Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang

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In 2015, Jez was commissioned by the House of Commons to create a piece of work featuring Polari. Read More Related Articles Unbeknown to many listeners, the characters frequently used Polari, a secret coded language frequently used by homosexuals in the 1920s and 30s, and are recognised today for bringing it into the mainstream. Read More Related Articles In a period when homosexuality was illegal and heavily stigmatised, it was useful as a means of conducting conversations in public spaces, which would have alerted others to your sexuality. Many of the words allowed speakers to gossip about mutual friends or to critique the appearance of people who were in the immediate vicinity. Round The Horne also had the unfortunate effect of breaking Polari’s spell of secrecy. While researching the language, Paul Baker asked Polari speakers why they thought the language died out. “Some people said it had become too popular, that Julian and Sandy killed it off because suddenly everyone in the country knew what it was about.” This is easy to understand. After all, part of the fun of Polari was that it was a secret code, and there were scores more people asking “What is Polari?” or having never heard of it at all.

There are additional accounts of particular words that relate to puppet performance: "' Slumarys' – figures, frame, scenes, properties. ' Slum' – call, or unknown tongue" [4] ("unknown" is a reference to the " swazzle", a voice modifier used by Punch performers, the structure of which was a longstanding trade secret). Llewelyn, Abbie (8 September 2019). "Princess never said 'naff off' -- 'We made it up' ". Daily Express. London . Retrieved 28 January 2022. meese – plain, ugly (from Yiddish “meeiskeit, in turn from Hebrew מָאוּס repulsive, loathsome, despicable, abominable) Camp – Effeminate (possibly from Italian campare, “exaggerate, make stand out”, or KAMP, Known As Male Prostitute).Polari was a secret language never committed to print or tape recordings. Instead, it was passed on via word of mouth and, as a result, many versions were created at the same time. Most speakers would have known a small core vocabulary of words for clothes, types of people, adjectives to show approval (or not), sexual acts and everyday objects – but there was also a "fringe" vocabulary containing many words known only to a few. Standards of spelling, pronunciation or even meaning were not always adhered to. a b c d "The secret language of polari – Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool museums". Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk . Retrieved 5 July 2018. As the LGBT+ community expands, it’s important that we know what’s come before, learning and gaining strength from the cultures of the past, as well as respecting those who defied oppression before us.

Polari (from Italian parlare'to talk') is a form of slang or cant used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, sex workers, and, particularly, the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, [2] but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. [3] There is a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers, who traditionally used Polari to converse. [4] Terminology [ edit ] Eastmond, Dean. "Remembering Polari, the Forgotten Language of Britain's Gay Community". Vice. Vice Media.Oooh, vada the lally-drags on that omee. Very sheesh!” You might have overheard this sentence in a London bar in the 1950s, spoken as a casual comment from one man to another. Their subject: an attractive young man wearing eye-catching trousers. But you’d only know this if you spoke Polari, the secret slang language used by gay men to avoid persecution. What is Polari? Let’s take a look at how it came about, and how it went from being a living cultural repository to a dead language. What Is Polari?

Jez Dolan’s Polari - an Etymology According to a Diagrammatic by Alfred H. Barr (1936),which heoffers with the caveat that it’s likely“full of holes and assumptions and bare-faced lies.” (Image courtesy of Jez Dolan)

I am a student or someone who works in the media. Can you provide me with people who still speak or spoke Polari for my own project?

In 1990, Morrissey titled an album Bona Drag – Polari for “nice outfit” – and the single “Piccadilly Palare”. But more than that, LGBT+ culture owes so much to Polari because it gave us so many of the words we use to talk about ourselves: butch, camp, and even drag queen got their queer-specific meanings from Polari. Definition for zhoosh – Oxford Dictionaries Online (World English)”. Oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved 2012-06-12. Whatever the specific reasons, Polari died simply because people stopped speaking it. By the ’90s, when Baker was conducting his research, his interviewees knew Polari but no longer used it day-to-day. And by the aughts, Polari had all but disappeared from the queer scene — though it is now seeing something of a resurgence. Surviving As Heritage

Omies and palones of the jury, vada well at the eek of the poor ome who stands before you, his lallies trembling. – taken from "Bona Law", one of the Julian and Sandy sketches from Round The Horne, written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman Translation: "Men and women of the jury, look well at the face of the poor man who stands before you, his legs trembling." There are additional accounts of particular words that relate to puppet performance: “‘Slumarys’ – figures, frame, scenes, properties. ‘Slum’ – call, or unknown tongue”[5] (“unknown” is a reference to the “swazzle”, a voice modifier used by Punch performers, the structure of which was a longstanding trade secret). Paul Baker (2 September 2003). Polari – The Lost Language of Gay Men. Routledge. p. 161. ISBN 9781134506347. Retrieved 13 August 2015. He would also change popular songs into Polari and make it really funny. When he explained the song afterwards, he would give the wrong translations to make it more confusing. Jason King star Peter Wyngarde recorded a self-titled album in 1970 which contained the song “Hippie and the Skinhead” about Billy the “queer sexy hippie”“trolling the Dilly”.In the long running BBC Programme Doctor Who, in the episode “Carnival of Monsters”, Vorg, a showman, believing The Doctor to be one himself, attempts to converse with him in Polari. The Doctor states that he doesn’t understand him.[13] There are other characteristics of the language of Julian and Sandy. They tend to make diminuitives of nouns: would you like a bijou drinkette? for example. They also playfully invent words based on Italian models, such as fantabulosa. And they use a few terms which seem to be Polari and yet are unrecorded in glossaries: luffer = finger and nish = no, stop (as in “nish shouting!”; unpublished researches of the OED suggest this is either of Yiddish origin or comes from Irish Gaelic.) plain, ugly (from Yiddish mieskeit, in turn from Hebrew מָאוּס repulsive, loathsome, despicable, abominable) a working class or blue collar sex partner or potential sex partner; a tough, thuggish or potentially violent sex partner Although it may seem strange or uncomfortable now to think of homosexuality as a crime, this was the norm in the UK (where Polari originated) until 1967, when the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 was introduced. The act stated that any homosexual activity had to be consensual, private, and between two men over the age of 21, meaning a level of secrecy was still required.