A01=Paul Baker
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Author_Paul Baker
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bbc
camouflage
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=CBX
Category=HBTB
Category=JBSJ
Category=JFSK2
Category=NHTB
closeted
code
community
COP=United Kingdom
criminalization
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
dilly boys
drag
england
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gay
gender
hidden
history
homosexuality
hugh paddick
humor
identification
identity
julian and sandy
kenneth williams
language
Language_English
lgbt
lgbtq
lgbtqia
lingua franca
linguistics
macho
masculinity
outcast
PA=Available
polari
popular culture
Price_€10 to €20
prostitution
PS=Active
radio
round the horne
sexuality
slang
softlaunch
subculture
subversive
thieves cant
transgression
Product details
- ISBN 9781789142945
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 2020
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
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Polari is a language that was used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. At a time when being gay could result in criminal prosecution – or worse – Polari offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage, a way of expressing humour, and a means of identification and of establishing a community. Its roots are colourful and varied – from Cant to Lingua Franca to prostitutes’ slang – and in the mid-1960s it was thrust into the limelight by the characters Julian and Sandy, voiced by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, on the BBC radio show Round the Horne (‘Oh Mr Horne, how bona to vada your dolly old eke!’).
Paul Baker recounts the story of Polari with skill, erudition and tenderness. He traces its historical origins and describes its linguistic nuts and bolts, explores the ways and the environments in which it was spoken, explains the reasons for its decline, and tells of its unlikely re-emergence in the twenty-first century.
With a cast of drag queens and sailors, Dilly boys and macho clones, Fabulosa! is an essential document of recent history and a fascinating and fantastically readable account of this funny, filthy and ingenious language.
Paul Baker is Professor of English Language at Lancaster University. He has written 16 books including American and British English (2018) and, with Jo Stanley, Hello Sailor! (2003). He regularly gives talks and workshops about Polari and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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