Slang Words

3 Pages 637 Words

Nigga Vs. Nigger

“Yo! That’s my NIGGA”, is what the average African American person would substitute for the connotation of their buddy, acquaintance, friend and associate. Notice the spelling of the word Nigga; the word ends with the letter “A” rather than “ER”. The ending of the word emphasizes a meaning. If the word ends with an “ER” it’s meant to offend a black person, as oppose to an “A”, which is used to express friendship within a circle of black friends. Even though the figure of speech is a noun, like the word nigger, it has a whole different meaning behind it. The connotation behind the word nigga symbolizes unity within the African American culture and society. Young black people feel comfortable calling each other “their nigga’s” because they are aware of the meaning. The connotation behind the word nigga to whites, regardless of the “A” or “ER” is negative. White people think the meaning is derogatory and always will be because of their perspective on how it was used throughout history. White people feel extremely uncomfortable calling their friends a nigga because they feel the new meaning of the connotation is the same denotation of the word.
“That’s a NIGGER”, is the way many people classified black people back in the day. The word nigger is traced back to 1786 with the same denotation as it has now. A nigger as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as, “loosely or incorrectly applied to members of other dark-skinned races.” Throughout history the word nigger was never used in a manner that demonstrates pleasant things, it was always used to belittle a black person for not being similar to what the average person was (white). In the Oxford English Dictionary, all the examples the author provides for the reader reflect a negative meaning of that word. For example, in the dictionary it states to work like a nigger, is to work exceptionally hard. This examp...