Moulic, April Ezra B.

BLL 105 Final Paper

USING ENGLISH WORDS/NAMES IN THE CREATION OF GAY LINGO WORDS AND MEANINGS (Philippine Context) BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY This paper essentially talks about the Gay Lingo. It includes a brief discussion of what gay is and why they felt the need of having a language of their own. Examples of gay lingo words, including the meaning of each word, are also shown in this paper. Moreover, it shows some of the English words or names that are associated and used in the context of gay lingo. This study seeks to answer the following questions: What is Swardspeak/Gay Lingo? Why does such kind of language exist in the first place? Does Gay Lingo greatly influence the Filipinos way of communication? What can you observe about how Gay Lingo used English words in order to create and attach new meanings that can be applied and used in their own context? The scope of this paper is only limited to the spread of Gay Lingo in Philippine context.

INTRODUCTION In the Philippine context, the word gay is used to label bisexuals, homosexuals and transsexuals. The Filipino term for gay is bakla or bading. Even though gays are usually accepted in the Philippine community, we cant deny the fact that some cases of discernment still exist.

To be able to counterattack the dominating culture and norms in the present society and to construct a space of their own, Filipino gay men use a language that only people of their kind could understand. That unique language is called Swardspeak (also known as Gay Lingo). With the use of Gay Lingo, they were able to talk with each other anywhere and anytime they wish to do so because they know that the others wont understand whatever theyre talking about. Swardspeak is the gay mens way of expressing their freedom and their fight against discrimination. Swardspeak uses words from English, Spanish, Tagalog, Nippongo, and other foreign languages. Sometimes, words from different languages are mixed/joined together to come up with a new word. That new word will be given its meaning in the context of gay lingo. Moreover, names of celebrities, models and Hollywood stars are also used in creating words and meanings to be used under gay lingo context. Like speakers of other languages, gays also have their own ways and rules that govern their usage of the swardspeak. Here are some examples: The J Law: replacing the first letter of a word with J Jonta to go to a place; means punta in Tagalog The KY or NY Law: replacing the first letter with Ky or Ny Kyota child; means bata in Tagalog The Name Game: replacing the word with a name (usually of a celebrity) that sounds like it Tom Jones hungry; means gutom in Tagalog Carmi Martin karma Addition: adding extra letters, syllables or extra words to create a different word Crayola cry Thunder Cat an old person; means tanda in Tagalog

The phenomenon of the Gay Lingo is undeniably and continuously spreading around the country. It is evident that Gayspeak is now in the mainstream of Filipino communication. Everyone, females and even straight males use some gay lingo words.

DATA PRESENTATION The main focus of this paper is to look on English words that are borrowed and used by gay men to attach new meanings in existing English words. To come up with a more comprehensive analysis on gay lingo words, the researcher gathered fifteen (15) words from gay lingo that used English words/names to serve as data in this research. The data are as follows:

English Words and Names Used in Gay Lingo Backstreet Boys Julie Andrews

Meanings (Gay Lingo Context) Cute guys at the back Caught in the act ; mahuli in Tagalog (maJULIE)

X-Men

A man turned into a gay ; X, read as ex, means former Unknown person ; Cynthia is read as sino sya? (Cyn/thia) *sino sya is a Tagalog phrase which means who is he/she

Cynthia Luster

Douglas McArthur Russia

Dog (DOGlas) ; means aso in Tagalog Hurry up ; Rush ; means magmadali in Tagalog

Cappuccino

Be realistic ; in Tagalog, magising sa katotohanan *It is a common thought that in order to stay/to be awake and alive, one should drink coffee.

Red Alert

Menstruation ; named after the color of the blood which is RED

Variables

Coins ; in Tagalog, it means barya ; BARYAbles *varia and barya produce the same sound

Jaguar

Guard ; it means gwardya in Tagalog *The syllables in the Tagalog word gwardya (gwar & dya) are interchanged resulting to dya-gwar (read as Jaguar)

Cheese

Gossip ; chismis in Tagalog ; cheese and chis have the same sound (CHEESE-mis)

Fly

Leave ; means alis in Tagalog *Fly has always been associated to going away or to the word away alone.

Continent

Few/Less ; means kaunti or konti in Tagalog (KONTInent)

Entourage/Enter the Dragon

Go inside ; Enter the door ; in Tagalog, it means pasok or pumasok sa pinto

Liberty/Statue of Liberty

Treat ; Free of charge ; means libre in Tagalog *every letter in the word libre are also present in the word liberty; it seemed that some letters are just jumbled or interchanged

As seen in the above table of examples of English words that are present and used in the creation of Swardspeak, it is observed that in Gay Lingos process of creating and formulating words with certain meanings, gays tend to be more artistic and funny. Some of the English words are used in a different way. They associated the borrowed English words with other meanings. In some instances, they use an (English) word that produces the same sound and has (almost) similar pronunciation with the original word that they really mean. Some of the English words that they borrow do not hold its original meanings when used under gay lingo context.

Conclusion Considering all the information and data that were used in this study, it is therefore concluded that Swardspeak is just a funny play of words that the Gay men used to express their emotions, opinions, feelings and especially their freedom to show off themselves around and talk about anything. This artistic language rapidly spread around the country and it is evident that people of any gender are inclined in using some of the words from Gay lingo. With regards to the words that Swardspeak borrowed from the English language, it is clearly seen that gay men do not actually create new words; rather, they attach new meanings from already existing (English) words. They look on similarity in sounds and on the letters that comprise a certain word.

SOURCES:

Deciphering the Filipino Gay Lingo By Empress Maruja AmpedAsia.com http://www.ampedasia.com/forums/filipinoo-gay-lingo-t-10957.html Retrieved 07 March 2012

Gay/Beki Lingo Collections Hoowanted.wordpress.com http://hoowanted.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/gay-lingo-collections/ Retrieved 07 March 2012