Polari (el lenguaje secreto)

En los años 70’s cuando la homosexualidad era ilegal en Inglaterra

Polari es un sublenguaje originario del Reino Unido mayor mente utilizando en

grupos LGBTTIQA+ como una forma de expresar abiertamente sus preferencias ,
ideas ,etc;sin sufrir la consecuencias de la sociedad del siglo XX, aunque su uso
no solo era limitado a grupos LGBTTIQA+, también existen registros de que era
utilizado por personas heterosexuales y del medio del teatro. 

El lenguaje polari es uno relativamente reciente pues surge a principios del año
1900, aunque su auge fue en él años 40’s con la necesidad de expresar quienes
eran , y poder vivir la libertad de su sexualidad sin temor recibir una represalia no
sólo física sino también social( por lo tanto la de sus familias) . El lenguaje era
únicamente utilizado en bares clandestinos donde era permitido este tipo de
actividades. Aunque hoy en día ya no se utiliza con su propósito inicial, es un
representante de la historia de la comunidad LGBTTIQA+, u recuerda la lucha que
enfrentaron miles de ser personas, de aquí la importancia de conocer de este
tema pues el saber que muchas personas sufrieron y sufren las represalias de una
sociedad tan resignada 
Polari no era realmente un idioma en el sentido tradicional, mientras que tenía cosas como
sustantivos, adjetivos y verbos, podrías usarlo para una comunicación muy sustancial, pero no
podrías escribir un libro y, al mismo tiempo, era más sustancial que una simple jerga porque se
usaba para proteger a la comunidad. En lingüística, esto se conoce como " argot", una forma de
hablar que deliberadamente evita que los extraños lo entiendan, en otras palabras, un idioma
secreto. Polari eligió un vocabulario de muchas diferentes fuentes además de las palabras en
romaní que se encontraron originalmente en Kant, polari también absorbieron palabras del
judaismo y el francés.

A principios del siglo XX personas del aspectro LGBT solían usar un lenguaje llamado
polari. Polari se solía utilizar para hablar de la vida de las personas LGBT, sin la necesidad
de que las demás personas realmente entendieran lo que se decía, porque en aquellos
años ser LGBT era algo ilegal, que se castigaba con cárcel o castración química (esto para
los hombres). Por ello hablar polari no solo era entretenido sino representa la necesidad
de protección y el deseo de libertad de la comunidad.
Polari tiene sus inicios hace unos 500 años, con un sublenuaje llamado “cant”; este era
mas un lenguaje utilizado en suburbios para actividades ilícitas, hablado principalmente
por vagabundos, prostitutas, ladrones y grupos perseguidos (como personas LGBT), y este
era mayormente ocupado para evadir a las autoridades. Cerca de un siglo después, los
circos llegaron a Italia desde Inglaterra, a carreado un lenguaje llamado “parlyaree” ,
estos en gran parte conformados por personas egragadas de la sociedad, eventualmente
“parlyaree” se convirtió parte de la jerga común de la personas, mezclándose ambas
lenguas.
En los años 1800, en Londres surge un nuevo tipo de jerga llamado “cockney rhyming”, en
esta jerga se usaba rimas para referirse a objetos cotidianos, por lo que platos con carne
significaban pies y huevo escocés significaba pierna, esta jerga se usó en las clases pobres
de Londres donde, como probablemente pueda imaginar, entró en contacto con “cant” y
“parlyaree”. No se sabe exactamente cómo y cuándo paso, pero a mitades del siglo XIX,
todas estas variedades se mezclaron formando “POLARI”. Debe tenerse en cuenta que en
ese momento polari era hablado por todo el inframundo de Inglaterra y no fue hasta las décadas
de 1910 y 20 que me asocié más con la comunidad LGBT lo suficientemente divertido, esto puede
deberse a las drag queens que usaban polari en sus actuaciones, usaron polari tanto que cambió la
percepción de todo el idioma, ya no era solo el idioma del inframundo, era el idioma de CAMP

