Polari

Polari
Polari
Palare, Parlary, Palarie, Palari, Parlyaree
Region	United Kingdom
Native speakers	no estimate available
Language family	based English, Italian and Romany with variations
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mis
ISO 639-3	pld

Polari (or alternatively Palare, from Italian parlare, "to talk") was a form of cant slang used in the gay subculture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, although its origins can be traced back to at least the nineteenth century. There is some debate about how it originated.^[1]

Description

Polari is a mixture of Lingua franca, Italian, Romany, backslang, rhyming slang, and thieves' cant. It also contains words from the Jewish subculture which settled in the East End of London, the US forces (present in the UK during World War II) and 1960s drug-users. It was a constantly developing form of language, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words (including bona, ajax, eek, cod, naff, lattie, nanti, omi, palone, riah, zhoosh, TBH, trade, vada), with over 500 other less well-known items.

Usage

Polari was used in London fishmarkets, the theatre and the gay subculture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming more widely known from its use by two camp characters, Julian and Sandy, in Round the Horne, a popular BBC radio show which ran from 1964 to 1969. It grew up primarily to disguise homosexual activity from potentially hostile outsiders (such as undercover policemen), but also because many gay men worked in entertainment (including circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romany in Polari). It was also used extensively in the Merchant Navy, where many gay men joined cruise ships (particularly P&O) as waiters, stewards and entertainers. It was mainly used by camp or effeminate gay men, who tended to come from working class backgrounds.

On one hand, it would be used as a means of cover, to allow gay subjects to be discussed aloud without being understood; on the other hand, it was also used by some, particularly the most visibly camp and effeminate, as a further way of asserting their identity.

Decline in use

Polari had begun to fall into disuse by the late 1960s. The popularity of Julian and Sandy ensured that this secret language was public property, and the gay liberationists of the 1970s viewed it as rather degrading, divisive and politically incorrect (a lot of it was used to gossip about or criticise people, as well as discussing sexual exploits).

Exploited usage

In 1990 Morrissey titled an album Bona Drag - Polari for "nice outfit" - and the title of his "Piccadilly Palare" single that same year is an alternative spelling of what would be "Piccadilly Polari." Since the mid-1990s, with the redistribution of tapes and CDs of Round The Horne and increasing academic interest, Polari underwent a slight revival. It will probably never die out completely, but new words are continually being invented and updated to refer to more recent cultural concepts - for example, the recent term "Madonna claw" means an old withered hand. In 2002, two books on Polari were published, Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men, and Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang (both by Paul Baker). Also in 2002, Palestinian hip hop act Juha released an album called Polari, with the chorus of the title song written entirely in the slang.

Infiltration into normal English

A great many words from Polari have entered mainstream slang.

Naff

This word became famous in the television sitcom Porridge in the 1970s, which employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not at the time considered broadcastable.

There are a number of folk etymologies of the term "naff", many based around acronyms - Not Available For Fucking, Normal As Fuck - though these are probably backronyms. More likely etymologies include northern UK dialect naffhead, naffin, or naffy, a simpleton or blockhead; niffy-naffy, inconsequential, stupid, or Scots nyaff, a term of contempt for any unpleasant or objectionable person. An alternative etymology may lie in the Romany naflo, itself rooted in nasvalo, meaning no good, broken or useless.

A later use, from 1980s, refers dismissively to heterosexual people. Porridge also introduced a verb sense: "naff off!", later famously used by Princess Anne in 1982. [1]

Zhoosh

"Zhoosh" has entered English more recently, especially through the TV series, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". Its initial consonant, unusual in that position in English, has led new users to generate variants such as "zoosh", "soozh" etc.

