Hello lovely people!
Today we’re going to be delving into a secret language…
- ooo secrets!
Specifically, a language that was spoken across the LGBTQ+ community, primarily by gay men.
That’s right a gay language! Is there a Duolingo course I can take in this?!
I don’t actually have an advert to insert here… uh… merch! I make merch! Adorable
enamel badges and cute greetings cards and every time you buy it you’re supporting
me and my plant buying addiction!
Also the baby we’re about to have. But for some reason, my wife’s ‘pregnant lady
nesting instinct’ is focused very much on making sure our newborn has a lovely garden
to spend time in because we’re still in a pandemic and I’m kind of terrified at
the thought of taking the baby out of the bubble of our house for the first three months.
- so we’re REALLY going to be using that garden. Insert footage here:
So thank you to everyone who bought some merch and thus helped me buy a plant or who became
a member of the Kellgren-Fozard Club because you will be my maternity leave for two months
and I love you.
- But enough about lesbians making babies...
Polari! Polari was the special LGBTQ+ language we’ll be talking about today. Interestingly,
it has been scarcely researched, largely because it was a language that wasn’t ever formally
written down.
It is however an important part of LGBTQ+ history in the UK, and thankfully linguistic
expert Paul Baker has dedicated a significant amount of his research into the language.
He’s written a number of books on language and sexuality, including ‘Polari - The Lost
Language of Gay Men’ and ‘Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang.’
- That’s right, the word ‘fantabulous’ is actually a Polari word, where ‘fantastic’
and ‘fabulous’ were mashed together for the first time!
I’ll link Baker’s resources in the description below so you can read more.
An Overview of Polari
As a language, Polari was primarily used across cities in the UK in the 20th century.
It was spoken by vulnerable groups as a form of protection, where they could communicate
without fear of being discriminated against by groups higher up in the social hierarchy.
When homosexuality was still a punishable crime and heavily frowned upon in society,
the Polari language opened the door for gay men to speak freely about topics that would
otherwise have revealed their sexuality.
They could talk about holding hands with a man without landing a two year prison sentence
- such freedom (!)
Polari acted as a shield against mainstream heterosexual culture at a time when there
was a very real threat of imprisonment, as well as violence and ostracization from normal
society.
Because of this, it’s actually considered an anti-language, a language that’s spoken
by people on the peripheries of society, born out of rebellion against the mainstream, and
spoken only by people in a minority community.
It was a sort of secret code that not only allowed you to speak freely on topics deemed
‘taboo’ at the time, but also to identify others in your community without explicitly
saying
- ‘HELLO ARE YOU GAY?’,
Which is slightly less subtle...
Again, let’s not forget how difficult it was to be queer in the UK in the mid 20th
century. Homosexuality was still considered a mental illness by the medical profession.
LGBTQ+ members were sent to conversion therapy to be ‘cured’ (I have a whole video on
that here) And the media was vehemently against us.
In 1952, The Sunday Pictorial published a
number of articles titled *said spookily* ‘Evil Men’, writing that homosexuality
was a ‘spreading fungus’
- very accurate, cover us in antibiotic cream and the gayness WILL disappear (!)
In 1963, The Sunday Mirror wrote an article called “How to Spot a Possible Homo”.
- Again extremely useful, it’s like a fun guide you’d be given on a safari! Handy
for the singles amongst us too.
So, you can understand why LGBTQ+ folk were in desperate need of a way to communicate
without revealing their true identities.
Origins of Polari
The word Polari itself can be derived from the Italian Palare - meaning ‘to speak’.
In fact, many Polari words sound Italian - for example, the number 2 in Italian is ‘due’
[pronounced doo-ay] - in Polari, it’s ‘dooey’. [pronounced doo-ee]
Also, the common English word scarper was originally a Polari word, which came from
the Italian scappare [pronounced sca-pah-ray], meaning to run away.
Bene! Eccellente! Look, my Italian knowledge is limited, ok? Despite my mother being fluent.
- I mean, my parents also speak French and German but my brother and I only speak dyslexic,
so… I try.
The reason for this Italian origin is because Polari can be traced back to the Mediterranean.
Linguists argue over its true origins, but roots have certainly been found in the language
Parlyaree. This was a slang dialect from the 1800s that was typically used by sailors,
buskers and fairground workers across the Mediterranean.
