Polari
Classification
In the early to mid twentieth century Homosexuals were very much an 'Anti-society' existing within the mainstream as a concious alternative to it. From this was born the 'Anti-language' Polari, which was distinct in its own right rather than simply a dialect of existing languages.
Polari demonstrated the connection between the verbal communication of a subculture and the symbiotic maintenance of an Anti-society's social structure. They are classified through several points: using the same vocabulary and grammar rules as their native lagnuge, changing words through several linguistic methods such as metathesis (vagary to vagari), back formation (hair to riah), subsituting consonants (freely to feele), borrowing words from other existing languages (bagaga, meaning benis which is derived from Italians baggagio, meaning baggage), creating unconventional compounds, or utilising new suffixes.
Polari's vernacular totals 642 (taken from Paul Bakers 'Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Palri and Gay Slang'), in which I've classifed both individuals words and phrases that contain multiple words as 1 single entry, 133 of these are othographical variants, giving 509 main parts of the vocabulary. In my classification of Polari I saw these 133 alternate versions as significant; helping to demonstrate the widespread etymology of the secret language.
"The connection between the verbal communication of a subculture and the symbiotic maintenance of an Anti-society's social structure"
Investigation into Polari also shows us how speech is spread over a myriad of influences, different communities, and subcultures. For example the word "Vada", which is a staple of Polari, meaning 'To look' has 4 alternates: Varda, Vardo, Vardy, and Varder
"Metathesis (vagary to vagarie), bakc formation (hair to riah) substituting consonants (feely to feele)"
The noun consumes 64% of Polaris lexicon, followed by 11.9% with the adjective. The data demonstrates that a main focus within this 'Anti-language' was the identfication of people, places, things, and conceptual ideas. This is especially revealing about how Polari would function and exist between users, in which descriping physical and conceptual items was far more important than other aspects of language. For example, prepositions, which are used to describe the locatin of something in relation to other things (after, before, on ,under, inside, and outside), only totals to 1 single word in Polari, 'Ajax' which means 'Nearby'.
At the time there was a clear distinction between significant aspects of society and the non significant. Gay men would be partaking in conversations around a dashing man wiht a large package from across the tube carriage, or a promiscuous older queen donned 'Mother'. Describing people, objects, and the physicallity of said people and objects, and the physicality of said people and objects was crucial to Polari's users. The Queer audience was not using Polari to discuss future holiday plans in two weeks time, therefore the need for such tense structures was unecessary.
"The noun consumes 64% of Polaris lexican followed by 11.9% adjective."