| Description:
Gail, or Gayle, is an English and Afrikaans-based argot used primarily by English and Afrikaans-speaking gay men in urban communities of South Africa, and is similar in some respects to Polari in the United Kingdom, from which some lexical items have been borrowed. The equivalent language used by gay South African men who speak Bantu languages is called IsiNgqumo, and is based on a Nguni lexicon.
Gail originally manifested as "moffietaal" (Afrikaans: literally, "gay man language") in the drag culture of the Cape Coloured community in the 1950s. It permeated into white homosexual circles in the 1960s and became part of mainstream white gay culture through South African Airways "koffie-moffies" (Afrikaans: literally, "coffee gay men," a slang name for flight attendants) in the 1970s.
Besides a few core words borrowed from Polari (such as the—originally Romany—word varda meaning "to see"), most of Gayle's words are alliterative formations using women's names, such as Beulah for "beauty", Priscilla, meaning "police", and Hilda for "hideous". Men, especially other gay men, are often referred to by female pronouns, as is the custom among almost all gay countercultures throughout the..... full article at Wikipedia |
