#swardspeak

Swardspeak, a term coined by Nestor U. Torre in the 70s, is an argot or cant slang often based in Taglish (Tagalog-English), although sometimes on other Philippine languages, and Philippine and Global pop culture, spoken mostly by the queer community in the Philippines before becoming mainstream through media. This language is often compared to Polari, a similar argot language from the queer community that's spoken in the United Kingdom, and popularized several slang terms now found in casual English like "camp" or "butch". Sometimes known colloquially as beki, bekimon, or bekinese, the argot was created by members of the community as an in-group jargon often to differentiate members of the in-group from members from the out-group due to the marginalization that the Filipino queer community experiences within the country. Because of the queer community's reach within the entertainment industry, however, from theater to major blockbuster movies, swardspeak is one of the largest contributors to modern Filipino slang with non-members of the queer community being able to mostly understand someone who speaks it or fully speak in the argot themselves. Because one can create a fully swardspeak sentence with little intelligibility from most Philippine languages unless someone has some knowledge with current pop media or has been exposed to swardspeak at a regular basis, however, there's been an argument that had been made that swardspeak can be considered its own language. Below is an example of different Swardspeak/Beki Words spoken in popular movies that stars popular Filipino transfem nonbinary comedian, tv host, and actor Vice Ganda:

Here's some other videos by other members of the community as well that showcases swardspeak:

There's also many online dictionaries that showcase the use of the argot some of which I will list here:

Bekimon: Language and Slang

BEKINARY - The Bekimon Dictionary

Gay/Beki Language Collections

References:

ABS-CBN Star Cinema. (2021, May 2). Gay Lingo Tutorial by Vice Ganda | Stop, Look, and List It! [video]. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ9ghINHqws

Beki Mon. (2011, April 30). Bekimon 101 - The Bekimon Tutorial [video]. Retrived on June 16, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6fOIM4xRo

Catacutan, S. (2013). Swardspeak: A Queer Perspective. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338677861_Swardspeak_A_Queer_Perspective

Dumaual, M. (2021, July 2). He or she? Either, Vice Ganda says, in viral explanation of gender identity. ABS-CBN News. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/07/02/21/he-or-she-either-vice-ganda-says-in-viral-explanation-of-gender-identity

feetlow. (2009, July 5). Gay / Beki Lingo Collections. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://hoowanted.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/gay-lingo-collections/

Man, S. (n.d.). Bekimon Language and Slang Meanings. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.scribd.com/doc/72789268/Bekimon-Dictionary

Pasia, J. (2011, March 6). BEKINARY - The Bekimon Dictionary. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.scribd.com/document/583770506/BEKINARY

"Polari, the secret gay language: 7 words we still use & 6 we should bring back". (n.d.). Out. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.out.com/media/polari-secret-gay-language-explained-words-list-definitions

Quimosing-Ocay, A. & Ocampo, D. (2023). Decoding Gay Lingo: A Morpho-Socilinguistic Analysis of Swardspeak Among College Students. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://publisher.unimas.my/ojs/index.php/ILS/article/view/5850

ulols. (2015, August 22). Gay Weather Teaches Bekinese [video]. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIdowIKQMc

Lavender linguistics refers to the unique way of communicating that LGBT+ communities around the world communicate with one another. This includes entire dialects and languages. These dialects and languages have sprung largely from the need to have conversations with others like us, or be able to more easily find others like us, while safeguarding the topics of our conversations from cis straight eavesdroppers. Some of the languages may be incomprehensible to speakers of the more commonly used languages in the surroundings. Some of them are like dril tweets - technically using the same language as unaware eavesdroppers, but if someone walked past and only gotten a snippet of it, there’s really no telling what they would assume the conversation is actually about. Some of them have only smaller dialect variations, usually euphemisms, nicknames for different things and activities. Each language and dialect of this nature has its own unique origins, grammar, and so on.

Here’s a list of just a few languages/dialects/accents/vocabulary sets and the briefest of details of who speaks them.

IsiNgqumo (South Africa) (via Bantu languages)

Gayle (South Africa) (via Afrikaans & English)

Hijra Farsi 

Swardspeak (Philippines) (also Manila Sound is a genre of music that uses it sometimes)

Bahasa Binan (Indonesia)

Polari (UK)

An extensive wiki page explains it in detail

But what you need to know is that it was identified since the 70s and is understood by a majority of Filipinos because of gay Filipino celebrities 

Some of my favourite Beki words are ones describing sexual orientations. Here’s a just a few (we are a history podcast so these may be outdated....)

True blue - straight

Double-blade - bisexual

Bianing - lesbian (from the English word lesbian plus the diminuitive -ing)

Baki - bisexual (from the Cebuano word for frog, since frogs live both on land and in water)

Magic - lesbian (because they’re like “magicians with wands”)

Kwaknit - gay man (from the Cebuano word for bat, since bats and gay men both cruise at night)

In 1977, directory Tony Espejo put on Philippine adaptation of the American queer play The Boys in the Band, translated into Taglish (Tagalog/English) by Jose Javier Reyes. The play’s program featured one of the first written examples of Swardspeak - a language created by the queer community in the Philippines to talk to each other without being understood - and even had a glossary to help the audience follow what was being said.

Check out our podcast to learn more!