Lavender Languages
"Lavender languages" are the (anti-)languages, cants and slang created and used by LGBT+ communities. Throughout history, people have used a myriad of secret signs and symbols to identify themselves to other members of their community while avoiding detection (and thus danger), but perhaps none are so intricate as lavender languages.
These languages all have a few things in common. First, they are used by a community that needs secrecy for safety. Second, they are influenced by a variety of languages, but especially languages spoken by other oppressed classes. And third, as they become well-known by those outside of our communities, their purpose is lost. A secret language is not a secret if everyone is in on the secret. Still, these languages are important parts of our heritage, and deserve to be acknowledged for the safety they once gave us and the influence they assert on mainstream languages and slang.
Polari
When homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom, people had to be very careful about who they could trust. One way of figuring out if a stranger was gay or bisexual was to use a Polari word in conversation; if they responded in kind, you were safe, as the film above demonstrates. Polari was also useful for conducting conversations safely in the open - if anyone overheard, they would have either heard gibberish, or, understanding Polari, would be a friend and ally.
As a cant, Polari is fascinating. You can tell so much about British culture through to 1960s - and the LGBT+ community's place in it - simply by tracing its origins and influences.
Polari fell out of favour in the 1960s when homosexuality was no longer criminalised, the LGBT+ movement was underway and looking toward liberation, and Polari was no longer "secret", having become familiar to the general public. Its revival in recent years has been the cause of celebration and controversy, most notably when a reading of the Polari Bible - lovingly and wonderfully translated by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - caused some outrage when it was read during a Church of England service celebrating LGBT+ History Month.
“Fabeness be to the Auntie, and to the Homie Chavvie, and to the Fantabulosa Fairy”
Frankly, church has never sounded so fun.
If you want to learn more, Paul Baker has researched Polari extensively, or you can check out this app to learn some Polari.
Swardspeak
Also known as Bekinese, Bekimon, and more recently gayspeak, Swardspeak is spoken in the Philippines by the gay community. According to Jon Shadel, gayspeak is a mixture ofTagalog, English, Spanish, and a little bit of Japanese, along with regional influences. Gayspeak is an amazingly camp, hilarious language:
“Swardspeak is both playful and mind-bogglingly complex. Many terms come from the names of celebrities, brands and a cornucopia of other colorful sources. “Walang Julanis Morisette,” for instance, translates to “there’s no rain,” a play on a lyric from Alanis Morissette’s single “Ironic”—“it’s like rain on your wedding day.” It is language as pun, as inside joke, as subversion—and it is as metaphorical as it is ephemeral.”
References such as this ensure that gayspeak can constantly evolve beyond appropriation from the heterosexual mainstream. Although some words slip into common use, gayspeak constantly reinvents and redefines the boundaries that create community. Danton Remoto spoke of the importance of gayspeak in Filipino society:
“[Speakers] now have a way of languaging their lives. This bricolage of disparate elements is an act of subverting the existing, heterosexual power relations. In a sense, the Filipino gay empire has struck back at the center, using a language full of slippages and cracks - a language at once sophisticated and vulgar, serious and light, timely and timeless. ”
Because gayspeak is a living cant that is highly regionalized and constantly undergoing change, we don't have many resources to recommend for a thorough delve into this (anti-)language. While there have been studies on vocabulary and youtube videos about gayspeak, actual gay voices are a little hard to find on the internet. Let us know if you have any tips!
Lubunca
Lubunca has been spoken in Turkey since the early 1900s. It too is a language born of necessity; "LGBTQ sex workers, particularly transwomen" created Lubunca to be able to communicate safely with each other. Like Polari, Lubunca has been influenced by Romani (both the Romani and sex workers were segregated and pushed to the fringe of society, thus occupying the same space where language flowed freely), and there are also elements of Kurdish, Greek, and Bulgarian. While mainstream awareness of Polari came homosexuality was , Lubunca is becoming a fad at a time when Turkey's LGBT+ community most needs protection. According to Pesha Magid, "the people who continue to be most at risk are transgender women. Many transgender women are unable to find work because of discrimination and turn to sex work out of economic necessity. They are working illegally with great risk of violence or arrest. It is the reason that they still need Lubunca and why, despite the language’s popularity online, the majority of people who speak it fluently are transgender women."
Like gayspeak of the Philippines, Lubunca has continued to adapt in response to mainstream familiarity. Dalia Mortada writes that "because certain words have become so mainstream, they are no longer used in the sex work community". One former sex worker she interviewed spoke of girls inventing new words as needed, simply saying: "it evolves".
You can learn more by listening to a podcast about the origins of Lubunca, and more importantly, staying up to date on the advancement of rights for LGBT+ people and sex workers in Turkey.
ISINGQUMO AND GAYLE
If you are even slightly familiar with South Africa's history, you know that there was and continues to be a societal divide along the lines of race. This has meant that two gay languages have evolved; gay black South Africans might speak isiNgqumo, thought to be influenced by Sesotho and Nguni or isiZulu (all of which fall under the Bantu language umbrella). IsiNgqumo has been described as "extensive and colourful", a cant that "incorporates many languages and styles...the sophistication and pervasiveness of isingqumo is an indication of the developed nature of black gay subculture and its rootedness in South African Black townships on the reef." Stephanie Rudwick & Mduduzi Ntuli provide an example of isiNgqumo: "Awu, dali, awukopit ucako akasalele kanje dali"; [wow, darling, can’t you see this cute guy, what a darling].
Gayle is usually spoken by gay descendants of colonial settlers in South Africa. It is influenced by English and Afrikaans. Gayle has been traced to the 1950s, and interestingly has been influenced by Polari, using some of the same words.
Gayle uses women's names for words with the same first letter: "Carol" means cry, "Lulu" means laugh, and "Monica" means money. "Gail", funnily enough, means "chat".