More than just the queer culture spoke it it became adopted by them for only about 15 years or so it seems. At least as a secret sort of code.
I imagine London has a lot more of a hodgepodge of languages being spoken at any one time. That combined with the thick accents and dialects of the UK would make it easy to miss at first.
I assume it wasn't freely given and more picked up through association, making it more difficult for outsiders to pick up.
The queen culture adopting it was simply the last incarnation of it after centuries of usage by carnies and showmen with I assume less documentation.
More than just the queer culture spoke it it became adopted by them for only about 15 years or so it seems. At least as a secret sort of code.
I imagine London has a lot more of a hodgepodge of languages being spoken at any one time. That combined with the thick accents and dialects of the UK would make it easy to miss at first.
I assume it wasn't freely given and more picked up through association, making it more difficult for outsiders to pick up.
The queen culture adopting it was simply the last incarnation of it after centuries of usage by carnies and showmen with I assume less documentation.
I thought more about this and I just don't get it at all. If the intention was to have a form of communication that could be used to speak openly but hide that you were gay, how did that even work in practice?
As soon as you hear someone use a word you know is used by gay people, you know they're gay, it's not like you have to know what the word actually means.