Talk:Niger River

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I rolled back the two changes for this reason: Westerners with a capitalized W is the usual way to refer to the "Western civilization" nations - as is meant here. Without capitalilzation it could, and often does, mean people from the west of whatever geographic area you're talking about. As for the spelling of "Timbuktu," I (probably like you) am more familiar with the version that you put it, but the map and current usage favors the other. I changed it to be consistent. - DavidWBrooks 19:54, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fair enough on westerners; no big problem there, but it seems that since the Wikipedia article about that city is called 'Timbuktu', and that article identifies 'Tomboctou' as an alternate spelling, then in Wikipedia as a whole should standardize on Timbuktu, or rename the article about the city itself. If the map that we have doesn't jive with it, then we should replace the map. --Bletch 15:54, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fair enough in return. I swear it used to be the other way around - Timbuktu was redirected to Tombouctou! Ah, well: I'll change it back in this article. - DavidWBrooks 17:08, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Vandalism 2 Timbuktu naming 3 Name origin? 4 Dasibari

[edit] Vandalism

I don't get why this article keeps getting vandalized. -- Stevey7788 23:25, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Probably the name is close enough to "nigger" to tittilate the simple-minded. There is no rhyme or reason to vandalisation, alas. - DavidWBrooks 01:21, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Timbuktu naming

I've modified the Timbuktu reference slightly. I've stated that the alternative spelling, Tombouctou, is the French spelling of the town; and Mali is a French colonly after all. :) (I live in Mali).

Do you really? Neat! Where? (You'll see, by the way, that the Timbuktu/Tombouctou debate has been around a while, here and in the Timbuktu article itself.) - DavidWBrooks 11:23, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Name origin?

I was just wondering what was origin of this rivers name. I couldnt find the answer to this on the pages for Niger or Nigeria or here. Hellycopper 02:46, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

In reference to the etymology section of the article: If the name "Niger" does come from a Romance language root for "black", the original namers could have been referring to the people along the river, not to the actual color of the river. Applejuicefool 20:58, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Restored an old comment on the etymology. kwami 02:29, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Plinus in his Natural History uses the name Nigris but states that the people around it are called Nigrites "after the name of the river" as a latin speaker, if the name had been related to niger as "black", he would have stated it or would have left it as obvious and unstated. But this diligent comment about the name of the Nigrites clearly shows (at least to me) that it comes from a non-latin root. --Diligent (talk) 18:06, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dasibari

I'd like to find out more information about the Romans and their "hearing of the river (Niger) and calling it Dasibair." What's the origin of this name? Who did they get it from? A simple reference would suffice here.