The Secret Languages of London

http://londonist.com/2016/08/the-secret-langauges-of-london

Back slang
Ever wondered where 'yob' first came from? Read it backwards, and you'll also
have a sense of the language that created it. In the 20th century, Back slang
the first recorded instance of which is apparently in Henry Mayhew's London
Labour and the London Poor was most synonymous with butchers; before
supermarkets gave rise to pesky things like sell-by dates, shopkeepers would use
it to tell their assistants to bring the oldest pieces of meat out for the customer.
The general rule is to reverse the lettering of words, but occasionally simple
phonetics demands the addition of an extra vowel or two. 'Old' is therefore
pronounced as 'dillo' or 'dello' listen out with caution should you ever hear it
from a rare butchers still fluent in Backslang.
Polari
Popularised by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams on the BBC radio show Round
the Horne, Polari was a language primarily spoken by London's gay community
until around the time homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967. It drew from
earlier forms such as Thieves' Cant and Backslang, but also from the secret
languages spoken by immigrants working in the circus and fairground circuits.
Unlike the continued tourist appetite for Cockney Rhyming slang, there is now
less necessity for Polari's main speakers to continue using it, though you still find
the odd reference in pop culture (look up the inspiration for Morrissey's Bona
Drag LP). Some terms have actually become common usage where naff is now
an accepted term for 'a bit rubbish', it originated from Polari as an acronym for
someone who was 'not available for fwell, you get the idea.
Thieves' Cant
Londons underworld has never been the safest place, but in the 16th century
any criminals caught plotting by police knew they werent just going to be
slapped with a community service order. Thus began Thieves Cant, or 'peddlers
French', a secret parlance that largely followed English, but replaced certain
words. For example, shoulder tap meant backstab or visiting the neighbours
meant burgling.
Rumoured to have been started by Cock Lorel, the mythical Tudor king of
rogues, it is hard to know just how accurate reported Thieves Cant is. It was
quickly exploited by writers such as Thomas Dekker, whose The Bellman of
London a 1608 cony-catching pamphlet designed to expose the tricks of
thieves and Abraham-men (beggars who pretended to have escaped from the
capitals Bethlem Psychiatric Hospital, or Bedlam) is now regarded more as
sensationalist fiction than fact.
Perhaps a more trusty source comes in the form of The Memoirs of James Hardy
Vaux. A professional thief around Covent Gardens then red light district who was
eventually deported to Australia, his memoir lists around 700 phrases commonly

used by Londons thieves. As an aside, it was the first autobiography written

down under.

Gobbledygook
The term 'anti-language' was coined by linguist Michael Halliday a few decades
ago, and refers to a system of speech set up to work against the cultural norms
of society. The political qualification of Polari, in this sense, is understandable,
but there are also lighter examples, such as Gobbledygook.
In Victorian times, this absurdist 'anti-language' was used humorously by the
working classes, deliberately toying with linguistics in a way that could be
complex in itself. As Halliday writes: "One brief example, 'erectify a luxurimole
flackoblots' (erect a luxurious block of flats), contains metathesis, suffixation and
compounding with a common morph all totally vacuous, hence the comic
effect."
Perhaps the biggest irony of all, as Halliday also notes, is that the modern
definition of Gobbledygook is most associated with beaurocrats the straightlaced higher classes it was first set up to mock.
Although its become a broader term for childishness or corporate doublespeak,
true Gobbledygook has been championed throughout the decades by
entertainers such as Victorian occultist Aleister Crowley and comedian Spike
Milligan. If you want to find a modern day torchbearer, look no further than
Shoreditchs chief dandy, Russell Brand My Booky Wook ring any bells?
Patches, fans and flowers
Of course, who said that language has to be spoken? In prudish eras, where
ladies were expected to be seen but not heard, accessorising became the most
effective way to get a message across. In the 18th century, for instance, women
used face patches to show their political allegiances (are you a Right-cheek or
Left-cheeker?) or to invite kissing by placing one above the lips. according to Dr
Matthew Green's London: A Travel Guide Through Time, a heart-shaped patch on
the temple means 'my intellect is formidable; think carefully before talking to
me'.
In Victorian Britain, even flowers held their own code. Unlike today, there were
hundreds of variations in meanings: a pink carnation signalled 'Ill never forget
you', while a rhododendron meant 'Beware, I am dangerous'. A place like Covent
Garden flower market then, wasn't just selling pretty things, but symbols of
intent.
Some also believe that hand fans, another Victorian staple, were used in social
situations to reveal a lady's status to gentlemen. According to Jean-Pierre
Duvelleroy, the 19th century fan-maker, holding a fan closed but outwards-facing
was to ask 'do you love me?', while holding it fanned out over part of your face
meant 'Im engaged'. Dropping the fan altogether would suggest 'Let's be
friends' to a thwarted suitor. Perhaps Tinder's not such a brutal world after all.
You can learn more about fan language at Greenwich's Fan Museum.

