Editing Polari (section)

==Description==
[[File:Polari Rainbow Plaque.jpg|thumb|right|[[Leeds Pride#Rainbow Plaques|Rainbow Plaque]] on [[Leeds City Varieties]] theatre]]
Polari is a mixture of Romance ([[Italian language|Italian]]<ref name="BritishSpiesLicensed">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20080822213014/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1833896,00.html?cnn=yes British Spies: Licensed to be Gay]." ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. 19 August 2008. Retrieved 9 May 2018.</ref> or [[Mediterranean Lingua Franca]]), [[Romani language|Romani]], [[rhyming slang]], sailors' slang and [[thieves' cant]], which later expanded to contain words from [[Yiddish]] and 1960s [[drug subculture]] slang. It was constantly evolving, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: ''{{lang|pld|bona}}'' (good),<ref name="liverpoolmuseums.org.uk">{{cite web |title=The secret language of polari – Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool museums |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/floor-plan/life-at-sea/gaylife/polari.aspx |access-date=5 July 2018 |website=Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk}}</ref> ''{{lang|pld|ajax}}'' (nearby), ''{{lang|pld|eek}}'' (face), ''{{lang|pld|cod}}'' (bad, in the sense of tacky or vile), ''{{lang|pld|naff}}'' (bad, in the sense of drab or dull, though borrowed into mainstream British English with a meaning more like that of ''{{lang|pld|cod}}''), ''{{lang|pld|lattie}}'' (room, house, flat), ''{{lang|pld|nanti}}'' (not, no), ''{{lang|pld|omi}}'' (man), ''{{lang|pld|palone}}'' (woman), ''{{lang|pld|riah}}'' (hair), ''{{lang|pld|zhoosh}}'' or ''{{lang|pld|tjuz}}'' (smarten up, stylise), ''{{lang|pld|TBH}}'' ('to be had', sexually accessible), ''{{lang|pld|trade}}'' (sex) and ''{{lang|pld|vada}}'' (see).<ref>Baker, Paul (2002) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang. London: Continuum {{ISBN|0-8264-5961-7}}</ref> 

There were once two distinct forms of Polari in London: an [[East End of London|East End]] version which stressed [[Cockney]] rhyming slang and a [[West End of London|West End]] version which stressed theatrical and classical influences. There was some interchange between the two.<ref>David McKenna, ''A Storm in a Teacup'', Channel 4 Television, 1993.</ref>

In the LGBTQ community, Polari also involves inverting gendered personal pronouns and names, typically switching them from male forms to female forms. For example, ''he'' may become ''she'' (known as ''[[Gender pronoun transposition|she-ing]]''), and the name ''Paul'' may become ''Pauline''.<ref name="Lavender Language">{{Cite web |title=Lavender Language, The Queer Way to Speak |url=https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2016/8/17/lavender-linguistics-queer-way-speak |access-date=9 March 2025 |website=www.out.com |language=en |quote=Polari was rife with 'she-ing', an academic term that refers to the linguistic practice of feminizing people and things. She-ing appears almost universally and across centuries in gay language, from Peru to the Philippines to South Africa (where gay slang is called ''Gayle''), to Israel (called ''oxtchit'', derived from an Arabic word meaning 'my sister'), to Soviet-era Russia [in the gay slang ''goluboy''].}}</ref><ref name="lithub 2019">{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Paul |date=22 August 2019 |title=The Feints and Jabs of Polari, Britain's Gay Slang |url=https://lithub.com/the-feints-and-jabs-of-polari-britains-gay-slang/ |access-date=9 March 2025 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US |quote=In the Polari speaker's world, gender was linguistically reversed—he was she and (less commonly) she became he. This practice of feminizing through language, referred to by artist and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence (Manchester branch) Jez Dolan, is referred to as 'she-ing'. She-ing is one of the aspects of Polari that has survived into more recent decades, and the practice was so pervasive at a particular bar on Canal Street in Manchester's Gay Village that a 'She-box' was installed a few years ago, akin to a 'Swear-box', where patrons would have to put in a few coins if they she'd someone, with the proceeds being donated to charity.}}</ref><ref>Motschenbacher, Heiko. Review of Fabulosa! The story of Polari, Britain's secret gay language, by Paul Baker. Language, vol. 96 no. 4, 2020, p. 938-940. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2020.0067. "In the domain of personal reference, Polari speakers often draw on inverted appellation practices (for example, 'she-ing'—the use of female pronouns to refer to male social actors), objectifying use of the pronoun it, endearment terms, metaphorical uses of kinship terms, and camp names."</ref>