Dividing the sparkle from the munge - that's what it's all about.
Posted by taz at March 22, 2003 03:59 AMDoes this variety have an actually language community? or is it a pidgin of some sort?
Posted by mike at March 22, 2003 11:01 AMIs there an Anthony Burgess connection? This sounds more than vaguely Clockwork Orange.
Posted by Tim at March 22, 2003 11:48 AMMorrissey's 'Piccadilly Palare' - http://www.oz.net/moz/lyrics/bonadrag/piccadil.htm
And a couple of his comments about it - http://arcane.morrissey-solo.com/moz/mozdisc1/palare.htm
What is interesting about Polari is that the latin elements (aqua, palare, etc...) apparently preserve wordfs from the now obsolete Lingua Franca of North Africa. Apparently gay Londoners used to pick up Morrocan sailors at the docks, and picked up and thus preserved some of the old Linqua Franca.
Posted by zaelic at March 23, 2003 07:46 AMThe title of Morrissey's "Bona Drag" is Polari (Palare) for nice clothes, too.
Posted by Michael Davies at March 23, 2003 03:05 PM"Is there an Anthony Burgess connection? This sounds more than vaguely Clockwork Orange."
I doubt it. The language in A Clockwork Orange is a mix of Cockney and Russian.
Also, as a side note: Danny the Street in Grant Morrison's deliciously dotty run on Doom Patrol (best superhero comics of the '90s, or at least way the fuck up there) spoke Palare/Polari, by rearranging the letters of shop window signs and blowing word-smoke from chimneys and suchlike.
It's where I first heard of it, anyway.
The only really Burgessy word here is "nochy," which I recognize as Slavic. "Screech" intrigues me. It's like no word meaning "to name" or "to call" I can think of, though I can't say I know much Romanes or Yiddish. Is it actually from the English, but with a somewhat changed meaning?
Posted by Martin at March 27, 2003 03:28 AMYeah, my guess would be English "screech" used in a generalized sense.
Posted by language hat at March 27, 2003 09:22 AM