Languages in Star

Wars
Page issues

The Aurebesh alphabet is the primary constructed

script seen throughout the franchise.
The Star Wars science fiction universe,
created by George Lucas, features
dialogue that is not spoken in natural
languages. The lingua franca of the
franchise, for which the language the
works are dubbed or written stand in, is
Galactic Basic. Characters often speak
languages other than Basic, notably
Shyriiwook spoken by Chewbacca,
droidspeak spoken by R2-D2 and BB-8, and
Huttese spoken by Jabba the Hutt.

The fictional languages were approached

as sound design and developed largely by
Ben Burtt, sound designer for both the
original and prequel trilogy of films. He
created alien dialogue out of the sounds of
primarily non-English languages, such as
Quechua, Haya, and Tibetan. This
methodology was also used in The Force
Awakens by Sara Forsberg. Lucas also
insisted that written text throughout the
films look as dissimilar from the English
alphabet as possible, and constructed
alphabets were developed.

The languages constructed for the films

were criticized as not being true
constructed languages, instead relying on
creating the simple impression of a fully
developed language. The usage of heavily
accented English for alien characters was
also criticized as contributing to the
suggestion of racial stereotypes.

Development
Language development was approached
as sound design and was handled by Ben
Burtt, sound designer for both the original
and prequel trilogies. He created the alien
dialogue out of existing non-English
language phrases and their sounds, such
as Quechua for Greedo in the original Star
Wars film and Haya for the character Nien
Nunb in Return of the Jedi.[1] He also used
English, as in the original Star Wars where
he synthesized originally English dialogue
from a Western film until it sounded
alien.[2] Burtt said of the process: "It
usually meant doing some research and
finding an existing language or several
languages which were exotic and
interesting, something that our audience —
99 percent of them — would never
understand."[3]

This methodology to create the sound of

alien languages was carried into
production of The Force Awakens. Director
J. J. Abrams asked Sara Forsberg, who
lacked a professional background in
linguistics but created the viral video
series "What Languages Sound Like to
Foreigners" on YouTube, to develop alien
dialogue spoken by Indonesian actor
Yayan Ruhian.[1] Forsberg was asked to
listen to "Euro-Asian languages", and she
drew from Gujarati, Hindi, and other Asian
languages[4] as well as Indonesian and
Sundanese, Ruhian's native language.[1]
She also listened to languages she did not
understand to better structure the words
and sentences to sound believable.[4]

During production of the prequel trilogy,

Lucas insisted that written text throughout
the films look as dissimilar from the
English alphabet as possible and strongly
opposed English-looking characters in
screens and signage. In developing
typefaces for use in Episode II – Attack of
the Clones, including Mandalorian and
Geonosian scripts, graphic artist Philip
Metschan created alphabets that did not
have twenty-six letters like the English
alphabet.[5]

Galactic Basic
Galactic Basic, often simply Basic, is the
lingua franca of the Star Wars universe, for
which the language in which the works are
dubbed or written act as a stand-in.[1][6][7]

Accents
Lucas intended to balance American
accents and British accents between the
heroes and villains of the original film so
that each side had each. He also strove to
keep accents "very neutral", noting Alec
Guinness's and Peter Cushing's mid-
Atlantic accents and his guidance to
Anthony Daniels to speak in an American
accent.[8] In critical commentary on
Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Patricia
Williams of The Nation felt there was a
correlation between accent and social
class, noting that Jedi speak with "crisp
British accents" while the women of
Naboo and white slaves such as Anakin
and Shmi Skywalker "speak with the
brusque, determined innocence of middle-
class Americans".[6]

To decide on the sound of Nute Gunray, a

Neimoidian character portrayed by Silas
Carson, Lucas and Rick McCallum listened
to actors from different countries reading
Carson's lines. Eventually, they chose a
heavily Thai-accented English, and Carson
rerecorded the dialogue to mimic the Thai
actor's accent.[9] Gunray's accent was
described by critics to be "Hollywood
Oriental" that contributed to criticism of
Gunray as an Asian stereotype.[6][10][11]
Watto's accent was similarly criticized as
lending to anti-Semitic and anti-Arab
connotations.[6][11]

Non-standard Basic

"When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you

be."

