jackie Chan anecdote from
http://www.disenchanted.com/dis/humanity/wassup.html
Everybody I know shares the same favorite moment from the movie Rush Hour starring Chris Tucker (who’s as black as the ace of spades) and Jackie Chan (a slanty-eyed type). Tucker’s character has entered a bar and is passing out some friendly greets to his brothers, slapping palms and using the phrase “whaassup, mah nigger?” Later in the scene, Jackie’s character—who is fresh off the plane from Hong Kong and new to this American jive—attempts to perform a common maneuver practiced by mankind for millennia: imitate someone else’s culture to fit in better. He flashes a silly grin at the bartender, says “what’s up, my nigger?”, and almost gets a barstool broken across his teeth.
