Morpheme was the wrong word on my part. I just meant I don’t know of pinyin that corresponds to the “i” sound in “digger” up there in the top of your mouth. But I think what is probably happening is that people are making the pinyin initial sound “zh” or “n” and almost entirely dropping the “e” or “ei” sound, which when combined with a “ge” sound comes out a little like “digger.” But really, it’s more “zh-ge” or “n-ge” sounding like “dgger.”
Anyway, interesting side tangent. (To me at least.)
As an actor, I’ll say it if it’s in the script. Actually going to do that this weekend, as I’m shooting some scenes for a low budget movie set in the 60s, and my character is an asshole.
Browsing through instances of it in Google Books now. Most of the top hits are about the controversy over the word or from dictionaries. I was suprised to see one of the top hits in Richard Dawkin’s The Ancestors Tale, and it turns out to be a quote that “nature is niggardly.”
Of course, here it’s okay, ‘cuz it’s a white guy tellin’ another white guy that he’s NOT a niggard. And it goes without saying that Eowyn was one fine thang! 
I never avoid using the N-word. If someone is a nincompoop then I will call them a nincompoop. Calling them an N-word just doesn’t have the same impact.
It is a reference to the 1968 book by Pierre Vaillières, Les Nègres blancs d’Amérique, English, White Niggers of America, 1971. It was a class analysis of Canada, with Quebec, especially Quebec workers, viewed as the victims of English capitalism. It was an important book for the the Front de libération du Québec and similar movements.
So, a few points:
-This was more than half a century ago that it was used.
-This was used in a different country where the ethnic slur was (I believe) a bit less common (and yeah, I’ve read my Kipling–I’m not saying it was unheard of).
-It was deliberately used to reflect archaic speech patterns.
-It was being used by an Oxford don.
By no means am I (or most people) saying that use of “niggardly” or “niggard” is directly racist. But in modern times, the word’s use is overwhelmingly tied up in the debate over its meaning. When I see Dawkins or George RR Martin or similar folks using it, I can’t help but wonder whether they’re trying to be kewl intellectual mavericks fighting the fight against ignorance by giving the finger to people who know about the word’s baggage.
Even if that’s not what they’re trying to do, the word’s baggage is sufficiently distracting that I’ll spend a couple of seconds thinking about that baggage instead of about whatever they want me to think about. I suspect plenty of other people have a similar reaction, and I believe that makes it a poor word choice.
I was in “All the Way”…been there. Also “Of Mice and Men”…I just realized I may be getting type cast.