# Who changed the pronunciation of Niger? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309 "2005-08-09T18:17:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/101 "2017-10-26T15:39:05Z")
> [@dstarfire](#): > > You can’t have a discussion of french pronunciation without this illuminating joke: “The name is we ZELL!!” Clouseau: Tell me do you have a reum? Hotel Clerk: I do not know what a ‘reum’ is. Clouseau: Zimmer. Hotel Clerk: Ah, a ‘room’. Clouseau: That is what I have been saying, you idiot. Reum. Zimmer. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/102 "2017-10-26T21:34:01Z")
Amusing how politicized place-name pronunciations have become. First time I noticed this ongoing silliness, was back during the Iran Contra mess, in the Reagan administration, when people on the right started complaining that Dan Rather said “Neekayrogewah,” in an attempt to say Nicaragua like the Spanish speaker. Since it was pretty clear Rather wasn’t on Reagan’s “side,” they decided that failure to substitute Americanized pronunciations of all place names, was an act of treachery. I’ve seen other people since, who get upset about the same thing, because they think someone is purposely trying to put them down for using American pronunciations. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/103 "2017-10-27T05:17:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Paris, Arkansas uses the English Pronunciation. All I know about Paris, Texas is no one would dare call it Gay Paree. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/104 "2017-10-27T05:47:31Z")
Maybe the Texan city was named after the Trojan bloke… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/105 "2017-10-27T05:49:13Z")
The condom maker? That’s a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/106 "2017-10-27T09:32:07Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Maybe the Texan city was named after the Trojan bloke… Lesurting in a plegnency. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/107 "2017-10-27T09:39:01Z")
I think a great deal stems from timid publishers afraid they will be boycotted by people who have an interest in the Plurinational State of Bolivia and the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia if they don’t comply with those countries’ silly demands for usage of those full names, but nobody in the United Mexican States or the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have never made a fuss. Nor the people of Jungguo or Misr or Bharat. And then all that Cote d’Ivolre foolishness. - It’s not Macedonia’s fault, but Greece’s ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/108 "2017-10-27T11:13:53Z")
Since this zombie is shambling along nicely anyway… > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > In the US, the original pronunciation of coupe had died out before the 1950s. It’s still current in the UK though. The British still spell it “coupé”, though, with an accent on the e. Which ruins one of my favorite stupid jokes (which needs to be spoken aloud): Q. Why does a chicken coop have two doors? A. Because if it had four doors, it’d be a chicken sedan. > [@Acsenray](#): > > The same reason we say “Belarus” instead of “White Ruthenia,” “Moldova” instead of “Moldavia” (or “Bessarabia”), “Thailand” instead of “Siam,” “Iran” instead of “Persia,” and “Myanmar” instead of “Burma.” Why’d they change it? I can’t say - people just liked it better that way. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/109 "2017-10-27T12:38:26Z")
And yet we still have Georgia, which would actually be easier to talk about if we found some native name to call it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/110 "2017-10-27T12:49:37Z")
Since that limerick has been brought up again, does that mean people actually previously pronounced Niger to rhyme with tiger? What I learned in school was the “soft” g, /dʒ/ or J sound. On an aside, now that I’ve used the IPA, are there any French words that are dge, dgi, or dj that have the English J sound? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/111 "2017-10-27T14:00:57Z")
Are you thinking of Djibouti ? ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/112 "2017-10-27T14:51:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Since that limerick has been brought up again, does that mean people actually previously pronounced Niger to rhyme with tiger? > > What I learned in school was the “soft” g, /dʒ/ or J sound. > > On an aside, now that I’ve used the IPA, are there any French words that are dge, dgi, or dj that have the English J sound? All French words (usually loanwords of foreign origin) with the English “J” sound are spelled with “DJ”. Except some West African loanwords and names where it may be spelled “DI”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309/113 "2017-10-27T15:03:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Since that limerick has been brought up again, does that mean people actually previously pronounced Niger to rhyme with tiger? I’ve been looking on Google books through historical dictionaries/pronunciation guides back into the 1800s, and the few examples I’ve found all have the “soft g” (/dʒ/) pronunciation given. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-changed-the-pronunciation-of-niger/316309.md?page=5)