Support NeoGAF

[Africanus]

If this is a discussion only for Scandinavians, I'll retreat.

The discussion is not only for Scandinavians, but certainly you must realize how disingenuous you are being.
It's a similar matter regarding Negro in Spanish and English. No one blinks an eye at a Spanish person saying Negro, but in English, the meaning is altered to be more sinister.

So in your case, it's irrelevant discussing someone with the surname Neger outside of Norway as the word likely lacks the same meaning.

 

[aku:jiki]

I feel like this is the sort of thing we should keep around. Because, really, you'd have to be trying pretty damn hard to manage to be offended by something some fool named 400 years ago, and it's nice to have a reminder we can point and laugh at.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Negro/Neger hasn't had the same pejorative association historically in Europe as it has in the U.S. There's a loooooot of stuff throughout Europe that has Negro/Neger and a lot of it has changed over the years due to globalisation/travel since people abroad know the similar words such as "nigger" are pejorative so in order to not offend and just reduce confusion/unnecessary issues the words have been replaced. It's just important to also remember that it has never had the same pejorative association, that's mostly an U.S specific issue. There were actually other words used in Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish etc to insult black people. Today the people that are racist just use "nigger" and language-specific slurs etc but "neger" for example is not "nigger" in the same way "nigger" is known. It's kind of difficult to explain but it's best to never use them.

 

[Beefy]

Nobody in Norway has that surname, or Scandinavia for that sake.

Apparently there are people with Neger as their last name in Norway.
http://lastnames.myheritage.com/last-name/Neger

 

[SomedayTheFire]

Already taken..

Yeah, that was the point of my post. Well, that and to highlight how dumb it is for reasons Africanus posted above. Maybe it wasn't clear enough.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

I dont speak spanish, but is negro really intended as a slur or does it just say black, not even on a racial intention?
And is it the only word for black in the spanish language?

 

[openrob]

I hope Nigeria will change its name soon. And don't forget Montenegro.

Bro, there is a country called Niger:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger

 

[Hagi]

? Nigger in norway is Neger.

I was thinking Dutch for some reason instead of Norwegian.

I'd assume they're both slurs. And both would be considered slurs today and that's what it's all about, really.

That's all I was asking really.

 

[MikeHattsu]

So what is Nikker? i thought that was the Nigger equivalent

Nikker isn't a Norwegian word. A Norwegian nigger equivalent would be svarting I guess.

 

[Idba]

Negro/Neger hasn't had the same pejorative association historically in Europe as it has in the U.S. There's a loooooot of stuff throughout Europe that has Negro/Neger and a lot of it has changed over the years due to globalisation/travel since people abroad know the similar words such as "nigger" are pejorative so in order to not offend and just reduce confusion/unnecessary issues the words have been replaced. It's just important to also remember that it has never had the same pejorative association, that's mostly an U.S specific issue. There were actually other words used in Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish etc to insult black people. Today the people that are racist just use "nigger" etc but "neger" for example is not "nigger".

Neger is the direct translation for Nigger in Norway. I havent heard on any other scandinavian racial slurs other tha Neger and svarting (black guy but more harsh and is considered a racial slur by most.)

Negro isnt used in northern europe at all

 

[NEO0MJ]

I feel that the names are fine. Why are people such a bunch of naggers?

Did that joke come off OK?

 

[Fliesen]

Negro/Neger hasn't had the same pejorative association historically in Europe as it has in the U.S. There's a loooooot of stuff throughout Europe that has Negro/Neger and a lot of it has changed over the years due to globalisation/travel since people abroad know the similar words such as "nigger" are pejorative so in order to not offend and just reduce confusion/unnecessary issues the words have been replaced. It's just important to also remember that it has never had the same pejorative association, that's mostly an U.S specific issue. There were actually other words used in Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish etc to insult black people. Today the people that are racist just use "nigger" etc but "neger" for example is not "nigger".

Still, i see nothing speaking against renaming an unimportant geographic location as to not have it include a word anymore, that is nowadays still used in mostly condescending ways.
If you openly refer to a person as 'Neger' in public (as in, "well, i'm lost, maybe we should ask the Neger over there for the way to the train station") you'll earn some weird looks. It's a word that has been mostly removed from everyday use.

