> On Wed, 2010-06-02 at 08:51 +1000, Chris Jones wrote:
>> I was thinking of polari
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Fantabulosa-Dictionary-Polari-Gay-Slang/dp/0826459617
>
> There has been a lot more research then I had thought there would be.
... but most of it seems to be focused very specifically on London gay
polari -- I wonder, for instance, whether the incidence of rhyming slang
found in that version of it is general? Was it there in the polari you
encountered in Sydney in the sixties, Chris? I'd always associated rhyming
slang pretty specifically with Cockney speech, but it may be more general.
My problem is that the variety of polari which seems to be *least documented
is circus polari, but from what few (one?) lexical lists I've seen of this,
it seems to preserve a lot more elements which go right back to 16thC
thieves' cant than does the Julian&Sandy version that's more usually talked
about. Thus my interest in that particular variety.
(Also, if this observation held, it would say something about the ultimate
origins of polari, of whichever variety. An older and more general
anti-language adopted by the London [and other] gay community, and
transformed by them, rather than one which emerged directly within gay
society.
Having said that, it's obviously gay polari which is most alive at the
moment.)
Robin
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