Use of polari - good or annoying?

[Brian G Turner]

Good idea or rubbish?

Certainly there could be a place for it, as the story allows. Quite a few epic fantasy books mine the history of thief types and their cants, collected since the 17th century. However, it's used according to the type of book, and type of reader. For example, Scott Lynch uses a sprinking, whereas Douglas Hulick uses it quite extensively.

 

[Toby Frost]

I had a couple of minor characters who spoke in Polari, but their species was very similar to Kenneth Williams from Willo the Wisp. Now I think of it, Polari is (to anyone who remembers it) probably most closely linked not just with gay slang but with a certain sort of very high camp. It might not seem like the natural language of gangsters and hard men, even if it really was. I think it could work, though, if it wasn't too heavily done.

 

[Vertigo]

I'd agree if it's not done too heavily I'd live with it and maybe appreciate the character in lends to the book.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I think for a 19th C criminal some subset of Regency Cant will work better than actual Polari, as for anyone that recognises it, it will be too Kenneth Williams / Camp / Gay / 1960s.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Was thinking about this and eventually decided it's not good or bad - but it could be problematic. I'm a kiwi so I'd never heard of Polari, which means the more times you add in words and phrases the more often I and other non British people are going to be left floundering. You can of course add explanations of what the words mean - but that just slows the text down if there are too many of them. And for pity's sake don't make it a glossary of terms. If I have a book and have to flip to the glossary constantly to work out what the hell you're talking about, that's a major buzz kill.

So the question becomes - who is your audience? Do you want to access the Americans / colonials etc. Or are you only writing for the British / Londoners?

Also as a general comment do you really need any more languages / dialects / accents in Britain? I mean some days I feel an overwhelming need to head over to the UK and teach you guys to speak English!!! (Speaking as a kiwi of course!)

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If you handle it correctly, readers can figure out what the unfamiliar words mean from the context. After all, that's how most of us acquired a goodly part of our vocabularies in the first place.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'm a kiwi so I'd never heard of Polari,

search for Round The Horn. Kenneth Williams and another. I suspect the BBC didn't know what he was saying. I didn't (and still don't!). It was funny anyway.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'd never heard of it, either, though I have heard of Thieves' Cant -- and I'm not sure if I've read any of either one. But I wouldn't be put off by it -- I enjoy picking up new words and phrases and dialects that are interesting.

I'm not sure if Trainspotting is a good example. I tried reading it recently and got about halfway through before deciding I simply didn't care about anybody in the book enough to bother finishing it. But it wasn't the language, which I enjoyed deciphering for the most part; it was just that the characters didn't do anything for me and I didn't see any reason to hang around in their company any longer.

The American version of A Clockwork Orange had a glossary, without which I likely wouldn't have managed to finish it, at least back in high school when I read it.

What does all of this mean? Well, I'd say give it a shot. You clearly want to use it, so see what happens. You can always change it later if you don't like it, or if beta readers are too puzzled.

 

[Mirannan]

If it's set in a pocket of old London, maybe a mixture of thieves' cant and some of the more obscure Cockney rhyming slang would work. Done right, one might even not need a glossary. I offer as evidence of the latter the fact that the language used by dwellers in Sigil (an extremely cosmopolitan city which forms part of the D&D universe) is heavily based on thieves' cant and is reasonably understandable once one has got used to it.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

As a huge fan of Round The Horne, I listen a lot to that show when it's repeated on BBC4Extra. The weird thing about Julian & Sandy is how funny they still are. Not sure why, given that these sections of the show were being written 50 years ago. Bona!

 

[Vladd67]

Well I for think the idea would be a bona one and would love to give it a barder, most of the terms would be easy to work out and some are in general use, such as clobber for clothes, mince for walking. Of course one term for walking just can't be used on line, to troll as in look who's come trolling in here. As has been mentioned earlier, if you haven't heard of this before just look on YouTube for Julian and Sandy for examples.