The various Englishes did diverge a lot since the 1500’s, but many standard practices remains, such as the educated and elite classes learning and using Latin and to a lesser extent Greek. Latin was the language of science until the 20th century.
If you say “negro” out loud with an exaggerated southern US accent (like you might see in an early 20th century western) you start to hear why the pronunciation shift works. Compare to how Nigeria is pronounced, with the French g as in garage. That hard g stop is in negro but not Niger.
The various Englishes did diverge a lot since the 1500’s, but many standard practices remains, such as the educated and elite classes learning and using Latin and to a lesser extent Greek. Latin was the language of science until the 20th century.
If you say “negro” out loud with an exaggerated southern US accent (like you might see in an early 20th century western) you start to hear why the pronunciation shift works. Compare to how Nigeria is pronounced, with the French g as in garage. That hard g stop is in negro but not Niger.
Good point.