From this, we can tell that Parlyaree was spoken every day in its height, perhaps even more so than Polari itself. Polari also has a set of numerals, almost all of which originate from Parlyaree. Such is the case of jarry, a Polari word for oral sex that comes from the Parlyaree munjaree (to eat).Īlthough there are a wide variety of Parlyaree words, they tend to be very functional in nature, with lots of nouns and verbs. Others are adapted or shortened, with new definitions ascribed to them. Some phrases are imported directly from Parlyaree, like charpering carsey (police station), which is a compound noun from charper (to seek) and carsey (house). ParlyareeĪs the main building blocks of Polari, words that originate from Parlyaree have many different kinds of definitions and vary in complexity. And the man was so embarrassed that he ran out of the shop.” A Map Of Meaningīy taking a closer look at the meanings of each word, and cross-referencing these meanings with the words’ origins, we can start to see how each culture influenced Polari, and what each social group gifted the language. “The man who was measuring their feet was really attractive, so they were talking about him in Polari… and he understood because Polari was so similar to Italian, so he said thank you! Everyone else in the shop understood too, and they laughed. Baker recollects an anecdote of one of his interviewees from a time when they were holidaying with a Polari-speaking friend and dropped into a shoe shop: In fact, so many terms have their roots in Italian that Polari speakers needed to be careful when conversing in Italy. Needing a language to communicate with each other, they cobbled together what they had, leading to the creation of slang dialects like Parlyaree and Lingua Franca, which was a pidgin used from the 11th to the 19th centuries.Īt the epicenter of the Mediterranean, Italy formed the building blocks of these dialects, and also became one of the biggest influences on Polari.
Travel was a huge factor in the mingling of these divergent groups - whether a thief, a wandering performer or a member of the merchant navy, Polari’s forebears journeyed from port to port, especially in the Mediterranean. They were all othered and they had to band together as a group outside the mainstream, so they had this language to show recognition, and protection as well.” The Traveler’s Language This was the language of fairground performers, prostitutes, buskers and others on the fringes of society: “They were a stigmatized group, traveling around or seen as criminal.
By looking at the origins of certain words, we start to get an idea of who these people were, how they interacted with each other, and why all these dialects fused together to become Polari.įor Paul Baker, who has spent many years researching Polari, the most important foundation is Parlyaree, a slang dialect from the 1800s. Polari’s etymology is a map of these groups who lived on the outskirts of society. As it was criminal to be queer, those with divergent sexualities also gravitated towards this scene. Polari was born from the fusion of many different groups: As traveling performers, merchant seamen, carnival folk, thieves, Romani people and others mingled together (as marginalized people often do), they exchanged words and naturally created their own dialect.
But buried in the mechanics and etymology of Polari is a rich history of the subcultures from which it was born, offering us a rare and tantalizing glimpse of a thriving, forgotten time. This secret gay dialect is a map of culture, and although it has long since died out, it is an important part of LGBT heritage. What do words like fantabulosa, ferricadooza and ecaf have in common? For one, they’re all Polari words that have evident linguistic roots in other subculture dialects.