#Polari language

[amanufacturedheaven]

Rare Language Learning: Polari

If you have ever used the words:

- Naff

- Butch

- Camp

You have unknowingly been speaking the sociolect known as Polari, the language of queer people primarily used in the 30s to the 70s. Polari is now an endangered language, as labelled by the University of Cambridge

Something of note: Many resources out there imply (or state) that Polari was a language invented and used solely by white cis gay men, which is decidedly untrue. Many words of Polari come from drag culture, lesbians, and the Romani people and their language. The use of ‘the language of British gay men’ may be a more palatable title to the general public, but it is not to me. I did my best to curate a variety of resources, but unfortunately much of queer history has been lost many more decades than I’ve been alive, if you have any other resources for studying Polari I would love to read them, message me or leave a link in the replies.

Articles

Learn Polari, the Secret Language of the Gays ⚢ Out Magazine

Polari: The code language gay men used to survive ⚢ BBC

Polari and the Hidden History of Gay Seafarers ⚢ National Museums Liverpool

The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language ⚢ Fabulosa!

Polari People ⚢ Fabulosa!

Polari: a language born from prejudice ⚢ Englishpanish

The secretive gay language that gave LGBTQ people a voice ⚢ GAYTIMES

A brief history of Polari: the curious after-life of the dead language for gay men ⚢ The Conversation

Study Material

The Polari Bible ⚢ Internet Archive

Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang ⚢ Internet Archive

Sociolinguistics / Polari ⚢ StudySmarter

FlashCards ⚢ Quizlet

New Polari Translator ⚢ LingoJam

Polari: A sociohistorical study of the life and decline of a secret language. ⚢ Dissertation, University of Manchester

Polari: a language born from prejudice ⚢ Englishpanish

Simon Bowkett: a short blog in Polari for LGBT+ History Month ⚢ Civil Service LGBT+ Network

[palarepolari]

It's been a shada journo with the old scheming cheat, girls. I can nishta halted pensing in toot the kervare chooses that were trolling roughshod over my poor bijou vida this temple letzta annie... maintain the bijou butterfly in my neck has carked it and halted its searches to ferricadooza me (literally) I'm sensing mucho dollier, but Madam dePrime remains in her latty, I guess. And I need to start parlaring your actual Polari again.

[linguisticdiscovery]

Polari

If you want to learn more about Polari, check out the fun book Fabulosa! The story of Polari, Britain’s secret gay language:

[atlantis-just-drowned]

The most important thing I learned from discovering Polari is how 'Puttin on the Ritz' was about Harry Richman telling the gays to meet each others at the Ritz

[friday411]

How gay men used to speak –

A short film in Polari

Here's the trailer of a short documentary on a fantastic subject so relevant to all of us ACD and victorian-era Holmes stories fans & writers.

A history of an in-group slang/language for gay men with its roots in theater, but also going all the way back to transient people, like the Romney and the Pikeys.

First person to incorporate any of these gems into their next story wins a prize!!

Go!

[sciralta]

There’s something that’s been bugging me for ages about Marcelino and I could never quite grasp it until right now in this chapter when he quoted Ursula’s “and don’t underestimate the importance of body language” line from poor unfortunate souls.

I fully believe that Marcelino was originally written as a Gay Best Friend™. I have never seen a single adult man not only quote Ursula but the body language line who wasn’t a dogged homosexual. And when you realise that, literally everything else about his character comes neatly into perspective as the GBF™ stereotype. My theory is that someone in PB offices took a look at his character and was like “isn’t that a little reductive? aren’t we past this?” so the writing team changed his sexuality and slapped in a pregnant wife character as their way of fixing the problem.

[polarisbibliotheque]

Me: happy, thriving, pouring words like a madwriter because I FINALLY had a good idea to re-work and re-write a dark fantasy vampire story I've been working on for 15 years

My PC: suddenly crashes and screen goes black, dead

Me:

My PC:

Me:

My PC:

Me:

Me: gods I didn't save the fucking file

Always save your fucking files, kids.

Even more if you're an ancient being like me who prefers to type and doesn't like to write directly on cloud storage like Google Drive or something

[spacedace]

Hey was anyone going to tell me that Queer culture had a secret language possibly going back as far as Shakespeare or was I just supposed to find that out from a tiktok video sending me down a rabbit hole on my own??

Anyway it's called Polari and amongst others it's where the terms drag, butch and camp come from

Anyway I'm gonna go obsessively learn about this now remember me fondly

[queer-history-archive]

Polari

What is Polari?

Polari is an argot, a method of communication more complex than slang, but not quite a stand-alone language. It was used from approximately 1910-1950 in England, and until the 1980s in Australia by queer men and drag queens working around the law. There were many, many dialects, even a singular city such as London could have three or four separate styles.

Where did Polari come from?

