“Mu-dyudtoy ko sa yabyab nurak, yadz..” Uncha? These and other words are what we usually hear from the market to our classrooms, from the rest room to our dormitories. These words are practically everywhere! For those who cannot understand the language may think these gays (and those who speak it) have a very bad sinus problem or a very recent tooth extraction.
They sprang out of nowhere. These words do not even have a relative in English nor even in Filipino nor even in Bisaya. The biblical way to understanding them is not in reading between the lines but rather in reading the words backward. For example, ilids is understood as dili or no and norak is for karon or now. However, some words are harder to comprehend just like juntoy and jirems. They cannot be understood reading backwards.
Gays and some girls and even some boys use gay lingo as a way of expressions. The advent of using hand and body gestures has revolutionized. Perhaps, man has found it quite tiring to speak the language of the tongue, English and the likes.
I couldn’t forget how my mother’s forehead knotted when I spoke those kind of “words”. This strange and weird language, I explained to her, are what majority of my friends are using now. Anyway, no matter how I explained it to her, she does not want me to use it. Well not in front of her, I suppose.
It’s not only my mother or my sister who finds it hard to understand the strange language gays and people like me have been using. People who are not exposed to gays’ influences are less likely to have an idea of what the gays are talking about. These chuvaness and chuvachuchus are alien to them. And that’s what makes it so exciting to use. Because they cannot understand it, you can talk to your fellow gay ling-user in front of someone while talking about him or her. It sounds mean and wicked but it’s the safer route to wickedness. It’s true there is no lesser evil. Talking in gay lingo just make back biting not so back-biting-ly the way it’s viewed before.
In VSU, almost all of the students are talking in this language. Some people think that it’s bastardizing the Filipino,
Visayan or English language. But some do not really think it so. If it’s one way of expressing one’s self, there’s no need to suppress it from within. This just means that language is very dynamic. There are many ways how people interpret this dynamism and gay lingo is one of them. But because of too much dynamism in gay lingo, a word today will be different tomorrow just like sosyal, layshu then shu-lay.
Metropolitan places like Manila and Cebu even have their own sets of tongue. Gay lingo differs from each locality just like a common language would do. Still, some people get a headache understanding gay lingo. Some do not even like the sound of it. Whatever it is, it just means that people are not stagnant with their life. A little flavor could also make the juice sweeter. And maybe, a wild, wild, question is: will gay lingo one day replace the universal English language only in da Pilipins?