Polari: A Webliography

An Introduction:

After my best friend Greg moved to London in 1985, I noticed that several odd phrases began to creep into his lexicon. As we walked down Kings Road together and spotted a punker with a fully-erect, magenta-colored mohawk over a foot high, Greg called out to him, “Fab riah!” I could figure out the meaning of fab easily enough, but riah? As we cruised the infamous Brompton Cemetery and a particularly delicious-looking piece of gay male eye candy came our way, Greg would whisper furtively to me, “Vada the carts!” “What the hell?” I asked Greg, and he said he was speaking Polari, and that it meant Check out his basket! Greg explained to me that Polari was a slang – a gay code, if you will -- developed by London queers in the 1950’s so that they could openly cruise and dish in public without being obvious. Since Greg was well-known for his tall tales, I just sort of shrugged it off as one of his endearing eccentricities, but then I began hearing other English queers uttering phrases like “I’m trolling for trade in the cottages”, “I need to slap my eek” and “What a naff omi-polone” – which Greg informed me were Polari phrases. So I did a bit of research (in the library, back in the days before the internet) and sure enough, Greg wasn’t pulling my leg. I even discovered a song by Morrisey about it, the lyrics of which I include in this webliography. Now, almost 25 years later, words like trade and cottaging are part of my every day gay vernacular and I no longer even think about their origins. For this webliography assignment, I’ve decided to update and expand my original research on this fascinating little tidbit of gay cultural history

First, a Definition, from Wikipedia:

Polari (or alternatively Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie, Palari, Parlyaree, from Italian parlare, "to talk") is a form of cant slang used in the gay subculture in Britain. It was revived in the 1950s and 1960s by its use by camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio shows Beyond our Ken and Round the Horne, but its origins can be traced back to at least the 19th century. There is some debate about how it originated. There is a longstanding connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers who traditionally used Polari to talk with each other. Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romany, London slang, backslang, rhyming slang, sailor slang, and thieves' cant. Later it expanded to contain words from the Yiddish language of the Jewish subculture which settled in the East End of London, the US forces (present in the UK during World War II) and 1960s drug users. It was a constantly developing form of language, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words (including bona, ajax, eek, cod, naff, lattie, nanti, omi, palone, riah, zhoosh (tjuz), TBH, trade, vada), with over 500 other lesser-known items.
The Wikipedia site goes on to discuss the following aspects of Polari: Usage, Decline in use, Contemporary usage, Entry into standard English, Polari glossary, Polari in use, Is Polari a language?, Bibliography, References, and External links.

Like it does for most subjects, the Wikipedia site provides an excellent, thorough starting point for anyone wanting to know more about Polari. It also has a very good glossary.

I will now provide additional sources in alphabetical order.

Baker, Paul. A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang. Published by Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002 http://www.amazon.com/Fantabulosa-Dictionary-Polari-Gay-Slang/dp/0826459617(accessed 24 March 2009)

Baker, Paul. Polari -- The Lost Language of Gay Men. Published by Routledge, 2002 http://books.google.com/books?id=yxHz97AvesUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=polari(accessed 24 March 2009)

As you can see by the above citations, there are actually a couple of books published about Polari (the only ones -- as far as I can tell – both written by the same guy, one for academia, one for the mass audience.). According to Amazon.com, A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang explains how “Polari has been the secret language of gay men and women throughout the twentieth century. But more than a language, Polari is an attitude. From the prisons and music halls of Edwardian England to Kenneth Williams, American GIs in London, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Polari has been used to laugh, bitch, gossip, and cruise. Like all slang, Polari is an ever-changing vocabulary. Derived from words used by criminals, circus artists, beggars and prostitutes, it also employs elements of Italian, Yiddish, French, rhyming slang, and backslang. Since gay liberation, lesbian and gay slang has become less a language of concealment than a language of specialization, though the tradition of camp remains. A carefully researched and entertaining read, The Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang presents a lexicon of Polari and a more general dictionary of lesbian and gay slang. If you don't yet know what vada the bona cartes on the ommee ajax, parkering ninty, a Mexican nightmare, or a nellyectomy are, then this is the book for you.” The Google Book Search website states that Polari -- The Lost Language of Gay Men “examines the ways in which Polari was used in order to construct 'gay identities', linking its evolution to the changing status of gay men and lesbians in the UK over the past fifty years.”

BBC. Polari - British gay slang. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1153946 (accessed 25 March 2009)
Although this entry appears early in this webliography because of its alphabetical nature, it’s actually one of the last I’ve accessed for this project, and I realize now that I’m scraping the bottom of the www barrel on this topic. There’s not much on this website that not equally well-covered on the other pages I’ve discussed. I’ve also noticed another annoying pattern that I’ve encountered before when doing web-based research: That is, many sites seem to simply cut and paste information from other sites, so what appears to initially be a plethora of information ends up being literally the exact same stuff.

