I like to listen to news updates from Ukraine when I’m working on my research. They are in Ukrainian or Russian, so nobody in the neighboring offices or hallways can understand what’s being said.
It was all going great until I started listening to a report about the coup in Niger. It was discussed because of Russia’s heavy involvement in Africa. People were trying to figure out why Russia pretty much abandoned its interests in Latin America in favor of Africa.
I really wanted to hear the discussion but, unfortunately, the Russian-language pronunciation of “Niger” does not sound nice in English. I had to turn the newscast off immediately before somebody reported me for a micro aggression.
Clarissa's Blog 
“the Russian-language pronunciation of “Niger””
I just looked it up….. Нигер….. It’s also pronounced with a hard g in Polish… I’ve seen it in written news recently but hadn’t heard it that I remember.
How on earth did that happen? It’s a former French colony and both russia and Poland at different points were big francophile cultures…. so…. weird.
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The journalist in question has no Ukrainian accent, which would have softened the g and made it sound more like h. But this was a very Russian pronunciation and so NSFW.
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It’s the Latin pronunciation of the word, whence the country’s name comes, meaning “black”.
Rather, what’s up with the recent Woke backlash against the use of the adverb “niggardly”?
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