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Swardspeak

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Swardspeak (also known as "Bekimon" and "gay lingo") is an argot or cant slang derived from Englog (Tagalog-English code-switching) and used by a number of homosexuals in the Philippines.[1]
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A defining trait of swardspeak slang is that it immediately identifies the speaker as homosexual, making it easy for people of that orientation to recognize each other. This creates an exclusive group among its speakers and helps them resist cultural assimilation. More recently, though, even non-members of the gay community use this way of speaking, particularly heterosexual members of industries dominated by gays, such as the fashion and film industries.

By using swardspeak, Filipino gays are able to resist the dominant culture of their area and create a space of their own.[3] The language is constantly changing, with old phrases becoming obsolete and new phrases frequently entering everyday usage, reflecting changes in their culture and also maintaining exclusivity. The dynamic nature of the language refuses to cement itself in a single culture and allows for more freedom of expression among its speakers. Words and phrases can be created to react to popular trends and create alternatives to a strictly defined lifestyle. By these characteristics, swardspeak creates a dissident group without any ties to geographical, linguistic, or cultural restrictions, thus allowing its speakers to shape the language as appropriate to the times. In this way, the language is not only "mobile" and part of a larger community, but also open to more specific or local meanings.[4]

Gay people who speak the language almost exclusively are humorously called Bekimons (a contraction of Baklang Jejemon, 'Gay Jejemons').[5] Swardspeak is also spoken by babaeng bakla, women who associate exclusively or mostly with gay men (literally 'gay women', though they are actually heterosexual).[6]

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