Editing Niger (section)

== Etymology ==
The name comes from the [[Niger River]] which flows through the west of the country. The origin of the river's name is uncertain. Alexandrian geographer [[Ptolemy]] wrote descriptions of the [[wadi]] ''{{Lang|grc|Gir}}'' (in neighbouring modern [[Algeria]]) and the {{Lang|grc|Ni-Gir}} {{Gloss|Lower Gir}} to the south, possibly referring to the Niger River.<ref name="jeffreys"/> The modern spelling ''Niger'' was first recorded by [[Berber people|Berber]] scholar [[Leo Africanus]] in 1550,<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Niger|volume=19|page=676|first=Frank Richardson|last=Cana}}</ref> possibly derived from the [[Tuareg language|Tuareg]] phrase the {{Lang|tmh|(e)gărăw-n-gărăwăn}} meaning {{Gloss|river of rivers}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hunwick |first=John O. |author-link=John Hunwick |title=Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents |publisher=Brill |place=Leiden |orig-year=1999 |year=2003 |isbn=978-90-04-11207-0 |page=275 Fn 22}}</ref> There is broad consensus among linguists that it does not derive from the Latin {{Lang|la|niger}} {{Gloss|black}} as was first erroneously believed.<ref name="jeffreys">{{cite journal|last1=Jeffreys|first1=Mervyn David Waldegrave|title=Niger : Origins of the Word|journal=Cahiers d'Études africaines|date=1964|volume=4|issue=15|pages=443–451|doi=10.3406/cea.1964.3019|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1964_num_4_15_3019|access-date=11 August 2023|archive-date=11 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811194204/https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1964_num_4_15_3019|url-status=live|issn = 0008-0055}}</ref> The standard pronunciation in English is {{IPAc-en|n|iː|ˈ|ʒ|ɛər}}, while in some Anglophone media {{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|aɪ|dʒ|ər}} is also used.