—an example of Yoda's "unusual" word order

from Return of the Jedi

Yoda characteristically speaks a non-

standard syntax of Basic, primarily
constructing sentences in object-subject-
verb word order rare in natural languages.
This sentence construction is cited as a
"clever device for making him seem very
alien" and characterizes his dialogue as
"vaguely riddle-like, which adds to his
mystique". This tendency is noted to be
written for an English-speaking audience;
the word order is retained in Estonian
subtitles, where it is grammatical but
unusual and emphatic, and Yoda's
dialogue is in subject–object–verb word
order in Czech dubs.[12]

Gungan characters, notably Jar Jar Binks,

speak in a heavily accented Basic dialect
critics described as a "Caribbean-flavored
pidgin",[10] "a pidgin mush of West African,
Caribbean and African-American linguistic
styles",[6] "very like Jamaican patois, albeit
a notably reductive, even infantilized
sort",[13] and suggestive of stereotypical
African-American culture.[14] This was
cited as a trait that led to criticism of the
Gungan species as an racially offensive
stereotype or caricature.[10][13][14]

Aurebesh

Aurebesh is a writing system used to

represent spoken Galactic Basic and is the
most commonly seen form of written
language in the Star Wars franchise.[7][15]

The alphabet was based on shapes

designed by Joe Johnston for the original
trilogy, which are briefly featured in screen
displays in Return of the Jedi. Johnston's
design, called Star Wars 76, was created
into a font and again used in Attack of the
Clones by Metschan, who incorporated the
font alongside the later Aurebesh version
used in the spin-off products.[5]

In the early 1990s, Stephen Crane, art

director at West End Games, became
intrigued with the shapes as they appeared
on the Death Star. He sought to develop
them into an alphabet to be used in West
End Games' licensed Star Wars products,
primarily to allow players to render their
characters' names, and received
permission from Lucasfilm to do so as
long as it was presented as one of many
alphabets in the Star Wars galaxy, not the
sole and exclusive alphabet. After copying
the letters from screenshots by hand, he
standardized the letters based on shapes
similar to the Eurostile font. He named and
assigned a value to each letter, and
derived the name "Aurebesh" from the
names of the first two letters: aurek and
besh. Once Crane completed the alphabet,
Lucasfilm requested a copy to distribute to
other licensees.[16]

In anticipation of the December 2015

release of The Force Awakens, Google
Translate added a feature to render text
into Aurebesh in November 2015.[7][15]

Other languages
Droidspeak

Droidspeak is a language consisting of

beeps and other synthesized sounds used
by some droid characters, such as R2-D2
and BB-8.[1] Burtt created R2-D2's dialogue
in the original Star Wars with an ARP 2600
analog synthesizer and by processing his
own vocalizations via other effects.[17] In
The Force Awakens, BB-8's dialogue was
created by manipulating the voices of Bill
Hader and Ben Schwartz with a talkbox
running through a sound effects
application on an iPad.[18] Although
droidspeak is generally unintelligible to the
viewing audience, it appears to be
understood by characters such as Luke
Skywalker.

Ewokese

The Ewoks of the forest moon of Endor

speak a "primitive dialect" of one of the
more than six million other forms of
communication that C-3PO is familiar
with. Ben Burtt, Return of the Jedi’s sound
designer, created the Ewok language.
On the commentary track for the DVD of
Return of the Jedi, Burtt identified the
language that he heard in the BBC
documentary as Kalmyk Oirat, a tongue
spoken by the isolated nomadic Kalmyks.
He describes how, after some research, he
identified an 80-year-old Kalmyk refugee.
He recorded her telling folk stories in her
native language, and then used the
recordings as a basis for sounds that
became the Ewok language and were
performed by voice actors who imitated
the old woman's voice in different styles.
For the scene in which C-3PO speaks
Ewokese, actor Anthony Daniels worked
with Burtt and invented words, based on
the Kalmyk recordings.[19]