It's difficult because Europe doesn't have that big of a history with African minorities. In Austria, the "Nigger" situation would be most compareable to the word "Tschusch", which is:

* throughout the late 1900s used as a slur against immigrants from slavic / south-east-european / oriental countries
* nowadays frowned upon but still used by people who are rather backwards (in the 'negro' kind of way)
but ALSO
* embraced by young people of said ethnic group to refer to one another

But who am i to judge, i still regularly have a "negro in a shirt" as dessert.

 

[6.8]

Stumbled upon this while looking around Ottawa the Canadian capital (which is where I am from):

http://goo.gl/maps/2DoaW

(Face palm)

 

[Black_Stride]

I hope Nigeria will change its name soon.

 

[Fliesen]

Stumbled upon this while looking around Ottawa the Canadian capital (which is where I am from):

http://goo.gl/maps/2DoaW

(Face palm)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_Head

named after a plant previously called a "Niggerhead"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggerhead
they called all kinds of things Niggerheads back then, because "lol, it looks like a nigger!"

 

[Hagi]

Stumbled upon this while looking around Ottawa the Canadian capital (which is where I am from):

http://goo.gl/maps/2DoaW

(Face palm)

There's a nigger reef in Australia

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Still, i see nothing speaking against renaming an unimportant geographic location as to not have it include a word anymore, that is nowadays still used in mostly condescending ways.
If you openly refer to a person as 'Neger' in public (as in, "well, i'm lost, maybe we should ask the Neger over there for the way to the train station") you'll earn some weird looks. It's a word that has been mostly removed from everyday use.

It's difficult because Europe doesn't have that big of a history with African minorities. In Austria, the "Nigger" situation would be most compareable to the word "Tschusch", which is:

* throughout the late 1900s used as a slur against immigrants from slavic / south-east-european / oriental countries
* nowadays frowned upon but still used by people who are rather backwards (in the 'negro' kind of way)
but ALSO
* embraced by young people of said ethnic group to refer to one another

But who am i to judge, i still regularly have a "negro in a shirt" as dessert.

Is Mohr really a slur? Or is it just an outdated term to refer to black people? Even while I dont use it, I always thought the later is the fact.
Serious question, sorry if this comes of stupid.

 

[Fliesen]

Is Mohr really a slur? Or is it just an outdated term to refer to black people? Even while I dont use it, I always thought the later is the fact.
Serious question, sorry if this comes of stupid.

i would believe with the mindset people had back there, most of the words used back then would be considered a slur today. I don't think there were many Europeans back then, who would have not looked down upon Africans.

So even if they, back then, didn't mean it as an insult, the fact that they "playfully" named plenty of chocolate-based sweets and desserts after people of African Ethnicity makes it seem like they considered the entirety of people of colour some sort of inferior joke race.
It's similar to not calling people with Down Synrome "Mongoloid" anymore. The word itself isn't bad, and most people didn't really mean it as an insult... still, it's just not okay anymore
Those people are not from Mongolia, and people from Africa have as much to do with chocolate as chinese people are "yellow". It's just ass-backwards concepts that don't necessarily should be clinged onto, let alone embraced.

But yeah, "Mohr" is not as bad as "Neger", i think.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Technically Montenegro means N* Mountain, and there's even a liqueur named Amaro Montenegro.

Have a bottle of that at home.

It's awesome..

Blows Jagermeister out of the water...

 

[MGrant]

Is Mohr really a slur? Or is it just an outdated term to refer to black people? Even while I dont use it, I always thought the later is the fact.
Serious question, sorry if this comes of stupid.

The cognate in English is "Moor," which is indeed an extremely old (like, 800 years old) word used to describe dark-skinned people in general, including Arabs, Africans, Indians, Algerians, etc. It hasn't really been popular since the 1600s, though. It's unlikely you'll ever hear a racist in an English-speaking country cursing the Moors for their existence.

 

[MikeHattsu]

Neger is the direct translation for Nigger in Norway. I havent heard on any other scandinavian racial slurs other tha Neger and svarting (black guy but more harsh and is considered a racial slur by most.)

Negro isnt used in northern europe at all

Neger came from the Spanish word and was the standard word to use in Norwegian until recently:
http://www.sprakradet.no/sprakhjelp/Skriverad/Sensitive_ord/

Shouldn't be used today of course.

