Lubunca 鈥� a powerful language of hidden words

02 June 2026

Karin Midner

What can a hidden language tell us about freedom, identity and survival? By studying Lubunca, Burak Alp Çakar explores the emancipatory power of words and how they can empower, protect and keep communities alive.

A crowd of people holding signs and wearing masks. — People celebrating Pride in Turkey, Istanbul.

"Some people use Lubunca as a way to communicate discreetly. For example, if you see a friend talking to someone you know is dangerous and want to warn them without drawing attention, you might say 鈥渓a莽o but madi鈥� in Lubunca instead of saying it openly in Turkish鈥�

Burak Alp 脟akar is a PhD student at Link枚ping University. He is researching Lubunca, a queer language that is used by a part of the LGBTQ+ community in Turkey.

鈥淚t is used in the queer community. Some refer to Lubunca as slang, some say it鈥檚 a code, and for others it is a language.鈥�

Essentially, it is a collection of around 500 words sourced from 12 different languages. Lubunca is a relexicalized language where Turkish grammar is used together with newly introduced loanwords. In addition, original meanings of the words are changed and encoded with queer experiences.

鈥淜oli, for example, comes from Turkish, and in Turkish it means cardboard box. But in Lubunca, it means sexual partner or date or customer or something along those lines.鈥�

Traditionally, you could only learn Lubunca if you were close enough to people who used Lubunca and gained their trust.

鈥淵ou had to be in certain places or communities. For example, queer activism circles.鈥�

And that was how Burak first discovered the language. 9 years ago, he heard someone say something when he was in Turkey that he didn鈥檛 understand.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 Turkish or English, it didn鈥檛 sound like Kurdish or Arabic. I had no idea. I inquired, and they were kind enough to share it with me. You have to be close to the queer community to get access.鈥�

尝耻产耻苍肠补听鈥�聽an "open secret"

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Nowadays, most of the words are available online. If you go to Google and type in Lubunca Dictionary, you can see a whole list of words, and you can teach yourself. So, is it still a secret?

鈥淭he transition from secrecy to visibility and what it means is one of the focuses of my research. Because yes, it鈥檚 out there, for people outside the queer community to learn. Influencers with millions of followers use Lubunca on their posts on YouTube and Instagram. So nowadays it鈥檚 more like an open secret. But so far, I haven鈥檛 seen anything that would indicate that other people use this knowledge against the community.鈥�

A group of people haveing a festval in a dark forest. — A secret Lubunya festival in the forest where the participants uses Lubunca.

During recent fieldwork in Turkey, Burak encountered something very surprising. A 鈥渘ew version of Lubunca鈥� is spoken by a small group of trans women. For Burak, it was a reminder of how language can remain a tool for protection, community, and survival. Despite the more popular version of Lubunca being out there, there remain secret variants of Lubunca scattered across Turkey.

鈥淭hey only shared three words with me and told me to keep away from this new form of Lubunca. Considering the situation in Turkey, this is a perfectly reasonable request, and I respected their wishes. It鈥檚 nice to see how Lubunca has become a bigger part of the queer subculture in Turkey 鈥� people use it for fun, it鈥檚 online, and written on the posters that people carry in pride parades. It is empowering in a way. But there are still people who need the secrecy, especially trans women in the entertainment industry and sex workers. I guess that the linguistic gap caused by the popular version of Lubunca becoming an open secret has been filled by this new variant of Lubunca.鈥�

A strong belief that research can make a difference

鈥淚 want Lubunca to be taken seriously, to be put into the academic crucible, alongside more well-researched queer languages like Polari and so on. I want to showcase the emancipatory potential of this queer language, how it makes people, in very simple terms, happy, more comfortable with who they are, and how it enriches queer subculture in Turkey.鈥�

Lubunca is an important part of the queer subculture in Turkey. You need to know about it to know about the community, see the activities and the connections.

鈥淭he language bleeds into the culture, the culture bleeds into the language, so they鈥檙e all very interconnected. I want to highlight this connection and what it means for the fight against oppression, suppression, and violence.

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Research methods

Burak鈥檚 mindset has changed during those years of researching. Today, he uses a wider lens when he is collecting information and exploring how different aspects are connecting.

鈥淚n the beginning, I was very focused on interviews, but after spending time in the Language and Culture research environment at LiU, and after setting out from my fieldwork, I have begun to see things differently. Lubunca calls for gentle excavation and not total extraction. It is a delicate subject. Instead of constantly squeezing the community for information, I work mostly with what鈥檚 already out there.鈥�

He has since adopted a scavenger approach, which means that what he considers to be data is very diverse and his methods are interdisciplinary; in addition to recorded interviews, he observes the use of Lubunca in queer-identified spaces like queer clubs and cruising streets and makes field notes. He also collects artifacts that have Lubunca on them, like posters advertising events like drag shows, as well as banners from the pride parades.

Security

Burak describes how his research sometimes places him in situations where safety cannot be guaranteed, particularly during fieldwork at Pride parades in Turkey.

To protect his participants, he builds trust gradually through informal conversations before meeting in discreet, participant鈥慶hosen locations.

All material is stored securely, and his experience from earlier protest environments helps him assess when to approach and when to withdraw.

How people use the language Lubunca

The language is used for different purposes:

A secretive function that provides a linguistic haven where people can talk about sensitive matters free of 鈥減olicing鈥�, ridicule, and judgment. In other words, you can mask what you are saying for different reasons.
The activist part, which has recently become very prominent. These days, you can鈥檛 go to a pride parade or a protest without seeing Lubunca written on a banner or spoken as part of a slogan participants chant along the way
An indexical function, where you signal your membership in the community through the use of Lubunca. Speaking Lubunca comes with baggage; people make certain assumptions if they recognize someone speaking Lubunca.
An emotional belonging dimension, whereby people speak Lubunca for fun because they think it simply sounds nice. It makes them feel better about themselves 鈥� more queer. One of the people who took part in the research described using Lubunca as 鈥淚t鈥檚 like your subscription to being queer goes from silver to platinum.鈥� It somehow amplifies your queerness.

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