🗣️ Julanis Morrissette? Muriah Carey? Nyorts? 🗣️

QUEER WORD
SWARDSPEAK

What It Means:

Swardspeak (also called Bekinese, or Salitang Bakla, which literally translates to 'gay speak') is a playful, ever-evolving queer slang used in the Filipino LGBTQ+ community. Its a heady mix of Tagalog, with a bit of English, a smidge of Spanish, a dash of Japanese, and then a confusing jumble of celebrity names, pop culture references, and, frankly, sheer chaotic brilliance.

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

I had no idea what they were saying about me, but I knew that because they were talking in Swardspeak it couldn't be good.

A little bit of history:

Swardspeak is like all the best community and slang languages - slightly impenetrable to outsiders, more than a little bizarre, and entirely delightful if you are lucky enough to be in on the joke.

The term itself is thought to have been coined in the ‘70s by by journalist and film critic Nestor Torre. He took an outdated word for gay men, ‘sward’, and then slapped ‘speak’ on the end to make it a language.

But it existed long before this, with the terms and the messiness and the playfulness coming from (and cross-pollinating between) a variety of sub-communities and cultures across the Philippines.

It actually reminds me a lot of that other well-known queer language Polari - both are a total linguistic mish-mash, happily stealing words from anywhere and anyone, then twisting them into something that shouldn’t work, but then somehow does.

Swardspeak 101 - What You Need To Know:

Probably the first thing you should know about Swardspeak is that you will never fully understand all the quirks and rules. As a slang language, it's highly dynamic—just when you think you're getting your head around it, up pops another variation or a new rule.

There's no one standardised set of rules, but some of the more common conventions include:

• Syllable swapping: Replacing the first or last syllable or letter of an existing word with another letter (so you remove the 'sh' from 'shorts', add 'ny', and end up with ‘nyorts’)

• Vowel transformation: Replacing 'a', 'o', or 'u' vowel sounds with 'or', 'er', or 'ur' (which transforms 'hello' into ‘heller’)

• Wordplay and code-switching: Puns, malapropisms, onomatopoeia, and deliberately incorrect Anglicisation. For example, the Tagalog phrase for 'he is gay' - gay siya - sounds a bit like the Japanese word ‘geisha’, so somewhere along the way that became the Swardspeak term.

• Pop culture references: Celebrity names and TV shows also get borrowed, twisted, and then find their way into the language. The Tagalog word for 'cheap' is ‘mura’, and the Swardspeak word for ‘cheap’ is the almost-kind-of-similar-sounding ‘Muriah Carey’.

Right, now that we’ve got that quick lesson out of the way let’s take a look at 5 delicious words you can start peppering in your conversations immediately.

Julanis Morissette

What it means: It's raining.

Origin: The Tagalog word for 'rain' is ‘ulan’, which kind of sort of sounds like Alanis (as in Alanis Morissette). For some reason you also add the letter J, because why not?

Let's use it in a sentence: Oh damn. Looks like it's Julanis Morissette-ing again.

Noel Coward

What it means: No.

Origin: 'No' is the first two letters of playwright Noel Coward's name. Simple, elegant, very theatrical.

Let's use it in a sentence: You want me to stay another three nights? Oh, hell Noel Coward!

Statue of Liberty

What it means: Free (as in, no cost)

Origin: The Statue of Liberty represents freedom

Let's use it in a sentence: I thought the meal would be expensive but Candace paid for everyone, so I got it for Statue of Liberty - result!

Thunder Cats

Meaning: An affectionate term for older queer folks

Origin: A reference to the '80s cartoon Thunder Cats, and if you are old enough to have watched that cartoon you’re probably old enough to be considered a Thunder Cat.

Let's use it in a sentence: The Thunder Cats at the bar were giving me life advice I didn't ask for but absolutely needed.

Antibiotic

Meaning: Obnoxious, unpleasant, bitchy

Origin: Comes from the Tagalog word ‘antipátika’

Let's use it in a sentence: I do love him, but when he's had three or more beers he turns in to a bit of an antibiotic.