Nigga (/ˈnɪɡə/) is a colloquial term in African-American Vernacular English that is considered vulgar in many contexts. It began as a dialect form of the word nigger, an ethnic slur against black people. As a result of reappropriation, today the word is used mostly by African-Americans in a largely non-pejorative sense as a slang term referring to another black person or to themselves, often in a neutral or friendly way.[1][2] The word is commonly associated with hip hop culture and since the 1990s, with gangs (especially in popular culture). The word is more often applied to men, with more select terms being used for women in the culture.
In dialects of English that have non-rhotic speech (including standard British English), the hard-r nigger and nigga are usually[a] pronounced the same.
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