De aquí la importancia de Polari, pues no solo es una jerga que se utilizo en el siglo pasado, sino
incluye toda esta carga social, algo que muchas personas vivieron y sufrieron.
in early twentieth century England and people across the LGBTQ spectrum used a secret language
called polari that's where she's just been polari was used to talk about LGBT social life without the
mainstream understanding this was necessary because being a LGBT at that time was illegal as in if
you were found out you would be put in jail or forced to undergo medical castration

speaking polari was fun to do but it was also a necessary protection for the community in order to
understand how glory came about we have to go back 500 years to a system of communication in
england known as can't cath was the language of the criminal underworld spoken by thieves and
vagabonds and persecuted groups like the Romani and the LGBT community it was thought to be
used as a way to talk around authorities to hide any illicit activities about a century later traveling
carnivals came from Italy to England bringing with them a pigeon like language called parley since
traveling carnivals were often made up of socially ostracized people parlay re eventually found
itself in the domain of Kent and the two mixed together

fast forwarding to the early1800s there was a new flourishing slang in London called cockney
rhyming slang as you could probably guess from the name a cockney rhyming slang used rhyming
to refer to everyday objects so plates of meat meant feet and Scotch egg meant leg cockney
rhyming slang was used in the poor under classes of London where as you can probably imagine it
came into contact with Kent and parle re no one knows exactly when or where but in the mid to
late 1800s all three of these varieties merged together into one form which was called polari

it should be noted that at that time polari was spoken by all of England's underworld and it wasn't
until the 1910s and 20s that I became more associated with the LGBT community funny enough
this may be because of drag queens who used polari in their performances drag queens used
polari so much that it changed the perception of the entire language it was no longer just the
language of the underworld it was the language of CAMP

but let me take a break real quick to be pedantic and say that polari wasn't really a language in
the traditional sense while it had things like nouns and adjectives and verbs you couldn't use it for
very substantial communication like you couldn't write a book and but at the same time it was
more substantial than just slang because it was being used to protect to the community in
linguistics this is referred to as an “argot” a way of speaking that purposely prevents outsiders
from understanding you in other words a secret language polari picked a vocabulary from a lot of
different sources in addition to the Romani words that were found originally in Kant polari also
absorbed words from Yiddish and French simple re words were just backwards versions of their
English counterparts so e calf was face and Rio was hair influences from cockney rhyming slang
were simplified so plates of meat was shortened to just plates all of these features led to a way of
speaking that was totally indecipherable to the mainstream it was impossible to know what
people were talking about unless you were taught it explicitly polari

never took root in the United States but some words that were used in polari found their way into
American LGBTQ vocabulary this includes butch which means very masculine fish which is kind of a
derogatory word for a cisgender woman camp or a camp E which means effeminate or kitschy and
Jewish which means to make something bigger and more beautiful interestingly butch and camp
made their way into mainstream slang an today they're part of standard American English polloi
was used to in England up into the 1980s but it's severely declined in the 1960s and there is
several reasons for that the first is that homosexuality was decriminalized in England in 1967
meaning people no longer had to hide their sexuality behind language the second was there was a
wave of heteronormativity in the LGBT community meaning LGBT people encouraged each other
to act more straight in order to assimilate with the mainstream so all forms of camp enos including
polari were seen as detrimental to this goal the last reason is that polari was actually being
transmitted into the mainstream by a popular radio show called round the horn round the horn
featured two very flamboyant characters called Julian and Sandy who spoke in polari the two
characters were extremely popular with mainstream audiences and with that mainstream
audience now having knowledge of polari it became useless as a way to talk around them there
have been some pushes to bring polari back there's even a polari app you can download but today
in the United States we have our own LGBT language which has influences from pool area but also
largely from African American English things like reading and throwing shade and yaws are all part
of this LGBTQ language that we have today and the slang has helped to bring LGBT people
together like polari did back then so the big question is then with LGBT media becoming more and
more popular in the mainstream like RuPaul' Drag Race or queer I is the LGBT slang that we have
at risk of falling out of use like polari I really want to hear your thoughts about this so leave a
comment below and let me know your opinions if you'd like to learn more about polari I put some
links in the description bar below it really is like a fun way to speak and it would be really cool if
there is a new community of polari speakers