Cant

Thieves' Cant is an anti-language with roots in the 1500s, used primarily in England by beggars, criminals, Romani people, queer people, and anyone else from the large swaths of people who had reason to avoid the police. (x) It was commonly believed that Cant developed from Romany, but modern research shows Romany and Cant to be distinct. (x)

The name derives from the Latin word "canto", "to sing", referencing the sing-song way beggars spoke. (x)

Because of its nature, we have little to no record of any actual translations. Today, it is used in some DnD games and TV shows for added immersion.

Parlyaree

Later on, to distinguish themselves from the Romani people, other travelling entertainment companies developed their own argot. (x)

Fairground Parlyaree, also known as backslang, became a marker of cultural outliers, although it was quite group-specific and only the core vocabulary stayed the same. (x)

Cockney Rhyming Slang

Polari also took vocabulary from Cockney Rhyming Slang, where words are replaced with a rhyming equivalent (Adam and Eve = believe, as in "would you Adam and Eve it?"). (x)

This slang was used by the poorest classes of London, so it is no surprise that it melted into what would become Polari. (x)

Other Influences

Polari borrowed heavily from Yiddish, Romanian, French, and Italian because of its history and origins.

When did Polari become Queer?

The argot was used by many different groups, from fishermen, to travelling entertainers, to actors, and navy vets from the 1800s on, but when it was repopularized by drag queens in the 1910s and 20s, it was used primarily by the queer community.

Why did Polari fall out of use?

There are three main reasons this happened.

Firstly, in 1967, homosexuality was decriminalized in England, and so Polari was no longer necessary.

Secondly, a radio show called "Round the Horn" (1965-1968), which featured two gay men speaking to each other in Parlyarlee, was discovered by non-queer audiences, and the "code" was largely cracked. Although it was true that because of the variation there was no way listeners would understand every dialect, the base vocabulary was so similar that a passer-by would be able to clock Polari and out the person.

Thirdly, Polari comprised of a lot of bigoted slang and language. This discouraged many involved in the civil rights movement (and of course many people of those marginalized groups) from keeping up with the argot.

However, a few words, such as camp, butch, and fish, have survived and are still used in queer and drag communities.

Additional viewing:

(x, x, x, x, x, x, x)

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Lucid

The Remedy

Relapse

Consume

Frailty

In Somnus Veritas

Dusk to Day

Casualty

The Slow Decay

Crooked Path

Sonder

Spotify | Bandcamp | YouTube

[tricks-n-illusions]

It seems like theres a visitor lurking in the distance. Maybe your words have brought upon an audience?

Silas showed no surprise when the tiny lurker replied to him, if anything he looked annoyed at someone bringing attention to it.

He instantly broke into a fit of laughter at the tiny spirit's words whatever she said must have been pretty ridiculous to warrant that reaction from the Zoroark. Hilarious even.

Silas's impression of the plush Zorua was horrible and monotone, even his questions sounded like mere statements. But, It seemed like something he'd heard hundreds of times and had grown acquainted with. In other words, it was accurate. "Look. Lune's voice may be flat and emotionless, but I can tell under that stupid fuckin' plush face he was looking at me like I was insane. Which, I'M NOT BY THE WAY." Silas huffed in annoyance, shooing the tiny spirit away. "I'm perfectly mentally well as you can obviously see." He grandly gestured to himself before giving a grin and waving her off. "You're not real, I don't know why I'm even talking to you again." He seemed quite offended at the implication of her existence. "And. Even if, let's say, you were. Purely hypothetical here. I know what the fuck you actually are and you are NOT her. So stop following me, I told you this the day you showed up. I don't want anything to do with you, and I will never want anything to do with you. So, fuck off." [ . . . ] The tiny spirit looked very unamused, she gave him an irritated look before angrily swatting her tail at him. It did absolutely nothing but pass through Silas. She was more than used to his stupidity at this point, she gave a small statement before she turned to you.

She was aware you had no idea what she was saying and even seemed understanding of this. But for some reason, her point was made clear in your mind.

[linguisticdiscovery]

If you want to learn more about Polari, check out the fun book Fabulosa! The story of Polari, Britain’s secret gay language:

[sitnorelle]

another random imagine cause my brain won't leave me alone

eddie walking into family video after the vecna shit going to rent a movie. steve and robin are both at the counter looking extra bored. he picks the movie and goes to robin to check it out. it's rocky horror. robin looks at it, then looks at him and cautiously asks him a question. eddie looks surprised but answers. they both start talking excitedly while steve just stares, confused and not understanding a single word they say. asks something along the lines "you didn't know each other few weeks ago how do you already have a secret language?!" both of them just laugh at him.

they were speaking polari.

[animeomelette]

Apparently the word "naff" started out as Polari for "heterosexual" but somehow then morphed into a relatively standard British English synonym for both common senses of "crude"

"That's a bit naff" can both mean "that is in somewhat poor taste" and "that was not very-well planned"

[tradedsymmetry]

I think this is a pretty good rule:

"My personal rule is: I can't use slang if my mum uses it, or if I have to look up what it means on Urban Dictionary."

- Helen Zaltzman, The Allusionist (Episode: "99. Polari"(click here for link to episode) (click here for link to transcript)