Swardspeak

Swardspeak (also known as "Bekimon" and "gay lingo") is an argot or cant slang derived from Englog (Tagalog-English code-switching) and used by a number of homosexuals in the Philippines.^[1]

Description

Swardspeak uses elements from Tagalog, English, Spanish, and some from Japanese, as well as celebrities' names and trademark brands, giving them new meanings in different contexts.^[2] It is largely localized within gay communities, making use of words derived from the local languages or dialects, including Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, and Bicolano.

Usage

A defining trait of swardspeak slang is that it immediately identifies the speaker as homosexual, making it easy for people of that orientation to recognize each other. This creates an exclusive group among its speakers and helps them resist cultural assimilation. More recently, though, even non-members of the gay community use this way of speaking, particularly heterosexual members of industries dominated by gays, such as the fashion and film industries.

By using swardspeak, Filipino gays are able to resist the dominant culture of their area and create a space of their own.^[3] The language is constantly changing, with old phrases becoming obsolete and new phrases frequently entering everyday usage, reflecting changes in their culture and also maintaining exclusivity. The dynamic nature of the language refuses to cement itself in a single culture and allows for more freedom of expression among its speakers. Words and phrases can be created to react to popular trends and create alternatives to a strictly defined lifestyle. By these characteristics, swardspeak creates a dissident group without any ties to geographical, linguistic, or cultural restrictions, thus allowing its speakers to shape the language as appropriate to the times. In this way, the language is not only "mobile" and part of a larger community, but also open to more specific or local meanings.^[4]

Gay people who speak the language almost exclusively are humorously called Bekimons (a contraction of Baklang Jejemon, 'Gay Jejemons').^[5] Swardspeak is also spoken by babaeng bakla, women who associate exclusively or mostly with gay men (literally 'gay women', though they are actually heterosexual).^[6]

Origin

The word "Swardspeak", according to Jose Javier Reyes, was coined by columnist and movie critic Nestor Torre in the 1970s. Reyes himself wrote a book on the subject entitled "Swardspeak: A Preliminary Study".^[7] "Sward" is slang for 'gay male' in the Philippines.^[8] The origin of the individual words and phrases, however, has existed longer and come from a variety of sources.^[9]

Conventions

Swardspeak is a form of slang (and therefore highly dynamic, as opposed to colloquialisms) that is built upon preexisting languages. It deliberately transforms or creates words that resemble words from other languages, particularly English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, and German. It is colorful, witty, and humorous, with vocabularies derived from popular culture and regional variations.^[10] It is unintelligible to people not familiar with the Filipino gay culture or do not know the rules of usage.^[11] There is no standardized set of rules, but some of the more common conventions are shown below:^[12]

• Replacing the first letter/syllable of words with the letter "J"/"Sh" or the syllables "Jo-"/"Sho-" or "Ju-"/"Shu-".

• Replacing the first letter/syllable of words with the diphthongs "Ky-" or "Ny-".

• Replacing the end syllable of words with "-ash", "-is", "-iz", "-ish", "-itch", "-ech", "-ush", or "-oosh" as a diminutive or augmentative suffix.

• Replacing "a", "o", or "u" sounds with "or", "er", or "ur", especially directly before or after the consonant "l".

• Inverting the letter order of a word, similar to Tagalog syllable switching slang. It is predominantly used in Cebuano swardspeak.^[13]

• Word play, puns, malapropisms, code-switching, onomatopoeic words that resemble preexisting words, and deliberately incorrect Anglicization of words.

• References to popular culture, usually celebrities or TV shows. They can be selected to replace a word in reference to the things they were famous for, simply because parts of the words rhyme, or both.

• Borrowed words from other languages, particularly long disused Spanish words in the Philippines (which has feminine forms of words preferred in Swardspeak that is absent in most Filipino languages), English, and Japanese.^[14]

Examples

• Translation of the traditional Filipino nursery rhyme 'Ako ay may lobo' (I have a balloon) into Swardspeak.^[15]

• Translation of the traditional Filipino nursery rhyme 'Bahay Kubo' (Nipa hut) into Swardspeak.

See also

• Bahasa Binan, a similar dialect in Indonesia
• Gayle language, an Afrikaans-based gay argot
• IsiNgqumo, a South African gay argot based on the Bantu languages
• Lavender linguistics
• LGBT culture in the Philippines
• LGBT slang
• Manila Sound, a musical genre from the Philippines often characterized by the use of swardspeak
• Polari, cant slang used in Britain

References

Bibliography

• DV Hart, H Hart. Visayan Swardspeak: The language of a gay community in the Philippines - Crossroads, 1990
• Manalansan, Martin F. IV. “’Performing’ the Filipino Gay Experiences in America: Linguistic Strategies in a Transnational Context.” Beyond the Lavender Lexicon: Authenticity, Imagination and Appropriation in Lesbian and Gay Language. Ed. William L Leap. New York: Gordon and Breach, 1997. 249–266
• Manalansan, Martin F. IV. “Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora”, Duke University Press Books, November 19, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8223-3217-6

External links

• Gay Language

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