[ol]
[li]Pretty much single person working in or with Niger on a regular basis says “Nee-Zhair.” This comes from the French way of saying it, but really, the origin isn’t that important- it’s not about French as the language of French people, but more about French as the main official language of Niger. What’s important is that diplomats, aid workers, miners, actual real-life Nigereans, etc. all say “Nee-Zhair.” It’s just a lot easier than code-switching all the time. French and English are close enough that if two Anglophones speak a lot of French all the time, they will often end up speaking Franglais even to each other. So among people involved in Niger, “Nee-Zhair” rules. [/li][li]Niger isn’t exactly an international superstar, and there are only a few communities of Westerners working in or with Niger. These people used to be pretty hard to come by in the media, probably because they were in Niger. Because of globalization, increased mobility, availability of cell phones and internet, and generally more information, commentary about Niger is coming from people who actually work in or with Niger rather than random news readers who couldn’t locate the place on a map. We are hearing more and more from the experts.[/li][li]So the “in the know” version is becoming prominent. [/li][/ol]
“The Niger is called… Egerew n-Igerewen ‘river of rivers’ in Tuareg … The likeliest possibility is an alteration, by influence of Latin niger ‘black’, of the Tuareg name egerew nigerewen, which is used along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu.”
Just a question, why would you say the (soft)G sound as a Z ?
I’m pretty sure it’s Nigeriens, even in English.
P.S: when I was living in Nigeria, now more than twenty years ago, I seem to remember Nigerians themselves said Niger (that is exactly like Nigeria, but without the -ia). Maybe it has changed there as well.
Just to note I parodied the Monkhouse limerick in an earlier resurrection of this metazombie.
I don’t think it’s ever been mentioned why the French is somewhat preferred – the countries which were formerly part of French West Africa (Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauretania, Benin, and Togo) or of French Equatorial Africa (Chad, Gabon, Cameroon, C.A.R., and the Brazzaville Congo) continue to use French to varying degrees as a lingua franca between them and in some cases between member cultures within them. I suspect it would be very easy to overstate how much this still is done, but to say it is to some extent is not incorrect.
Final point: it is simply a matter of courtesy to refer to a country, city, etc., by its own preferred name in English – which may or may not be its indigenous or official-language name. To cite a couple of examples from the list above, Cote d’Ivoire is insistent that it not be termed “Ivory Coast”, but the Republque Africaine Centrale is quite happy to have Anglophones call it the Central African Republic. In contradistinction from the French/English examples, the former Upper Volta is fairly insistent that its name is Burkina Faso, no matter the language of the person identifying it.
No, “Nigérien” is the French word for an inhabitant of Niger. “Nigérois” would be another plausible word, but in this case it’s not the correct one. “Nigéroise” would be the feminine form (of this inexistant word).
“Yes I love to see a tiger from the Congo or the Niger, and especially when lashing of his tail” - W.S. Gilbert, “There is beauty in the bellow”, The Mikado.
But then Gilbert perpetrated some consciously awful rhymes (“caravanserai”, “Chancery” to name but one), not to mention his offences against natural history.
I agree it is pronounced Nee zhair. But then what becomes of the limerick?
There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.
As for Sage Rat’s post about pronouncing final C, R, F, and L - it is a useful guideline. But there many exceptions. There are no rules in language, only descriptions and little devices to help us remember what people say and write.
Quite often it is: “cher” is one word that comes immediately to mind. I suspect the difference may be that ER=AY would sound like the infinitive of a verb. But this is one area where French pronunciation and spelling aren’t entirely regular.
I think it’s legitimate, but I also think if we’re going to pick any pronunciation then just going with the native one is simplest. If you try to anglicize the name in many cases the pronunciation still won’t be obvious anyway (unless we just throw out the original name completely and call it something like Night Air or something :))
So for somewhere like Niger, where most English-speakers wouldn’t be sure how to pronounce it anyway, may as well go with the French pronunciation. But for well-established place names, I agree with you that it causes confusion to try to change the name to “conform” in some way.