- and I was REALLY hoping that this was going to come back to gay pirates but… that’s
just a maybe. Someone write a research paper!
Speaking different languages, they needed a way to communicate with each other, and
so slang dialect Parlyaree was born.
It’s the travelling nature of these people’s lives that inspired a fusion of dialects and
ways of communication to grow, that eventually resulted in Polari.
Once Parlyaree made its way over to Britain, it merged with other linguistic sources to
become Polari. It took parts of Cockney Rhyming slang, French Yiddish, American Airforce slang
and even backward slang, which is where you pronounce everything backwards.
Era uoy gniyojne siht oediv?
- dyslexics, let me know in the comments if you’re one of the weird ones like me whose
brain just immediately reads that with ease. Because that’s a skill it decided I needed.
Being able to spell ‘Wednesday’?
No, Jessica, we’ll bin that. Reading things backwards? Vital.
Polari is a real mismatch of these anti-languages and slang - slang from thieves, fishmongers,
travelling circus performers, sex workers, and in particular, theatre people.
It’s believed that Polari primarily grew out of the entertainment world. It was the
language of the theatre, working its way around the West End music halls, the dance companies
and circus groups.
How was it learnt?
So how did people learn Polari?
Well, it wasn’t a language taught or written down for people to study. It was passed around
orally, which meant it took a variety of forms and pronunciations.
The language was ridden with camp sarcasm, irony and innuendo and most people who picked
it up had a small vocabulary, primarily for describing people, their appearance and sexuality.
- often in a pretty catty way!
There were however speakers who could hold a full conversation in Polari, chatting about
escapades of the night before or gossiping about the style or etiquette of another gay
man without fear of recognition by the police.
For example, someone might say:
- “he’s been trolling about, fiddling with his basket”.
This means, ‘he’s been walking around, touching his….downstairs area’.
I feel like we all could have guessed that one.
Men who had been in the gay scene for a while would typically be the ones to teach Polari
vocabulary to the new kids on the block.
They would often give the newbies their own camp nick names too, which acted as a sort
of initiation into gay subculture.
For example, research found one example of a man called Nathan being given the nickname
Nanette.
So Walter, hello how are you doing, so your name is now Waltette. Yes, yes it is.
Often some of the nicknames weren’t so nice. There have been stories told that if you were
a particularly attractive man, you’d be given a not-so-nice nickname, to push your
ego down a bit.
[To Walter]: see you’re very handsome Walter which is why we have to give you a silly nickname
because otherwise the other dogs feel bad you see?
Yes, I knew you’d understand.
Translations
Now it’s time to actually teach you some Polari!
The most common phrase in Polari is ‘Bona to vada your dolly old eek’.
‘Bona’ means ‘good’, ‘vada’ means ‘see’, ‘dolly’ means ‘pretty’
and ‘eek’ means ‘face’. So a literal translation is ‘good to see your pretty
face’, but generally it was used as just a way of saying ‘nice to see you’. Dolly
came from Cockney rhyming slang and eek is short for ‘ecaf’, which is face backwards.
See it’s like a fun puzzle!
Speaking of dolly eeks, here’s a photo of my beautiful wife.
You can see more of her dolly eek over on our Instagram, @JessieandClaud.
Let’s learn more words! The word for ‘man’ was ‘omi’ and legs was ‘lallies’.
So if you see a great pair of legs on a man, you might say ‘look at the lallies on that
omi’
I think I should test some of my Polari on Claud.
Hey Claudia, can i ask you something...
Jessica: Can I troll around your latty?
Claudia - excuse me?
Jessica: It means ‘can I have a look around your house’
Claudia - Sure i mean it’s your house too
Jessica - I know that and we’ve just had a lot of building work on it, which i documented
over on my Instagram, so you can have a troll around our latty yourself at @jessicaoutofthecloset.
- [wink]
There were also a number of different names used for the police in Polari, mainly because
the police were the greatest threat to the LGBTQ community at the time.
In 1921, 178 ‘homosexual offences’ were recorded in the UK. By 1963, that number had
significantly increased to 2,437.
Arresting gay men was seen as an ‘easy arrest’ for policeman, and allowed them to prove they
were doing a great job of sustaining the UK’s high moral standards by punishing this shocking
behaviour.
