It's the name of a weird fermented milk drink in a lot of Slavic and other languages (I first encountered it in the Czech Republic):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

There are shelves and shelves of it in UK supermarkets, it's very popular here. I live a walk away from a dairy that produces it (including kefir soap bars) https://www.instagram.com/wildcroftdairy/

Not just europe. I'm in canada and its very common to see it in grocery stores (maybe not the most popular drink, but popular enough people know what it is).

I fully knew what Kefir is before this post. I had never heard of the slur everyone is talking about until reading this comment section.

Non-mobile link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck

I would argue ducks are more mobile than your average glass of kefir.

Oops, sorry, I always confuse the two. The correct link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

Kefir is one of the most popular milk-based drinks in Poland.

it's a CVCVC word that most people can pronounce and the primary author likes for whatever reason. it's completely fine.

I didn't downvote you. There are only so many phonologically near-optimal patterns to recycle into things that sound kinda-sorta like words, so you're bound to run into these things. You just pick your poison and hope that you don't end up being shipwrecked by a gale-force meme like "fedora" as a pejorative with time.

fwiw, the concern you're thinking of tends to be sidestepped either by a pseudo-initialism or a vowel shift in actual practice. In this case, the first options / paths of least resistance in an arabic-speaking community would seemingly be:

- to raise the first vowel to more of an [ɪə]¹ or

- to pronounce the /kəf/ - /kɑf/ then "IR" as single letters.

¹ which afaik would turn it into a long vowel that might act like a geminate? dunno

I mean, I've got my feelings about formal methods, so the implications about people going to technical conferences to talk about Coq are spot on.

As a relatively unenlighted person on the topic of nasty slurs, I apprechiate the tipoff that using the name of a cultured milk drink sounds uncultured. Although, I tend to name things with overworked puns, so there's that.

I don't get why, can someone explain it to me?

I'm from the US, Kefir is healthy fermented yogurt-like drink that is in every grocery store pronounced "kee-fur".

Does it mean something else in another language?

> I'm from the US, Kefir is healthy fermented yogurt-like drink that is in every grocery store pronounced "kee-fur".

Pretty unfortunate. Take a look here at a pronunciation in English more closely resembling the original Caucasian / Slavic: https://www.lexico.com/definition/kefir (/kəˈfɪə/ in IPA). There's audio in the link, which should hopefully clear up confusion.

This is also the common way I've heard it pronounced in the UK, where the product appears on most major grocery store shelves.

"Kafir" is an Arabic word meaning unbeliever or infidel, and is used in the Islamic word as a pejorative for non-Muslims. It's also been adopted elsewhere, such as a nasty slur in South Africa for blacks.

Kafir or kaffir is not kefir. Done. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I think they are talking about kEfir not kAfir. I presume they don't mean the same thing.

This must be culturally specific since where I live there's absolutely nothing even just unfortunate about the word "kefír".

I'm sorry but what is wrong with the word 'kefir'

What's unfortunate about it?

It sounds similar to kaffir which is a derogatory term used in the Middle East for people who don’t practice a certain religion. It is also used in South Africa in a manner similar to the n-word in America.

Here in the US, I can go to many grocery stores, and have my choice of kefir.

As an actual Hindu who has lived in a Muslim majority Middle Eastern country, I'm not the tiniest bit offended, because a fermented yogurt drink happens to have a somewhat similar name as an insult based on religious bigotry..

Here in Iran, the slur is pronounced as Kaafar, and the drink as kefir. They sound distinct enough.

In many european languages it definitely does not sounds similar. A is a and e is e.

Why is it derogatory? And what is the non-derogatory alternative to that word in Arabic?

I choose not to answer you because you're either a troll or ignorant. Hopefully it's just the latter, in which case feel free to use google to educate yourself.

Not many people in the US or the EU speak Arabic. If I'm ignorant of it and you're a speaker of Arabic, then why don't you just enlighten me? Since when is removing one's ignorance not the point of asking questions?

In South Africa it’s equivalent to using N word.

I'm quite obviously asking about Arabic as it is being used in the Middle East. I've even spelled it out, and so did the comment I was responding to. The irrelevant South African fringe usage was also already mentioned in the comment I was responding to (hence your repetition of it bringing zero new information) but of no interest to me (unless you believe that Arabic is a widespread language in South Africa), hence me not referring to it.

If you weren’t allergic to Google you would have learned that the South African word was picked up from Arabic. So yeah, it is relevant.

Maybe people don’t spoon feed you explanations because you’re rude even to the people who try to explain.

No, the fringe usage half a globe away still doesn't make it relevant if I'm asking how some things are called in a Middle-Eastern language. Likewise, the Czech word "Polák" for a citizen of Poland with no alternative to it in that language does not become suddenly offensive or inappropriate just because the cognate "Polack" happens to be offensive in the US. And as one can clearly see, I'm not even being rude to people with inconsequential segues.