POLARI: A Language of Queer Survival

LINGUAFILES

By Anthony Burger

Published May, 2024
This article will soon be available in German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian.

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Polari was a secret language used primarily by gay men in the UK up until about the 1970s. They were able to talk about sex and other topics in Polari without others understanding them. Given the strict anti-homosexuality laws in place at the time, this was a matter of great significance. 

Tom Robinson Band performing at Gay Pride in Hyde Park, May 1979. By this time, homosexuality had been legalized, permitting such public events. Prior to 1967, gay individuals, particularly men, were forced to live in secrecy. (Photo by Alan Denney, image resolution artificially enhanced)

POLARI

Name of the language in English: Polari

Native Name: Polari (in the past: Palari, Palare, Parlaree, among others)

Location: United Kingdom

Family: Germanic

Related Languages: English

Number of Speakers:  0

Official Status: None

UNESCO Classification: Extinct

Writing System: Latin alphabet

RISE AND FALL OF POLARI

Several factors led to the disuse of Polari. Homosexuality was finally legalized in the UK in 1967, removing the need for secrecy that had driven the use of Polari for so many years. Round the Horne, a 1960s comedy radio show, also brought Polari into the mainstream – a clear blow to the purpose of a secret language. During the 1970s, Polari became associated with older generations and contrasted with the growing desire for openness. Globalization and American influence also contributed to linguistic change in the UK queer community.

“Bona to vada your dolly old eke” – “Nice to see your pretty old face”!

Polari mainly consisted of a unique vocabulary, which blended a wide variety of linguistic sources including Italian, French, Occitan, Yiddish, Romani and a lot of other contemporary or earlier slangs, such as Cant (a slang used by criminals) or American airforce slang. Some words were even made by flipping words around and chopping off the end: “face” became “ecafe” and then “eke”. Some speakers used Polari so expertly that it sounded like a completely different language and even had separate grammar from English. Polari varied a lot from person to person as well in pronunciation and vocabulary size, though most speakers shared 20 core words.

There is still interest in Polari as a part of queer cultural history in the UK. In the 1990s, the language again piqued the interest of LGBT groups, including a group of male nuns who wrote a Polari version of the Bible. The language has been used in a few modern works, including a short film in Polari and an independently published book.

A LANGUAGE OF SURVIVAL

Polari was a linguistic safe space for gay men, drag queens, prostitutes, and theater performers in the UK in the 1900s. Through its use, these groups could safely and secretly communicate about elements of their everyday lives that their government sought to ban. Even today, decades after it stopped being actively used, Polari remains fascinating as a piece of (British) queer history. Polari was also formed from an amalgamation of vocabulary from other languages and slang of minoritized groups.

The interconnected lives of performers, thieves, travellers, and queers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to Polari, a new language born from the combination of their styles of speech. In the modern short film, Putting on the Dish, the Polari dialogue portrays an English-like language that is tantalizingly impossible to grasp.

The UK's first-ever Gay Pride march was held in London on July 1, 1972, attracting around 700 participants. (Photo by the BBC, image resolution artificially enhanced)

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Written by

Anthony Burger

Imagery

Alan Denny

BBC

Edited by

Alice Pol, Perla Camacho-Cedillo & Marvin Nauendorff

Cite This Article

Burger, Anthony. 2024. "Polari: A Language of Queer Survival." Linguaphile Magazine, May 22, 2024. https://www.linguaphilemagazine.org/editorial/linguafiles-polari.

Further Reading

BBC. "Polari: The Code Language Gay Men Used to Survive."

Dazed Digital. "Cruising for Lavs: Polari, the Secret Language for Queer Survival."

Ethnologue. "Polari."

Liverpool Museums. "Polari and the Hidden History of Gay Seafarers."

Bibliography

1. Babbel. "What Is Polari?" Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-is-polari.

2. Baker, Paul. "Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men." Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/bakerjp/polari/home.htm.

3. BBC. "Polari: The Code Language Gay Men Used to Survive." Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180212-polari-the-code-language-gay-men-used-to-survive.

4. Dazed Digital. "Cruising for Lavs: Polari, the Secret Language for Queer Survival." Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/41316/1/cruising-for-lavs-polari-the-secret-language-for-queer-survival.

5. Ethnologue. "Polari." Accessed May 14, 2024.
   https://www.ethnologue.com/language/pld/.

6. Liverpool Museums. "Polari and the Hidden History of Gay Seafarers." Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/polari-and-hidden-history-of-gay-seafarers.

7. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. "The Polari Bible." Last modified April 24, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120424005800/http://www.thesisters.demon.co.uk/bible/.

8. UNESCO. "Polari." Accessed May 14, 2024.
   https://en.wal.unesco.org/languages/polari.

9. YouTube. "Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men." Accessed May 14, 2024.
   https://youtu.be/Y8yEH8TZUsk?si=pKAG4geWquT_hqe2.