Polari Glossary

name                  =Polari
other names           =Palare, Parlary, Palarie, Palari, Parlyaree
ajax                  =nearby (from adjacent?)
balonie               =rubbish
basket                =the bulge of male genitals through clothes
batts                 =shoes
bitch                 =effeminate or passive gay man
bijou                 =small/little
blag                  =pick up
bod                   =body
bold                  =daring
bona¬                 =good
    bona nochy        =goodnight
    bonaroo           =wonderful, excellent
bungery               =pub
butch                 =masculine; masculine lesbian
buvare                =a drink
cackle                =talk/gossip
camp                  =effeminate
capello/capella       =hat
carsey                =toilet, also spelt khazi
carts/cartso          =penis
charper               =to search
charpering omi        =policeman
chaver                =to shag/a shag (sexual intercourse)
chicken               =young boy
clobber               =clothes
cod                   =naff, vile
cottage               =public loo (particularly with reference to cottaging)
cottaging             =having or looking for sex in the above cottage
cove                  =friend
crimper               =hairdresser
dinarly               =money
dish                  =bottom
dolly                 =pretty, nice, pleasant
dona                  =woman
drag                  =clothes, esp. women's clothes
ecaf                  =face (backslang)
eek                   =face (abbreviation of ecaf)
ends                  =hair
esong                 =nose (backslang)
fantabulosa           =fabulous/wonderful
feele/freely/filly    =child/young
fruit                 =queen
gelt                  =money
glossies              =magazines
handbag               =money
hoofer                =dancer
HP (homy polone)      =effeminate gay man
jarry                 =food, also mangarie
jubes                 =breasts
kaffies               =trousers
khazi                 =toilet, also spelt carsey
lacoddy               =body
lallies               =legs
latty/lattie          =room, house or flat
lills                 =hands
lilly                 =police (Lilly Law)
lyles                 =legs
lucoddy               =body
luppers               =fingers
mangarie              =food, also jarry
measures              =money
meese                 =plain, ugly (from Yiddish)
meshigener            =nutty, crazy, mental
metzas                =money
mince                 =walk (affectedly)
naff                  =dull/straight (from "not available for fucking")
nanti                 =not, no, none
national handbag      =dole
nishta                =nothing, no
ogle                  =look, admire
oglefakes             =glasses
ogles                 =eyes
omi                   =man
omi-polone            =effeminate man, or homosexual
onk                   =nose
orbs                  =eyes
palare pipe           =telephone
palliass              =back
park                  =give
plate                 =feet; to fellate
polone/palone         =woman
pots                  =teeth
riah/riha             =hair (backslang)
riah zhoosher         =hairdresser
scarper               =to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape)
scotch                =leg
sharpy                =policeman
sharpy polone         =policewoman
shush                 =steal (from client)
shush bag             =hold-all
shyker/shyckle        =wig
slap                  =makeup
strillers             =piano
switch                =wig
thews                 =thighs
tober                 =road
todd (Sloanne)        =alone
tootsie trade         =sex between two passive homosexuals (as in: 'I don't do tootsie trade')
trade                 =sex
troll                 =to walk about (esp. looking for trade)
to vada¬              =to see 
   I vada             =I see
   you vada           =you see
   he/she(rare)/it    =he/she(rare)/it sees
      vadas
   we vada            =we see
   they vada          =they see
   I will vada        =(future)
   I vadered          =(perfect)
   I was vadering     =(imperfect)
   had vadered        =(pluperfect)
vogue                 =cigarette
vogueress             =woman smoker
willets               =breasts
yews                  =eyes
zhoosh¬               =style (hair)
   zhoosh our riah    =style our hair

Polari in use

(Taken from "Bona Law", a sketch from Round The Horne, written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman)

"Omies and palones of the jury, vada well at the eek of the poor ome who stands before you, his lallies trembling."

(Translation: "Men and women of the jury, look well at the face of the poor man who stands before you, his legs trembling.")

"So bona to vada...oh you! Your lovely eek and your lovely riah." (Taken from "Piccadilly Palare", a song by musician Morrissey)

(Translation: "So good to see...oh you! Your lovely face and your lovely hair.")

"As feely ommes...we would zhoosh our riah, powder our eeks, climb into our bona new drag, don our batts and troll off to some bona bijou bar. In the bar we would stand around with our sisters, vada the bona cartes on the butch omme ajax who, if we fluttered our ogle riahs at him sweetly, might just troll over to offer a light for the unlit vogue clenched between our teeth." (Taken from the memoirs of renowned gay journalist Peter Burton, Parallel Lives)

(Translation: "As young men...we would style our hair, powder our faces, climb into our fabulous new clothes, don our shoes and wander/walk off to some fabulous little bar. In the bar we would stand around with our gay companions, look at the fabulous genitals on the butch man nearby who, if we fluttered our eyelashes at him sweetly, might just wander/walk over to offer a light for the unlit cigarette clenched between our teeth.")

Is Polari a language?

Careful search and enquiry has failed to find any grammatical structures of Polari that are different from those of English. Therefore it would seem more accurate to refer to Polari as a linguistic cipher, replacement lexicon or an argot than a language or a dialect. Since it is used in free variation with English, it might also be called a jargon.

However, some Polari speakers produced expressions that would leave the realm of simple substitution of English words: for example, palone vadas omipalone very cod, literally WOMAN LOOKS MAN-WOMAN VERY BAD, for "that woman is giving me a dirty look."

External links

Julian and Sandy feature on Kenneth Williams Website
Article on Polari with bibliography
Hugh Young's Lexicon of Polari
"World Wide Words" column on the use of Polari in Round the Horne
The Polari Bible
Colin Richardson, The Guardian, 17 January 2005, "What brings you trolling back, then?"
BBC - Voices, An interview with four members of a project for older gay men. (In voice clip 2, Polari is spoken)
[2] Polari FAQ

References

^ Quinion, Michael (1996). "How bona to vada your eek!" (html). WorldWideWords. Retrieved February 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Books on Polari

Baker, Paul (2002) Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men. London: Routledge
Baker, Paul (2002) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang. London: Continuum

[1] Quinion, Michael (1996). "How bona to vada your eek!" (html). WorldWideWords. Retrieved February 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

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