The language of gays

Bakla. Bakla. Baket Ka Ginawa?:


badaf, bading, bayot, shukling, veklus, fokla, mama, vading, vek-vek, third-sex, binabae = BADINGGERZIE
my name is Bernadette, a native of Kalibo, Aklan. Currently living as a third-sex in a third-world city."


The above was taken from the homepage of a very funny blog written by a gay man in Manila. Non-Filipinos who have never spent any time in and around the Manila gay community will not be able to appreciate it, but take my word for it when I say that it is very entertaining and funny.

For the non-Filipinos (and Filipinos who don't speak Tagalog), the best way for me to describe it is that it is a personal journal type of blog that is written entirely in baklese, which is "the gay language" in the Philippines.

Actually baklese isn't really a full-blown language. It is based mainly on Tagalog, and mostly it just consists of Tagalog and English words either stylized from their normal forms or used to mean something completely different from their original meanings. It's hard to explain, so just believe me when I say that baklese can get far enough removed from Tagalog so as to make it completely unintelligible to most people.

Ok, that was a boring explanation. Sorry I can't be more creative in my description. Bottom line: the blog is funny as hell, but only if you are fluent in Tagalog AND if you have a translator who is also fluent in baklese - the language of the gays.