Полари: британдық жаргон тілінің тарихы мен ерекшеліктері

Form of slang

Polari is a form of slang or cant historically used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals and sex workers, and particularly among the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. Polari has a long standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppeteers, who traditionally used it to converse.

Alternative spellings include Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie and Palari.

Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani, rhyming slang, sailors' slang and thieves' cant, which later expanded to contain words from Yiddish and 1960s drug subculture slang. It was constantly evolving, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: bona (good), ajax (nearby), eek (face), cod (bad, in the sense of tacky or vile), naff (bad, in the sense of drab or dull, though borrowed into mainstream British English with a meaning more like that of cod), lattie (room, house, flat), nanti (not, no), omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylise), TBH ('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex) and vada (see). There were once two distinct forms of Polari in London: an East End version which stressed Cockney rhyming slang and a West End version which stressed theatrical and classical influences. There was some interchange between the two.

A number of words from Polari have entered mainstream slang. The list below includes words in general use with the meanings listed: acdc, barney, blag, butch, camp, khazi, cottaging, hoofer, mince, ogle, scarper, slap, strides, tod, [rough] trade. The Polari word naff, meaning inferior or tacky, has an uncertain etymology. Michael Quinion says it is probably from the 16th century Italian word gnaffa, meaning "a despicable person". There are a number of false etymologies, many based on backronyms—"Not Available For Fucking", "Normal As Fuck", etc. The phrase "naff off" was used euphemistically in place of "fuck off" along with the intensifier "naffing" in Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar (1959). Usage of "naff" increased in the 1970s when the television sitcom Porridge employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not broadcastable at the time. however, the photographers who were present have since stated that this was a censored version of what she actually said. "Zhoosh" (/ʒ//ʊ//ʃ//, //ʒ//uː//ʃ/; alternatively spelled "zhuzh," "jeuje," and a number of other variety spellings ), meaning to smarten up, style or improve something, became commonplace in the mid 2000s, having been used in the 2003 United States TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and What Not to Wear. "Jush", an alternative spelling of the word, was popularised by drag queen Jasmine Masters after her appearance on the seventh series of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2015.

James Thomson added a glossary of words he thought "obsolete" in his 1825 work The Seasons and Castle of Indolence. He chose to write "Castle of Indolence" "In the manner of Edmund Spenser". Two words he thought needed explaining were "eke", meaning "also", pronounced like Polari's "eek" (face); and "gear or geer", meaning "furniture, equipage, dress". The latter is still used in slang and has thus avoided obsolescence. Polari (spelt "Polare") was popularised on the 1960s BBC radio show Round the Horne. The camp gay Polari speaking characters Julian and Sandy were played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams. In the Doctor Who serial Carnival of Monsters (1973), Vorg, a showman, attempts to converse with the Doctor in Polari. Ralph Filthy, a theatrical agent played by Nigel Planer in the BBC TV series Filthy Rich & Catflap, regularly used Polari. In 1990 Morrissey released the single "Piccadilly Palare" containing a number of lyrics in Polari and exploring a subculture in which Polari was used. "Piccadilly Palare" later appeared on his compilation album Bona Drag, whose title is also taken from Polari. In 1990, in Issue #35 of Grant Morrison's run of Doom Patrol, the character Danny the Street is introduced; they speak English heavily flavoured with Polari, with "bona to vada" ("good to see [you]") being their favourite way to greet friends. In the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, two characters speak Polari in a London nightclub. The scene has English subtitles. In 2002, two books on Polari were published, Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men and Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang, both by Paul Baker. In 2015, filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston made Putting on the Dish, a short film with dialogue entirely in Polari. The 2016 David Bowie album Blackstar contains a song, "Girl Loves Me", that uses Polari and Nadsat in its lyrics. In 2017, a service at Westcott House, Cambridge was conducted in Polari. Trainee priests held the service to commemorate LGBT History Month; following media attention, Chris Chivers, the principal, expressed his regret. In the 2017 EP Ricky, gay singer Sakima used Polari. In 2019, the first opera in Polari, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (based on the book of the same title), premiered at Espacio Turina in Seville, Spain. The libretto was written in Polari by librettist and playwright Fabrizio Funari and the music is by Germán Alonso. Niño de Elche played the main role. The opera was produced and performed by instrumental ensemble Proyecto OCNOS, formed by Pedro Rojas Ogáyar and Gustavo A. Domínguez Ojalvo, with the support of ICAS Sevilla, Fundación BBVA and The Librettist. The same year, the English language localisation of the Japanese video game Dragon Quest Builders 2 included a character called Jules, who spoke in Polari with non standard capitalisation. In 2019, Reaktion Books published Fabulosa! : The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language, by Paul Baker. In the 2020 film Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, a young Roald Dahl, running away from home, meets a man (played by Bill Bailey) who speaks in Polari. Richard Milward's 2023 novel Man Eating Typewriter is written almost entirely in Polari, in the form of fictional memoirs by the character Raymond M. Novak. In the fourth episode of Funny Woman (2024), characters discuss BBC Radio using Polari in Round the Horne and visit a comedy club where gay and entertainment industry characters converse in Polari.

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." So bona to vada oh you! Your lovely eek and your lovely riah. – taken from "Piccadilly Palare", a song by Morrissey

Translation: "So good to see oh you! Your lovely face and your lovely hair." 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. – taken from Parallel Lives, the memoirs of renowned gay journalist Peter Burton

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." In the Are You Being Served? episode "The Old Order Changes", Captain Peacock asks Mr Humphries to get "some strides for the omi with the naff riah" (i. e., trousers for the fellow with the unstylish hair).