The+N+word

Rahman, Jacquelyn. “The N Word.” Journal of English Linguistics, Sage, Jan. 2012

The African American Community oppresses itself when it validates the usage of the N-word by trying to differentiate the term through the manipulation of its spelling, tone, and connotation. The original, 1800s, spelling of the N-word is nigger, which according to Rahman, The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary describes the term nigger as “perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English.”(Rahman 5) The urban adaptation of the N-word is nigga, a slang, which through the apparent change in spelling has made the word more user-friendly among African Americans. Some may use the two words interchangeably, in defense that one word is just an adaptation of the other, but this utilization would be incorrect because the change in spelling of the N-word does not change the derogatory meaning of the word.