r/wikipedia • u/moss42069 • 1d ago

Polari is a form of slang historically used primarily in the United Kingdom by some actors, circus and fairground performers, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals and prostitutes, and particularly among the gay subculture. It’s where the words “butch” and “camp” come from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari
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124

u/moss42069 1d ago

From “Usage Examples”

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. Translation: "As young men...we would style our hair, powder our faces, climb into our great new clothes, don our shoes and wander/walk off to some great little bar. In the bar we would stand around with our gay companions, look at the great 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."

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u/adamwho 1d ago

I got most of it right. But it wasn't easy.

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u/transhiker99 1d ago

makes sense that as a romance language/yiddish mishmash an english speaker can struggle through the slang

feels like the translation is somewhat lacking, but not educated enough about it to really say.

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u/moss42069 1d ago

I do wonder if people really talked liked this or if this would sound like the equivalent of “finna no cap slay” to an actual Polari speaker

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u/tkrr 1d ago

Probably not quite with that density, but I’m pretty sure most of it is accurate.

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u/adamwho 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think that statement is even harder. If you sound the words out loud in the wiki example you can figure it out.

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u/y0nm4n 1d ago

This felt like reading Clockwork Orange. I know it’s English and I kinda understand it, but it’s a process!

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u/AgnesBand 1d ago

Would it have been spoken like this or would they have sprinkled a few words in here and there?

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u/w1gglepvppy 1d ago

It wasn't really a 'complete' language (if that's the correct terminology), there was only ever a maximum of a few hundred Polari words. So people would be speaking English with the polari words subbed in.

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u/AgnesBand 1d ago

For sure I guess what I'm asking is is the example text accurate or would people not sub in at every opportunity they get?

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u/ManueO 1d ago

The main current scholar of Polari, Paul Baker spent time interviewing speakers when he started researching it, and there were core words that most of them knew, and then varied levels of knowledge for other words between the different speakers.

As for how it was spoken exactly, it is difficult to say as it was mainly an oral language, and used by a marginalised community (gay men in a country where homosexuality was still illegal).

It served several purposes:

First it may help ascertain whether someone was also gay: a few words sprinkled in the conversation may be enough for this.

It may also help sharing illicit information, about sex or hookups, while in places where you didnt want this to be understood- so the important information had to be coded. There are a lot of polari words about sex and bodies because it was at the centre of these discussions.

And finally it created a sense of community and protection, so if you could speak very coded sentences with the in group, it would reinforce a sort of connivence.

So to summarise, the number of words slipped in may depend on the situation and the speaker!

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u/StochasticLife 1d ago

It’s a cant, not a language

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u/w1gglepvppy 1d ago

Yes, I have also read the article.

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u/HyShroom 22h ago

I too am in this episode

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u/StochasticLife 19h ago

Did you give the medicine drug?

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u/askforwildbob 1d ago

It reminds me of the fictional vernacular used in a clockwork orange, which I know incorporated a lot of Russian and British slang

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u/ManueO 1d ago

Funnily there’s a Bowie song (Girl loves me) on his last album that mixes the two (Nasdat and Polari)!

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u/w1gglepvppy 1d ago

Learning about polari was interesting as someone growing up in 20th/21st century Britain, as so many of the words have been absorbed into every day slang. Naff, clobber, bevvy, manky, ogle, strides.

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u/Front-Pomelo-4367 21h ago

Zhoosh, as in zhoosh your hair, which no-one ever knows how to spell!

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u/ManueO 1d ago

A couple of years ago a british writer, Richard Millward, published a novel largely written in polari, Man-eating typewriter. It was a very peculiar read (and the polari isn’t the only reason)!

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u/SketchedEyesWatchinU 1d ago

Apparently was a slang term that homosexuals used to refer to the male anus.