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

Polari (or alternatively Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie, Palari; from Italian
parlare, "to talk") is a form of cant slang used in Britain by actors, circus and
fairground showmen, merchant navy sailors, criminals, prostitutes, and the gay
subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced back to at
least the nineteenth century and possibly the sixteenth century. There is a longstanding connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers who
traditionally used Polari to converse.
Description
Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani,
London slang, backslang, rhyming slang, sailor slang, and thieves' cant. Later it
expanded to contain words from the Yiddish language and from 1960s drug
subculture slang. It was a constantly developing form of language, 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), naf (bad, in the sense of drab or dull,
though borrowed into mainstream British English with the sense of the
aforementioned cod), lattie (room, house, flat, i.e. room to let), nanti (not, no),
omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylize), TBH
('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex), and vada (see)., and over 500
other lesser-known words. According to a Channel 4 television documentary,
there was once (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.
Usage
Polari was used in London fishmarkets, the theatre, fairgrounds and circuses,
hence the many borrowings from Romani. As many homosexual men worked in
theatrical entertainment it was also used among the gay subculture, at a time
when homosexual activity was illegal, to disguise homosexuals from hostile
outsiders and undercover policemen. It was also used extensively in the British
Merchant Navy, where many gay men joined ocean liners and cruise ships as
waiters, stewards and entertainers. On one hand, it would be used as a means of
cover to allow gay subjects to be discussed aloud without being understood; on
the other hand, it was also used by some, particularly the most visibly camp and
effeminate, as a further way of asserting their identity.
The almost identical Parlyaree has been spoken in fairgrounds since at least the
seventeenth century and continues to be used by show travellers in England and
Scotland. As theatrical booths, circus acts and menageries were once a common
part of European fairs it is likely that the roots of Polari/Parlyaree lie in the period
before both theatre and circus became independent of the fairgrounds. The
Parlyaree spoken on fairgrounds tends to borrow much more from Romany, as
well as other languages and argots spoken by travelling people, such as cant and
backslang.
Henry Mayhew gave a verbatim account of Polari as part of an interview with a
Punch and Judy showman in the 1850s. The discussion he recorded references
the arrival of Punch in England, crediting these early shows to a performer from
Italy called Porcini (see also John Payne Collier's account of PorsiniPayne Collier
calls him Porchiniin Punch and Judy). Mayhew provides the following:

Punch Talk
"'Bona Parle' means language; name of patter. 'Yeute munjare' no food. 'Yeute
lente' no bed. 'Yeute bivare' no drink. I've 'yeute munjare,' and 'yeute bivare,'
and, what's worse, 'yeute lente.' This is better than the costers' talk, because
that ain't no slang and all, and this is a broken Italian, and much higher than the
costers' lingo. We know what o'clock it is, besides."
There are additional accounts of particular words that relate to puppet
performance: "'Slumarys' figures, frame, scenes, properties. 'Slum' call, or
unknown tongue" ("unknown" is a reference to the "swazzle", a voice modifier
used by Punch performers, the structure of which was a longstanding trade
secret).
There are many sources of Polari lexicons or "dictionaries" online, most of which
are random collections with little or no research, rather than a descriptive list of
terms in use.
Decline in use
Polari had begun to fall into disuse amongst the gay subculture by the late
1960s. The popularity of the Julian and Sandy characters played by Hugh Paddick
and Kenneth Williams ensured that some of this secret language became public
property, and the gay liberationists of the 1970s viewed it as rather degrading
and divisive as it was often used to gossip about, or criticise, others, as well as to
discuss sexual exploits. In addition, the need for a secret subculture code
declined with the legalisation of adult homosexual acts in England and Wales in
1967.
In popular culture
Polari was popularised in the 1960s on the popular BBC radio show Round the
Horne starring Kenneth Horne. Camp Polari-speaking characters Julian and Sandy
were played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams.
In the first series of British comedians' panel television series Jokers Wild (1969),
comedian Ray Martine is asked to explain the term palone (woman), which he
used while telling a joke. In response to the definition, programme presenter
Barry Cryer refers to Martine as a bona omi (good man).
Jason King star Peter Wyngarde recorded a self-titled album in 1970 which
contained the song "Hippie and the Skinhead" about Billy the "queer sexy hippie"
"trolling the Dilly".
In the long running BBC Programme Doctor Who, in the serial Carnival of
Monsters, Vorg, a showman, believing the Doctor to also be a showman,
attempts to converse with him in Polari. The Doctor states that he does not
understand him.
In 2015, filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston made a short film entirely
in Polari, entitled "Putting on the Dish".