Marcia Calkovsky of Lethbridge University

maintains that Tibetan language
contributed to Ewok speech along with
Kalmyk, starting the story from attempts
to use language samples of Native
Americans and later turning to nine
Tibetan women living in San Francisco
area, as well as one Kalmyk woman.[20]
The story of the choice of these languages
is referenced to Burtt's 1989 telephone
interview, and many of the used Tibetan
phrases translated. The initial prayer
Ewoks address to C-3PO is actually the
beginning part of Tibetan Buddhist prayer
for the benefit of all sentient beings, or so
called brahmavihāras or apramāṇas, but
also there is a second (out of four) part of
the refuge prayer. People of the Tibetan
diaspora were puzzled as many of the
phrases they could make out did not
correlate to events on screen.

Greedo's dialogue

In the original Star Wars film, Greedo

speaks an unspecified alien language,
which is understood by Han Solo.[21] Bruce
Mannheim described Greedo as speaking
"morphologically well-formed" phrases of
Southern Quechua, though the sentence is
ultimately meaningless. Allen Sonnefrank,
a Quechua speaker and linguistic
anthropology student at University of
California, Berkeley, claimed Lucasfilm
contacted him to record Quecha dialogue
for the film. Because he was told the
dialogue was to be played backward for
the film, Sonnefrank refused to record the
dialogue, feeling it to be a "potentially
exploitative move best made by one
whose first language was Quechua, if at
all".[22]

Huttese
Another lingua franca in the Star Wars
Universe that is spoken by many groups
and species is Huttese, spoken on Nal
Hutta, Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine and other
worlds in and around Hutt space. It is
spoken in the films by both non-humans
(Jabba the Hutt, Watto, Sebulba and
others) and humans. In fact, the whole
Max Rebo Band communicates and sings
in Huttese. Its phonology is said to be
based on the Quechuan languages.[23]

Jawaese and Jawa trade

language
The Jawas, also found on Tatooine, speak
in a high-pitched, squeaky voice. To speak
to others of their species along with the
voice they emit a smell showing their
emotions. When trading droids and dealing
with non-Jawas they speak without the
smell because many consider the smell
"Foul."

Mando'a

The Mandalorian script was created for displays in

Attack of the Clones.
A written form of the Mandalorian
language was developed by Metschan for
the display screens of Jango Fett's ship
Slave I in Attack of the Clones,[5] and it was
later reused in The Clone Wars and
Rebels.[24][25] Composer Jesse Harlin,
needing lyrics for the choral work he
wanted for the 2005 Republic Commando
video game, invented a spoken form,
intending it to be an ancient language. It
was named Mando'a and extensively
expanded by Karen Traviss, author of the
Republic Commando novel series.[26]
Mando'a is characterized as a primarily
spoken, agglutinative language that lacks
grammatical gender in its nouns and
pronouns.[27][28] The language is also
characterized as lacking a passive voice,
instead primarily speaking in active
voice.[27] It is also described as having
three grammatical tenses—present, past,
and future—but it is said to be often vague
and its speakers typically do not use
tenses other than the present.[27][29] The
language is described as having a
mutually intelligible dialect called
Concordian spoken on the planet Concord
Dawn, as stated in the Traviss' novels
Order 66 and 501st,[30][31] and a dialect
spoken on Mandalore's moon Concordia is
heard in "The Mandalore Plot", a season
two episode of The Clone Wars.[32]

Sith

The Sith language, intended to be spoken

by Sith characters, was created by Ben
Grossblatt for the Book of Sith, published
in February 2012. Development on the
language and accompanying writing
system began in November 2010.
Grossblatt sought to create a
pronounceable language that was not
"cartoonish" and "would conform to the
patterns of principles of [human] [sic]
language. He felt that it needed to "feel
martial and mystical" and be a "suitable,
aesthetically-pleasing vehicle for
communication". He characterized the
sound of the language as "tough—but not
barbarous" and as "convey[ing] a kind of
confident, elegant cruelty". To achieve
"formal, quasi-military" and "imposing,
undeniable" qualities, he preferred closed
syllables, creating brisk and choppy words,
and constructed the language as
agglutinative.[33]

