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The popularity of this music has spread this once-secret language around the globe. It should come as no surprise that it is the lingua franca of tango, and even fluent Spanish speakers have trouble decoding the genre’s lyrics without knowledge of Lunfardo. Lunfardo is a sensual language that is laden with words for men, women, and body parts. There are countless terms for categories of criminals, their prey, and shady activities. “Verse” masks standard words by rearranging syllables, and metaphor abounds. Much of the vocabulary is of unknown origin.
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Northern Italian dialects are well represented, plus additions from English, French, and Gypsy tongues. Lunfardo has a gigantic vocabulary, with contributions from many languages beyond its Spanish core. To others, this mainstream cryptolect defines Argentinian culture. To some linguistic formalists, Lunfardo is an embarrassment-a lowbrow, delinquent-tinged slang best avoided by the well-heeled. With time, this cryptolect emerged from prisons and criminal dens to become the definitive Buenos Aires dialect, cutting across class lines and oozing across borders. Lunfardo originated in the Buenos Aires underworld as a secret language to confound outsiders. He incorporated their imagery and poetry (“nothing to be gained here”) into his compositions. Hobo hieroglyphics inspired painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, who counted a dictionary of these symbols among his favorite books. As the hobo phenomenon fades, so does the usage of their coded language, yet these symbols still resonate deeply. Those who remain are frequently lambasted as “showbos”-that is, interested in exploiting the lifestyle for its pageantry in festivals rather than embracing the cold, hard reality of life on the rails. Hobos are rare today, since train companies have tightened their security. This cryptic language proved essential to hobo survival in the unforgiving world of train-hopping. These hieroglyphics signified danger, opportunity, and even nuanced recommendations such as “food for religious talk.” The signs are intentionally abstract so that they could be written out in the open without fear of being deciphered by non-hobos. In order to exchange information, hobos developed a language of coded symbols.
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Author John Steinbeck called them “ the last free men.” They were admired, pitied, feared, and idolized. The phenomenon reached peak numbers during the Great Depression, when the dispossessed flooded hobo “jungles.” These men led nomadic existences, taking odd jobs no one else wanted. Hobos appeared on the American scene after the Civil War when itinerant men took to the rails in search of work. While gay rights are protected under the South African constitution, the murder of homosexual men and “corrective rape” of lesbians reveals a powerful need for these societal outsiders to communicate in secret. South Africa boasts a second cryptolect for homosexual Bantu speakers called IsiNgqumo. Given the connection between South Africa and the UK, it is not surprising that many Polari words have found their way into Gayle. Gayle is an Afrikaans-based dialect used principally by English-speaking urban homosexual men in South Africa.
Polari is not the only cryptolect associated with gay subculture in the Anglo world. The alternative spelling of “Palare” reflects that there is no proper way to write Polari. Morrissey’s 1990 single “Piccadilly Palare” explicitly references the cryptolect. Polari is rarely spoken today, but it does occasionally find its way into art. Polari was a “wink” to those in the know. The couple never discussed sexual orientation, but they didn’t need to. Given that homosexuality was illegal in England until 1967, by any definition, Polari is an outlaw language.īBC Radio introduced Polari to the masses in the 1960s with a flamboyant comedy duo named Julian and Sandy, who frequently lapsed into the language.
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From the stage, it became a secret code among British homosexuals. What everyone agrees on is that Polari became the insider dialect of English theater.
Others claim it began as the jargon of 19th-century Italian carnies. One theory is that British sailors crafted this tongue by combining the Mediterranean lingua franca with local slang. The origins of this UK cryptolect are shrouded in mystery.
Make no mistake: Outlaws move the mainstream. The exact number of “cryptolects”-secret languages known only to the initiated-is unknown, but many have influenced popular vocabulary. Outsiders need a way to communicate with each other in secret.