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The article has some interesting data points, where the author reports his own experience, but it doesn't really answer the question in the title, and where the
by bloak 5y ago
The article has some interesting data points, where the author reports his own experience, but it doesn't really answer the question in the title, and where the author goes beyond his own experience he makes some claims that need further exploration, I think.
1. The etymology of “aethiops” is uncertain. It was believed in ancient times that the word meant “burnt-face” but that may be just folk etymology. See the Oxford English Dictionary or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology
2. The connection he makes with Robert Burns and Winnie-the-Pooh seems like a wild bit of unsubstantiated speculation. OED confirms that Robert Burns wrote: "How graceless Ham leugh at his Dad, Which made Canaan a niger [rhyme vigour, rigour, tiger]." But what's the connection between an 18th-century Scottish poet, A. A. Milne, and an American children's rhyme?
- jgwil2 5y agoJust that "tigger" actually is how the word tiger was once pronounced, and there's a character in Pooh named Tigger. The connection to the children's rhyme is that we now say "catch a tiger by the tail," and in view of the above pronunciation of tiger as "tigger," you should be able to infer how the rhyme originally went (replace tail with toe so it actually rhymes with moe).
- bloak 5y agoI'm not saying it's untrue, because I certainly don't know for sure, but what evidence is there that "tiger" was pronounced like "tigger" in America at a time that overlaps with the appearance of the children's rhyme? The article presents evidence that "tiger" rhymed with "vigour" in Scottish, but perhaps they both rhymed with "eager", not with "bigger". In Scotland. In the 18th century.
- jgwil2 5y agoIt's an opinion piece, it doesn't need to present evidence for everything it says. Take the thirty seconds to look it up on Wikipedia if you want to see all the details.