Shyriiwook
Shyriiwook, also known as
Wookieespeak,[3] is a language consisting
largely of roars and growls spoken by
Wookiee characters, notably Chewbacca.
Non-Wookiee characters are capable of
understanding Shyriiwook, such as
Chewbacca's friend Han Solo.[22]
Chewbacca's dialogue was created from
recordings of walruses, camels, bears, and
badgers from Burtt's personal sound
library. One of the most prominent
elements was an American black bear
living in the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in
San Jose, California. These sounds were
mixed in different ratios to create different
roars.[34]
Tusken Raiders

The Tusken Raiders of Tatooine, according

to the video game Knights of the Old
Republic, speak a language of their own; it
is difficult for non-Tuskens to understand
this language. In the game, a droid named
HK-47 assists the player in communicating
with the Tusken Raiders. In the
novelizations Junior Jedi Knights and New
Jedi Order series, it is revealed that Jedi
Knight Tahiri Veila was raised by the
Tusken Raiders after they captured her in a
raid. Generally, they utter roars and battle
cries when seen in public.
Ubese

Ubese is a language heard in Return of the

Jedi during a scene where a disguised
Princess Leia bargains with Jabba the Hutt
through translator C-3PO. Leia repeats the
same Ubese phrase three times, translated
differently in subtitles and by C-3PO each
time. David J. Peterson, linguist and
creator of constructed languages, cited his
attempt as a young fan to reconcile this
apparent impossibility as an example of
how even casual fans may notice errors in
fictional constructed languages.[35] He
characterized Ubese as a "sketch" of a
language rather than a fully developed
language and categorized it as a "fake
language" intended to "give the impression
of a real language in some context without
actually being a real language".[36]
Ultimately, he criticized Ubese as "poorly
constructed and not worthy of serious
consideration".[37]

Critical commentary
Ben Zimmer labeled the method of
language construction in Star Wars "a far
cry" from that of constructed languages
like Klingon, Na'vi, and Dothraki,[1] and he
described the use of language as "never
amount[ing] to more than a sonic
pastiche".[38]

Linguistic anthropologist Jim Wilce

summarized analyses of language in Star
Wars conducted through the Society for
Linguistic Anthropology's electronic
mailing list. David Samuels described the
approach to language as instrumental and
compared the films to a Summer Institute
of Linguistics convention, in which "there
are no untranslatable phrases, and
everyone can understand everyone else",
and pointed out that the "idea that the
Force is something that would be
understood differently in the context of
different grammars is never broached".
Hal Schiffmann made five observations
about language in Star Wars: all humans
speak English and no other real-world
language, there is "mutual passive
bilingualism" in which characters speaking
different languages understand one
another, non-human creatures may have
their own languages but are translated by
C-3PO, certain non-English vocalizations
serve to confuse or amuse the audience
rather than serve as language, even non-
English speaking characters are expected
to understand English. Zimmer supported
Schiffmann's claim that untranslated alien
languages are not representations of real
languages by pointing the film's script,
which describes the language of the
Jawas as "a queer, unintelligible language"
and that of the Tusken Raiders as "a
coarse, barbaric language". Wilce also
pointed out discussion on the usage of
real non-English to create the "Otherness"
of characters such as Jabba the Hutt,
Greedo, and the Ewoks.[22]

See also
Alien language in science fiction

References
Footnotes
1. Zimmer, Ben (January 15, 2016). "The
Languages of 'Star Wars: The Force
Awakens' " . Word on the Street. The Wall
Street Journal. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
(subscription required)

