What does “Digga” mean? A German citizen explains

So, it’s that time of the year again where a harmless German word somehow left its own corner of the world and spread across social media, causing a bit of controversy, and as such, I figured it would be a good time to talk about a German slang word called “Digga”, “Digger” or “Diggah”.

For context, there was some outrage a while ago when clips from a German YouTuber/Streamer went viral outside of Germany, and lots of people misheard the guy saying “Digga”, thinking he’s saying a slur. More recently, someone apparently made a post on Twitter that was completely in English and had a random “digga” in there, which essentially just translates to “bro”. A lot of people got upset about that, thinking it’s some sort of code word or attempt at baiting the n-word or whatever.

Anyhow, so, today, I just wanted to write a post about the word and connotations and stuff, hoping that it clears things up.

What “Digga” means

It is believed that the word “digga” comes from Hamburg’s slang terms used in their youth and hip hop culture, back in the 80s and 90s, which literally related to “dick” (meaning “thick” or “big”) but has long been used as an affectionate term between friends.

Due to the softer pronunciation in Hamburg’s slang and dialects, the word eventually went through a transformation, going from “Dicker” to “Digger”… from a voiceless velar plosive to a voiced one, essentially. The English language also has similar transformations in different dialects.

Beyond that, people often will opt to use easier suffixes in their day-to-day speech, which is also a thing in English where “father”, “mother”, and other words ending in -er often get pronounced using /ə/, which would be closer to “fatha”, “motha”, etc. (with some differences depending on accent and dialects, of course). Germans pretty much do the same thing. It’s a comfort thing where it’s just easier to use a “schwa” (/ə/) than to pronounce “-er”.

Online, I’ve seen confusion in terms of how one goes from “dicker” to “digga”, so hopefully this explains it a little bit. It is essentially the result of the consonant softening over time while the ending shifted into the typical German unstressed “-a” sound.

Why don’t people just say “bro”?

So, with the linguistic side of things out of the way, I’d like to just talk a bit about the reason for slang usage. Some people online have claimed that “digga” is supposedly a dog whistle… but as outlined in this article here, dog whistles are supposed to be innocuous to outsiders, meaning that a word that sounds like a racial slur would most definitely not be a good pick for a dog whistle. I can assure anyone who has that concern that it’s not that convoluted. People use slang for a plethora of reasons!

For starters, slang usage reflects identity. Younger people will use slang terms and informal words to separate themselves from the established culture and differentiate their person from those around them. There’s a lovely article on that over here.

Slang is a way for folks to fit in with their friends and peers, signalling that they’re part of the in-group while also revealing information about you. Some terms, for instance, are only known in the punk scene, and depending on who you’re talking to, they will signal a sense of belonging.

That is not to say that slang automatically makes you belong somewhere, evident by the way in which older generations using slang terms to appear “hip” will often flop in their endeavours (cue Buscemi). There are a lot of layers to it. Beyond that, slang is also often just fun to use and/or saves a lot of time for people texting atm.

Another reason people use slang terms like “breh” or “diggah” is because of their different backgrounds and the lived experiences they have.

What I mean by this is that people will grow up in different milieus, resulting in them having a very different vocabulary based on who they grew up with. A working-class kid and a posh kid may be the same age but talk very differently as a result of that. Slang terms can help bridge these gaps.

Beyond that, I’d also like to talk about code-switching, which is part of the controversy here in particular: Non-native speakers of a language will oftentimes switch to languages they know in the middle of sentences to replace words they don’t know/understand or to acclimate other non-native speakers of a language.

I’m a second-generation immigrant – Albanian to be more precise – and while my mother does speak German, sometimes we switch to Albanian mid-sentence because it’s easier to do. We often don’t even realise it’s happening, much to the dismay of people who don’t speak Albanian.

On the phone in public, I sometimes also don’t want to talk about certain things in a way that people around me might understand, so I’ll switch languages for that. When I talk to people who are native English speakers, we also switch to English mid-convo whenever German just doesn’t do the trick. Similarly, I don’t speak “Hochdeutsch” in my hometown even though I speak very good “Hochdeutsch”.

Code-switching is when you switch to a different way of speaking based on who you’re talking to or based on the situation. It can happen naturally/automatically… but it can also be a very powerful intentional tool that helps people feel safe.

During my streams, I sometimes will say “(Ah)joah”, “Tja”, “Alter” or other similar terms that are German without realising it. It just happens. English speakers won’t understand these given that I speak English usually but it’s not like I’m intentionally trying to exclude them. I just sometimes say things in such ways by accident.

Conclusion: It’s just a word.

At the end of the day, “Digga” or “Digger” or “Diggah” is just a German slang word. It has a history, culture, and millions of everyday uses behind it. It’s not a secret code or anything of the sort, but simply how German speakers (especially the young ones) talk.

More than anything, I think this is a good reminder that language is complicated. Before assuming the worst, sometimes it is worth checking whether there is simply a cultural or linguistic explanation behind something unfamiliar.

Enough internet for the day.

This post was originally published on Indiecator.

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