The lyrics to David Bowie's 2016 song "Girl Loves Me" consist chiefly of a blend
of Polari and Nadsat slang.
Morrissey released an album named Bona Drag and a song called Picadilly Palare
Use today
Since the mid-1990s, with the redistribution of cassettes and CDs of Round The
Horne, and with increasing academic interest, Polari has undergone something of
a revival. New words are being invented and updated to refer to more recent
cultural concepts.
In 1990, Morrissey titled an album Bona Drag Polari for "nice outfit" and the
single "Piccadilly Palare".
Also in 1990, comic book writer Grant Morrison created the Polari-speaking
character Danny the Street (based on Danny La Rue), a sentient transvestite
street, for the comic Doom Patrol.
The 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, which chronicles a fictional retelling of the rise
and fall of glam rock, contains a flashback to 1970 in which a group of characters
converse in Polari, while their words are subtitled.
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).
Also in 2002, hip hop artist Juha released an album called Polari, with the chorus
of the title song written entirely in the slang.
Characters in Will Self's story Foie Humain, the first part of Liver, use Polari.
Comedians Paul O'Grady, Julian Clary, David Walliams, and Matt Lucas
incorporate Polari in their comedy routines, as did Rik Mayall.
In 2012, artists Jez Dolan and Joseph Richardson created an iPhone app which
makes available the Polari lexicon and comprehensive list of etymologies.
The song "Girl Loves Me" by David Bowie from his final album, Blackstar,
contains some lyrics and verses that use Polari.
Entry into standard English
A number of words from Polari have entered mainstream slang.
The Polari word naf, meaning inferior or tacky, has an uncertain etymology.
Michael Quinion states that it is probably from the sixteenth-century Italian word
gnafa, meaning "a despicable person". There are a number of false etymologies,
many based on acronymsNot Available For Fucking, Normal As Fuckthough
these are backronyms. More likely etymologies include northern UK dialect
nafhead, naffin, or nafy, a simpleton or blockhead; nify-nafy, inconsequential,
stupid, or Scots nyaf, a term of contempt for any unpleasant or objectionable
person. An alternative etymology may lie in the Romany naflo, itself rooted in
nsfalo, meaning ill. The phrase "naff off" was used euphemistically in place of
"fuck off" along with the intensifier "naffing" in Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse

(1959). Usage of "naff" increased in the 1970s when television sitcom Porridge
employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not considered
broadcastable at the time. Princess Anne famously told a reporter, "Why don't
you just naff off" at the Badminton horse trials in April 1982.
"Zhoosh" (generally pronounced "zhuzh" with the vowel sound of "hood")
meaning to smarten up, style or improve something, became commonplace
more recently, having been used in the 2003 United States TV series Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy and What Not to Wear.
Polari glossary
Number
medza
una, oney
dooey
tray
quarter
chinker
say
say oney,
setter
say dooey,
otter
say tray,
nobber
daiture
long dedger,
lepta
kenza

Definiti
on
1/2
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve

Word
acdc, bibi
ajax
alamo!
aunt nell
aunt nells
aunt nelly fakes
aunt nell danglers
barney
basket
bat, batts, bates
bitch
bijou
blag
blue
bod
bona
bona nochy

Definition
bisexual
nearby (shortened form of "adjacent to")
they're attractive! (via acronym "LMO" meaning "Lick Me Out!)
listen!
ears
earrings
earrings
a fight
the bulge of male genitalia through clothes
shoes
effeminate or passive gay man
small/little (means "jewel" in French)
pick up
code word for "homosexual"
body
good
goodnight (from Italian buona notte)

bonaroo
bungery
butch
buvare
cackle
camp
capello, capella,
capelli, kapella
carsey, karsey,
khazi
cartes
cats
charper
charpering omi
charver
chicken
clevie
clobber
cod
corybungus
cottage
cottaging
cove
crimper
dally
Dilly boy
Dilly, the
dinari
dish
dolly
dona
dorcas
drag
doss
ecaf
eek
ends
esong, sedon
fambles
fantabulosa
farting crackers
feele/freely/filly