Denning, Chris. http://www.chris-d.net/polari/ (accessed 16 March 2009)
This site provides another excellent overview, with a particularly superb bibliography featuring books, magazine articles, films, TV programs and songs. From this site, I was reminded of the fab scene in the film “Velvet Goldmine” in which the characters speak Polari, complete with subtitles. It is hilarious!

Morrisey. Lyrics to the song "Piccadilly Palare" from the Bona Drag album. http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/morrissey/piccadilly+palare_20096014.html(accessed 16 March 2009)

Leave it to the Grand Old Queen of Post-Punk to write a song about Polari (which he spells “Palare”). I’ve never been a huge fan of Morrisey or the Smiths, as I find his melodies too cloyingly repetitive and his reticence about his sexual orientation frustratingly annoying. Yet, his lyrics often speak for themselves so I guess I should give him a break!

"Piccadilly Palare"

Off the rails I was, and Off the rails I was happy to stay
GET OUT OF MY WAY
On the rack I was, Easy meat, and a reasonably good buy, A reasonably good buy

The Piccadilly palare, Was just silly slang, Between me and the boys in my gang
"So Bona to Vada. OH YOU, Your lovely eek and Your lovely riah"
We plied an ancient trade, Where we threw all life's Instructions away
Exchanging lies and digs (my way) Cause in a belted coat
Oh, I secretly knew That I hadn't a clue

(No, no. No, no, no. You can't get there that way. Follow me...)

The Piccadilly palare Was just silly slang Between me and the boys in my gang
Exchanging palare You wouldn't understand Good sons like you NEVER DO.
So why do you smile When you think about Earl's Court ?
But you cry when you think of all The battles you've fought (and lost)?
It may all end tomorrow Or it could go on forever In which case I'm doomed
It could go on forever In which case I'm doomed

Polari words used in this song :
bona - good
drag - clothes
vada - see, look at
eek - face
riah - hair

Polari Magazine. http://www.polarimagazine.com/02feb09/02-03.html
Although not specifically about the Polari language, this very slickly-produced magazine appears to be an Out-like glossy targeting the GLBTQ audience and is available online only. Only on its second issue, the magazine looks quite good, if you like this sort of thing. The above link goes to the Table of Contents.

Quinion, Michael. “World Wide Words” http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/polari.htm(accessed 16 March 2009)
This site provides information on how Polari was repopularized in the 1960’s during the BBC’s Golden Age of Radio Comedy, a period in which several shows featured characters who spoke Polari, including Goon Show, Take It from Here, Hancock’s Half Hour and Round The Horne. According to Quinion, the latter show “always featured a pair of screamingly camp young men: ‘Hello, I’m Julian and this is my friend Sandy’, overplayed by Williams and Paddick to an extent which robbed it of much of its latent homophobia (particularly as both were known to be gay), though I cannot imagine a similar duo being allowed anywhere near a BBC microphone in this supposedly more permissive but also infinitely more sensitive age. These two spoke in a slangy language which was virtually incomprehensible to anyone hearing it for the first time, though by repetition week by week a mental glossary could be constructed. ‘How bona to vada your eek!’ was a recurring expression; there were references to ‘butch omis’ and to ‘omipalones’; they always ‘trolled’ everywhere, though their ‘lallies’ weren’t up to much of that; things were ‘naph’, ‘bona’ or sometimes ‘fantabulosa’.” The site also features a short Polari lexicon.

Young, Hugh. “Lexicon of Polari” http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/cello/Polari.htm(accessed 16 March 2009)
This is by far the most extensive Polari wordlist available on the web. It also extremely thorough and academic in nature, describing each word’s meaning, source, alternate spellings, pronunciation, part of speech, original language, and original form, with examples and comments for several of the entries as well. Probably too much for the casually interested reader, this site nevertheless reflects how Polari has indeed become a subject of serious academic research in recent years. From this site, I also learned that there are even Polari versions of numbers! (una, dewey, tray quattro, chinker, say, setter, otter, nobber, daiture. Sounds like my Spanish!)

YouTube. Round the Horne: Bona Ballet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0I408B1jiw(accessed 25 March 2009)
I’m very happy that I was able to find this audio clip because I really wanted the viewers of this webliography to be able to hear Polari being used. This clip is from the British radio programme Around the Horne, featuring the very camp characters of Julian and Sandy. When these old radio programs were released on CD in the mid-1990’s, Polari re-emerged in a big way in the U. K. gay community.