Talk:mzungu

Very funny: if I call a black person "negro", which means "black [one]", I am called a racist although the "United Negro College Fund (UNCF), an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for black students" still exists. If a black person calls me "mzungu" or in English "hobo", then it's only "sometimes considered pejorative". As a political correct person I would call this expression racist, but as a Caucusian I have no right to be treated equally (?). (Gozudar (talk) 17:53, 29 December 2013 (UTC))

• You certainly have no rights to be treated equally by the English language, no. Language is not fair and users are under no obligation to create one insulting term just to make sure everyone is being insulted equally. I would also point out, though, that (deprecated template usage) Negro is not even marked as ‘pejorative’, let alone ‘racist’ – just ‘dated’. Maybe English isn't as out-to-get-you as you think? Ƿidsiþ 20:22, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

  See also: Aamer Rahman's explanation of reverse racism. - -sche (discuss) 20:39, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

I don't see how your intellectually lazy stand-up comedy act serves this discussion. But I'm not American, maybe it's that. Anyway. The question must not be political, but purely linguistic. In other words, it is about whether or not the term is offensive to a large portion of white people. If so, and if we have proof for that, it must doutblessly be labelled "offensive"; if not, then not. Simple. (And for the record, negro has been labelled "now offensive"). Kolmiel (talk) 06:30, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

"an mzungu"

How is it pronounced if it takes "an" instead of "a" as the citations seem to show? DTLHS (talk) 06:46, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

I believe it starts with an "mm" sound, more like "um" than a hard m. (Imagine somebody eating and saying "it was an -- mm, delicious -- zungu!") Or compare those loan words that start with a nasal "ung" sound (ngwee, Asian surname Ng) rather than "nug". Equinox ◑ 09:52, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

It's a syllabic consonant. In IPA, [m̩]. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 22:02, 30 July 2017 (UTC)