 

[Calvero]

Its clearly black

Eh, they all look the same to me

 

[Fliesen]

The cognate in English is "Moor," which is indeed an extremely old (like, 800 years old) word used to describe dark-skinned people in general, including Arabs, Africans, Indians, Algerians, etc. It hasn't really been popular since the 1600s, though. It's unlikely you'll ever hear a racist in an English-speaking country cursing the Moors for their existence.

fun fact: i'd assume many people ordering a "Mohr im Hemd" actually believe they're ordering a "Moor im Hemd", "Moor" being a "(quag)mire".

You can tell by the use of grammatical gender, as you often hear people asking for "ein" (neutrum) "Moor im Hemd", as opposed to "einen" (masculinum) "Mohr im Hemd"

edit: i'm trying to lose the 2kg i gained during my vacation and am skipping lunch at work and i wasn't aware a thread about Norwegian geography would make me so god damn hungry...

 

[TheMAK]

Well I guess Arnold should change his name too: Schwarz e negger

 

[YoungHav]

smh @ Europe's morbid obsession with the blacks.

Anyway Hulk Hogan should be banished to Negro Mountain.

 

[Chariot]

Feeling reminded of Negrotown

This is an issue?

rip Schwarzenegger.

Never thought about it, but his name almost could be translated as "black nigger". Mindblowing.

 

[TatteredHat]

I was thinking Dutch for some reason instead of Norwegian.

That's all I was asking really.

Both Nikker and Neger were used in Dutch as well, the prior one being closer in meaning to Nigger and the latter being closer in meaning to Negro.

They've both fallen out of use as publicly acceptable speech, for obvious reasons. Most black people here just prefer being called "zwart", from what I understand. Although there is some contention regarding Neger having neutral or negative connotations.

 

[Alavard]

The cognate in English is "Moor," which is indeed an extremely old (like, 800 years old) word used to describe dark-skinned people in general, including Arabs, Africans, Indians, Algerians, etc. It hasn't really been popular since the 1600s, though. It's unlikely you'll ever hear a racist in an English-speaking country cursing the Moors for their existence.

 

[Fliesen]

Never thought about it, but his name almost could be translated as "black nigger". Mindblowing.

nah. unless you consider 2 letters "almost" That'd make you uhm ... Sharot

"Schwarzer Neger" and "Schwarzenegger" don't even sound that much alike because the "e" in "Neger" and in "egger" are quite different vowels, pronounciation wise.

you can clearly see it, when you spell it phonetically:
ʃwɔrtsənɛɡər vs. neːɡɐ

 

[Chariot]

nah.

"Schwarzer Neger" and "Schwarzenegger" don't even sound that much alike because the "e" in "Neger" and in "egger" are quite different vowels, pronounciation wise.

you can clearly see it, when you spell it phonetically:
ʃwɔrtsənɛɡər vs. neːɡɐ

That's why I said "almost".

 

[freeofgreed]

again, to everyone just going "LOL THREAD TITLE" and posting:

"Negerfjellet, Negerpynten og Negerdalen" means literally Nigger Mountain, Nigger Point and Nigger valley

There is no
"well, 'negro' is slightly condescending and was historically innocently used in mostly descriptive ways, while 'nigger' is used as a racial slur" in many European languages, including Norwegian.

There's always been one word, which is "Neger", which encapsulates, both the "it's not that bad, that's just how they said it back then" aspects of 'negro' as well as the "that's how people call People of Colour in a racist fashion" aspects of 'nigger'

which is why they should be renamed.


nope, because "Negger" isn't "Neger", just like "Niger" isn't "Nigger". It's not that hard to grasp, really

Thank you. You and another poster have already clarified why this is different than the spanish "negro" yet posters still want to just ignore it and post dumbass false equivalencies.

 

[Hex]

What's next OP, going to go after frijoles negros next?
I mean we can't have racist beans.

 

[Ikaran]

I dont speak spanish, but is negro really intended as a slur or does it just say black, not even on a racial intention?
And is it the only word for black in the spanish language?

No, negro is the only word for the colour black in Spanish. If you wanted to use a slur you would say negrata, puto negro or something like that.

 

[moered6]

Alot of you posting the Arnold and other shitty comparisons are probably the same people who are racially colour blind and don't think white privilege exist

 

[GAMEPROFF]

No, negro is the only word for the colour black in Spanish. If you wanted to use a slur you would say negrata, puto negro or something like that.

Then I dont get why locations should be changed then.

In english of course, but in spanish....?