wonderful, excellent
pub, this comes from bung
masculine; masculine lesbian
a drink; something drinkable (from Italian bere or oldfashioned Italian bevere or Lingua Franca bevire)
talk/gossip
effeminate (possibly from Italian campare "exaggerate, make
stand out")
hat (from Italian, also Greek cappello)
toilet
penis (from Italian cazzo)
trousers
to search or to look (from Italian acchiappare to catch)
policeman
sexual intercourse
young man
vagina
clothes
bad
backside, posterior
a public lavatory used for sexual encounters
seeking or obtaining sexual encounters in public lavatories
taxi
hairdresser
sweet, kind. Possibly an alternate pronunciation of dolly.
a male prostitute, from Piccadilly boy
Piccadilly, a place where trolling went on
money (Latin denarii was the 'd' of the pre decimal penny)
buttocks
pretty, nice, pleasant, from Irish Gaelic dighiil 'handsome'
pronounced 'doil'
woman (perhaps from Italian donna or Lingua Franca dona)
term of endearment, 'one who cares'. The Dorcas Society was
a ladies' church association of the nineteenth century, which
made clothes for the poor.
clothes, esp. women's clothes (prob from Romani indraka
skirt; also possibly from German tragen v. to wear
(clothes))
bed
face (backslang)
face (abbreviation of ecaf)
hair
nose (backslang)
hands
fabulous/wonderful
trousers
child/young (from the Italian figlio, for son)

flowery
fortuni
fruit
funt
fungus
gelt
handbag
hoofer
HP (homy polone)

lodgings, accommodations
gorgeous, beautiful
queen
pound
old man/beard
money (Yiddish)
money
dancer
effeminate gay man
food, also mangarie (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca
jarry
mangiaria)
jubes
breasts
kaffies
trousers
khazi
toilet, also spelt carsey
lacoddy
body
lallies (lylies)
legs, sometimes also knees (as in "get down on yer lallies")
lallie tappers
feet
latty/lattie
room, house or flat
lills
hands
lilly
police (Lilly Law)
lyles
legs (prob. from "Lisle stockings")
lucoddy
body
luppers
fingers (Yiddish lapa paw)
food, also jarry (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca
mangarie
mangiaria)
martinis
hands
measures
money
plain, ugly (from Yiddish "meeiskeit, in turn from Hebrew
meese
repulsive, loathsome, despicable, abominable)
nutty, crazy, mental (from Yiddish 'meshugge', in turn from
meshigener
Hebrew
crazy)
metzas
money (Italian -mezzi "means, wherewithal")
mince
walk (affectedly)
naff
awful, dull, hetero
nanti
not, no, none (Italian niente)
national handbag dole, welfare, government financial assistance
ogle
look, admire
ogles
eyes
oglefakes
glasses
omi
man (from Romance)
omi-palone
effeminate man, or homosexual
onk
nose (cf "conk")
orbs
eyes
oven
mouth (nanti pots in the oven = no teeth in the mouth)
palare pipe
telephone ("talk pipe")
palliass
back
park, parker
give
plate
feet; to fellate
palone
woman (Italian paglione - "straw mattress", [cf. old Cant "hay-

palone-omi
pots
remould
riah/riha
riah zhoosher
rough trade
scarper
schlumph
scotch
screech
sharpy
sharpy polone
shush
shush bag
shyker/shyckle
slap
so
stimps
stimpcovers
strides
strillers
switch
thews
tober
todd (Sloanne)
tootsie trade
trade
troll
vada/varder
vera (lynn)
vogue
vogueress
willets
yews
zhoosh
zhooshy

bag" = woman]); also spelled "polony" in Graham Greene's

1938 novel Brighton Rock
lesbian
teeth
sex change
hair (backslang)
hairdresser
a working class or blue collar sex partner or potential sex
partner; a tough, thuggish or potentially violent sex partner
to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape or run away or
from rhyming slang Scapa Flow, to go)
drink
leg (scotch egg=leg)
mouth, speak
policeman (from charpering omi)
policewoman
steal (from client)
hold-all
wig (mutation of the Yiddish sheitel)
makeup
homosexual (e.g. "Is he 'so'?")
legs
stockings, hosiery
trousers
piano
wig
thighs
road (a Shelta word, Irish bthar)
alone
sex between two passive homosexuals (as in: 'I don't do
tootsie trade')
sex, sex-partner, potential sex-partner
to walk about (esp. looking for trade)
to see (from Italian dialect vardare = guardare look at)
vardered vardering
gin
cigarette (from Lingua Franca fogus - "fire, smoke")
female smoker
breasts
(from French "yeux") eyes
style hair, tart up, mince
(Romani - "zhouzho" - clean, neat)
zhoosh our riah style our hair
showy

Polari in use
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", a Round The Horne
sketch 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 of 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
ofer 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).