Polari itself had Parlyaree as a base, but once in Britain was supplemented with a wealth of slang terminology from different sources, including Cockney Rhyming Slang, backslang (pronouncing a word as if it was spelt backwards), French, Yiddish and American airforce slang.
Also associated with travellers, buskers, beggars and prostitutes, it found its way into Britain, especially London and port cities, and gradually became used by gay men and female impersonators, especially during the first half of the 20th century. It developed from an earlier form of language called Parlyaree which had roots in Italian and rudimentary forms of language used for communication by sailors around the Mediterranean. My research has tracked how it grew out of the world of entertainment, stretching back from West End theatres, through to 19th-century music halls and beyond that to travelling entertainers and market-stall holders. Polari is a secret language, which has now largely fallen out of use, but was historically spoken by gay men and female impersonators. So what was Polari and how did it end up in an evening prayer? The service had been advertised as a Polari evening prayer in anticipation of LGBT History Month, and was described as a liturgical experiment.
In early February, the Church of England College expressed regret that in an evening liturgy in Cambridge, God was referred to as the Duchess.