 

[SecretSphere]

I'm wondering how it is in other Germanic languages. In Dutch 'neger' used to be an accepted way to refer to black people. The words with Roman language origins refer to skin color ("neger" related to negro/nero/noir, "blank" related to blanco/bianco/blanche/ meaning black and white in Spanish/Italian/French), while words with germanic origins refer to colors when not talking about skincolor. ("zwart" = black, "wit" = white). So the word used for a black person was consistent and logical with the word used for a white person.

So, do other Germanic languages have/had this same distinction between skincolor and color in general?

 

[Currygan]

what about Montenegro tho

 

[Kinyou]

Why did the British sailors give those locations norwegian names? Or are these translations? If so, what was the english name?

 

[GAMEPROFF]

what about Montenegro tho

Comes from the venetian language... I really doubt here that its really connected to negro as a slur, but I have no idea to be honest

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Both Nikker and Neger were used in Dutch as well, the prior one being closer in meaning to Nigger and the latter being closer in meaning to Negro.

They've both fallen out of use as publicly acceptable speech, for obvious reasons. Most black people here just prefer being called "zwart", from what I understand. Although there is some contention regarding Neger having neutral or negative connotations.

Neger or nengre is still used in daily speech in Suriname (which has a certain kind of irony to it).

 

[Ace Harding]

Stumbled upon this while looking around Ottawa the Canadian capital (which is where I am from):

http://goo.gl/maps/2DoaW

(Face palm)

What the fuck. How has nobody changed that yet? Does that mean something else in French?

 

[Chariot]

I'm wondering how it is in other Germanic languages. In Dutch 'neger' used to be an accepted way to refer to black people. The words with Roman language origins refer to skin color ("neger" related to negro/nero/noir, "blank" related to blanco/bianco/blanche/ meaning black and white in Spanish/Italian/French), while words with germanic origins refer to colors when not talking about skincolor. ("zwart" = black, "wit" = white). So the word used for a black person was consistent and logical with the word used for a white person.

So, do other Germanic languages have/had this same distinction between skincolor and color in general?

Same in Germany. Neger used to be kinda normal, although it's getting purged lately. Hell, it's even a legit name. Although Thomas Neger still can't see how his logo in combination with his name is... kinda weird.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Same in Germany. Neger used to be kinda normal, although it's getting purged lately. Hell, it's even a legit name. Although Thomas Neger still can't see how his logo in combination with his name is... kinda weird.

I think he plays dumb. There is no way he cant see it.

 

[Zaphrynn]

.

 

[SmokyDave]

Why did the Brits give these landmarks Norwegian names?

Why is the fact that the names aren't changing newsworthy?

What's the craic, Norway?

 

[neorej]

Porta Nigra in Trier.

 

[Stet]

Alot of you posting the Arnold and other shitty comparisons are probably the same people who are racially colour blind and don't think white privilege exist

I'm sure a lot of it comes from the weirdly ambiguous OP who can't decide if it's "negro" or not.

 

[Fliesen]

I'm wondering how it is in other Germanic languages. In Dutch 'neger' used to be an accepted way to refer to black people. The words with Roman language origins refer to skin color ("neger" related to negro/nero/noir, "blank" related to blanco/bianco/blanche/ meaning black and white in Spanish/Italian/French), while words with germanic origins refer to colors when not talking about skincolor. ("zwart" = black, "wit" = white). So the word used for a black person was consistent and logical with the word used for a white person.

So, do other Germanic languages have/had this same distinction between skincolor and color in general?

It used to be accepted to call a broken cigarette a "jew" in Austria. It used to be accepted to call a chinese person a "Chink". Thank god that's not the case anymore.

it used to be accepted, not because people were generally more laid back and less "politically correct", but because people were pretty racist back then and generally thought lesser of African or Asian people and seemed to lack empathy

I'm sure a lot of it comes from the weirdly ambiguous OP who can't decide if it's "negro" or not.

Edit: Also, i should have changed the title of the tread to be "Neger" and not "Negro". Sorry for the mistake

if people were to read more than just the thread title ...

 

[6.8]

What the fuck. How has nobody changed that yet? Does that mean something else in French?

No. This is western Quebec. Plenty of English there, and quite likely of English origins.

 

[Joni]

I'd say, keep them like that. It is over 400 years old.

But who am i to judge, i still regularly have a "negro in a shirt" as dessert.

I raise your racist with racist and sexist. These Chocolate-coated_marshmallow_treats were called negress's tits where I live.