- Such heroes! Much safe (!)
There were even stories of policemen luring men into engaging in sexual activity, only
to arrest them as soon as they did.
So as a way for Polari speakers to insult their enemy, they, unfortunately rather sexistly,
adopted female identities for them.
They called the police “Betty Bracelets”, “Hilda Handcuffs”, “Lily Law”, and
‘Jennifer Justice” to name a few.
I think we should add ‘Jessica Jail’ and ‘Claudia Clink’ into the mix too.
A bit on the nose but... Add your own in the comments below.
Mainstream heterosexual society hadn’t come up with words to explain variation within
LGBTQ+ communities, because, you know, our existence was illegal so we didn’t deserve
to have words….(!)
Similarly, Polari replaced mainstream words that were perceived as derogatory. For example,
the word ‘homosexual’ was a more formal word used in the medical and legal sectors,
both of which were discimininatory towards gay people.
As such, to reclaim their identity, new words for ‘homosexual’ were born, such as ‘queens’
or ‘omi-palones’ [pronounced oh-mee puh-low-knees] which translates literally to ‘men-women’.
There are also words in Polari that have made its way into the mainstream English vocabulary.
For example, the word, zhuzh, as in ‘zhuzhing my hair’, (which I’ll be honest i use
all the time) )comes from the Polari word,’to style up’.
So yes, I am zhuzhing.
Also, ‘Dish’ in Polari is either ‘buttocks’ - remember that one for later in the video
- or an ‘attractive man’, paving the way for describing an aesthetically pleasing individual
in English as ‘dishy’.
It’s also been argued that the word ‘drag’ may have originated from the Polari language,
which was commonly used as a way to describe women’s clothes.
Drag queens in particular were known to speak frequently in Polari. Lee Sutton for example
was a hugely popular drag queen and singer in the 60s who would sing comedy songs in
the language.
When he explained to non-Polari speaking audiences what the translation of his lyrics was, he’d
often purposely translate it wrong, to give the Polari speakers in the room a cheeky little
extra joke.
Problems with Polari
Yeaah….the language however wasn’t always used in the kindest of ways.
Whilst it provided a means for underrepresented groups to communicate, those conversations
were often rather snarky or had a level of nastiness.
For example, racist terminology found its way into the language. It’s important to
remember the backdrop of when this language was being used.
In the first two thirds of the 20th century, attitudes towards race were particularly hostile,
even within the LGBTQ community.
As such, racist words found themselves in the Polari language, where specific words
were formed to describe black people.
In addition, because the language was rooted in hiding one’s sexuality, vocabulary was
often associated with appearances or sex, which means it was used to objectify others,
mock their appearance or gossip about their sexuality.
Their prowess or lack of… IT WAS MEAN.
For example, ‘Nada to vada in the larda, what a sharda’ is a great fun phrase to
say, perhaps I should sing it from the rooftops.
Nada to vada in the larda, what a sharda!!
But... it means, ‘what a shame, he’s got a small penis’... probably shouldn’t yell
that too loudly.
- As lesbians, this may confuse our neighbours.
As time went on, the Polari language eventually emerged from secrecy and made its way into
mainstream media.
Round the Horne
In the mid to late 1960s, a comedy sketch radio series ran on the BBC called ‘Round
the Horne’.
The show starred two actors, Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick, who played two Polari speaking
characters, Julian and Sandy.
The show was designed for families and played on Sunday afternoons, so the Polari they used
was a more palatable version, simplified to be more accessible to a wider British audience.
At first, non-speakers would have assumed it was gibberish, but as phrases recurred,
they started to get to grips with its meaning.
Whilst it was a family show, Williams and Paddick took advantage of the opportunity
of being in front of millions of 1960s Brits to push the boundaries of risque.
They would insert more saucy references unbeknown to the non-Polari speaking script writers.
For example, they’d make jokes about dirty dishes - remember what I said ‘dish’ means?
[original radio show] - here’s the dish cloth
- we couldn’t wash up in here, all the dishes are dirty!
- Speak for yourself!
This would have gone over the heads of many listeners, but, as gay culture started to
shift towards a more ‘out and proud’ approach, it was an important step in introducing the
LGBTQ+ community into mainstream media in a positive light, which had rarely happened
before.
