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.

Description

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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.Baker, Paul (2002) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang. London: Continuum ISBN 0826459617

Usage

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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. As Polari, it was used to disguise homosexual activity from potentially hostile outsiders (such as undercover policemen), but also because many gay men worked in theatrical entertainment where the lingo originated (including fairgrounds and circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romani in Polari). The almost identical Parlyaree has been spoken in Fairgrounds since at least the 17th century (according to Partridge's Dictionary of Slang) and continues to be used by Show Travellers in England and Scotland. As theatrical booths, circus acts and menageries were once a common part of European fairs it is likely that the roots of Polari/Parlyaree lie in the period before both theatre and circus became independent of the fairgrounds. The Parlyaree spoken on fairgrounds tends to borrow much more from Romani, as well as other languages and argots spoken by travelling people, such as Cant and backslang.

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

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Outside of fairgrounds and circuses (where Parlyaree was never associated with gay subculture) 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

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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

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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. ^*

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

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name =Polari other names =Palare, Parlary, Palarie, Palari, Parlyaree ajax =nearby (from adjacent?) alamo =hot for you/him aunt nell =listen, hear aunt nells =ears aunt nelly fakes =earrings balonie =rubbish basket =the bulge of male genitals through clothes batts =shoes bevvy =drink 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 =butt(ocks) dog and bone =telephone 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 funt =pound 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 martinis =hands measures =money meese =plain, ugly (from Yiddish) meshigener =nutty, crazy, mental metzas =money mince =walk (affectedly) naff =awful, dull, hetero nanti =not, no, none national handbag =dole, welfare, government financial assistance 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 palone =woman palone-omi =lesbian pots =teeth remould =sex change riah/riha =hair (backslang) riah zhoosher =hairdresser scarper =to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape) schlumph =drink scotch =leg (scotch egg=leg) screech =mouth, speak sharpy =policeman sharpy polone =policewoman shush =steal (from client) shush bag =hold-all shyker/shyckle =wig slap =makeup so =homosexual (e.g. "Is he 'so'?") stimps =legs stimpcovers =stockings, hosiery strides =trousers 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) vada/varder =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) vera (lynn) =gin vogue =cigarette vogueress =woman smoker willets =breasts yews =eyes zhoosh¬ =style hair, tart up, mince zhoosh our riah =style our hair zhooshy =showy

Polari in use

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(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?

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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."

See also

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• Cockney rhyming slang
• Fairground
• Gail language
• Verlan
• Lunfardo and Vesre
• Caló (Chicano)
• List of United Kingdom-related topics

References

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External links

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• 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)
• ^* Polari FAQ
• Juha's Polari album

Bibliography

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• Baker, Paul (2002) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang. London: Continuum: ISBN 0826459617

• Baker, Paul (2002) Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men. London: Routledge: ISBN 0415261805

LGBT argot

Polari