Why did Polari decline?
However, speaking Polari on one of the most popular mediums of entertainment at the time
did sort of ruin the secret….
The show put Polari on the map for the first time, which, ironically, resulted in it falling
into oblivion.
The popularity of the radio show meant that a language that was previously kept hush hush
and spoken only within an under-represented group, suddenly had a nationwide platform,
leaving the omi-palones, who’d relied on this means communication, exposed.
However the 1970s saw a significant shift in gay culture. Younger gay men were becoming
increasingly frustrated by sneaking around, being forced into a subculture and stereotyped
as camp.
The likes of David Bowie, whilst hugely influential for showing fluidity in expression on an international
stage, didn’t help in the aim to squash the stereotype.
But this era was also seeing an increasing number of gay men in traditionally masculine
settings, such gay rodeo in ths US.
This put a bigger spotlight on non-stereotypcial gay men.
Polari, being a language that was primarily used in the performing arts world with all
its camp and innuendo based words, was perpetuating the stereotype, and therefore deemed outdated.
Plus, the camp nature of the two Polari speaking characters Julian and Sandy on ‘Round the
Horne’ only emphasized that notion further, and so Polari started to be associated with
archaic attitudes toward homosexualiy, rather than with progression.
Moreover, whilst homosexuality was still stigmatised in the latter half of the 20th century, its
decriminilisation in 1967 did help in reducing the risk of harm to the LGBTQ+ community.
Acceptance of homosexuality was starting to develop, and so there was a reduced necessity
to talk so secretly.
With the LGBTQ+ community pushing to be more understood in society, a separate lexicon
that segregated them became detrimental to the cause. It was no longer so necessary or
‘cool’ to be communicating in secret. Instead, the new trend was to attend pride
parades and be out and proud.
Polari Now
As you might expect, Polari isn’t much spoken today, not for the purpose of keeping your
identity a secret anyway.
Most gay men would have never even heard of it now, but there are still stories of the
odd word being used here and there by folks who grew up around it.
I’m tempted to bring a few words into my vocabulary. I could call Claudia a ‘dizzy
polone’, which means ‘scatterbrained woman’.
Particularly useful as she really does have a lot of baby-brain at the moment. Less useful
because it describes me ALL the time.
David Bowie brought the language back again recently just before he died in his final
album, Blackstar, where his song ‘Girl Loves Me’, included Polari lyrics.
- Perhaps no surprise, given he was a young music icon in the British gay scene in the 60s
Lyrics included ‘real bad dizzy snatch making all the omies mad’, which fans and linguists
have loosely translated as ‘naughty little airhead, driving all the men mad’.
Because yes, Bowie’s sexuality is… debated by everyone who ever knew him but not the
way you think and I’m pretty sure someone is going to have a fascinating anecdote to
leave in the comments.
Although it’s not spoken anymore, Polari still holds historical significance, both
linguistically and as an important component of LGBTQ+ history in the UK.
From a linguistic point of view, it’s a fascinating case study into how language can
evolve in the face of oppression.
And for the LGBTQ+ community, it reflects the level of discrimination they faced and
the grave necessity to hide, which mustn’t be forgotten.
Even if nobody uses Polari now, it should certainly be documented and researched more
thoroughly.
Fundamentally though, Polari shows that it doesn’t matter how much you ostracise a
group, discriminate against them, pass laws against their favour...there will always be
a way for underrepresented groups to find community, comradery and a means for their
culture to survive and prosper.
Thank you so much for watching today’s video. If you enjoyed it, please share with a friend,
let me know in the comments down below, subscribe if you haven’t already and I’ll see you
next time.
Remember I make videos every Friday and alternating Tuesdays (unless I’m on maternity leave,
in which case it’s a pre-recorded video every other week because I have to feed the
YouTube algorithm beast)
- Ta’ra duckie!
Today’s question from a Kellgren-Fozard club member is from Irina. How do you feel
about renting a Christmas tree?
Had absolutely no idea what renting a Christmas tree was so I have googled it. Thank you for
bringing this into my life Irina!
Apparently you can rent a Christmas tree, give it back to the farm and they just put
it back in the ground, let it grow a bit more and then the next Christmas give it to someone
else. Which is an absolutely genius concept and I will bel looking into it next year.