2. Ken Rowand (August 1982). "Interview:

Ben Burtt". Bantha Tracks. No. 17. Official
Star Wars Fan Club. p. 2.
3. Katzoff, Tami (May 24, 2013). " 'Return Of
The Jedi' Turns 30: Secrets Of Ewok
Language Revealed!" . MTV. Retrieved
July 26, 2016.
4. Rizzo, Carita (December 16, 2015). " 'Star
Wars': YouTube Star Creates New
Language For Aliens" . Variety. Retrieved
July 25, 2016.
5. "Holographic Artist: Philip Metschan" .
LucasFilm. July 16, 2002. Archived from the
original on October 22, 2004. Retrieved
April 23, 2016.
6. Williams, Patricia J. (June 17, 1999).
"Racial Ventriloquism" . The Nation.
Retrieved July 26, 2016.
7. McKalin, Vamien (November 27, 2015).
"Google Translate's 'Star Wars' Easter Egg
Adds Support For Aurebesh" . Tech Times.
Retrieved July 26, 2016.
8. Scanlon, Paul (August 25, 1977). "George
Lucas: The Wizard of Star Wars" . The
Rolling Stone.
9. Chernoff, Scott (May 30, 2002). "Silas
Carson: Hero with a Thousand Faces" .
Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on
January 3, 2008. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
10. Harrison, Eric (May 26, 1999). "A Galaxy
Far, Far Off Racial Mark?" . Los Angeles
Times. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
11. Leo, John (July 4, 1999). "Fu Manchu on
Naboo" . U.S. News & World Report.
Archived from the original on October 11,
2008. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
12. LaFrance, Adrienne (December 18,
2015). "An Unusual Way of Speaking, Yoda
Has" . The Atlantic. Retrieved August 1,
2016.
13. Conley, Tim; Cain, Stephen (2006).
Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic
Languages. Greenwood. pp. 173–176.
ISBN 978-0313331886.
14. Okwu, Michael (June 14, 1999). "Jar Jar
jarring" . CNN. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
15. Novet, Jordan (November 25, 2015).
"Google's latest Star Wars easter egg is
Aurebesh support in Google Translate" .
VentureBeat. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
16. Crane, Stephen (October 21, 2000).
"Aurebesh Soup" . EchoStation.com.
Archived from the original on April 29,
2011. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
17. Ben Burtt. Star Wars Episode IV: A New
Hope audio commentary (DVD).
18. McWeeny, Drew (December 15, 2015).
"Wait a minute... who played the voice of
BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?" .
HitFix. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
19. Ben Burtt, DVD commentary on The
Return of the Jedi.
20. Canadian Anthropology Society (1991).
Culture . Canadian Anthropology Society.
p. 59.
21. Peterson, Mark Allen (May 2008).
"Linguistic Moments in the Movies" (PDF).
Anthropology News. Society for Linguistic
Anthropology. 49 (5): 67.
doi:10.1525/an.2008.49.5.67.1 . Retrieved
July 26, 2016.
22. Wilce, Jim (October 1999). "Linguists in
Hollywood". Anthropology News. Society
for Linguistic Anthropology. 40 (7): 9–10.
doi:10.1111/an.1999.40.7.9 .
23. Segreda, Ricardo (2009). V!VA Travel
Guides: Peru . Viva Publishing Network.
p. 26. ISBN 978-0-9791264-3-7.
24. "The Academy Trivia Gallery" .
StarWars.com. Lucasfilm. Retrieved
January 29, 2016.
25. "Visions and Voices Trivia Gallery" .
StarWars.com. Lucasfilm. Retrieved
November 18, 2017.
26. Bielawa, Justin (March 8, 2006).
"Commando Composer: An Interview with
Jesse Harlin" . MusicOnFilm.net. Archived
from the original on January 8, 2010.
Retrieved July 13, 2016.
27. Traviss, Karen (February 2006). "No
Word for Hero: The Mandalorian
Language". Star Wars Insider. No. 86. IDG
Entertainment. pp. 25–26.
28. Traviss, Karen (October 30, 2007). Star
Wars Republic Commando: True Colors. Del
Rey. p. 356. ISBN 978-0-345-49800-7. “It
was the same word for “mother” or “father.”
Mando’a didn’t bother with gender.”
29. Traviss, Karen (February 28, 2006). Star
Wars Republic Commando: Triple Zero. Del
Rey. p. 341. ISBN 978-0-345-49009-4. “I
thought you Mando’ade lived only for the
day. You even have trouble using anything
but the present tense.”
30. Traviss, Karen (May 19, 2009). Star
Wars Republic Commando: Order 66
(Reprint ed.). Del Rey. p. 327. ISBN 978-0-
345-51385-4. “It wasn’t Mando’a, but it was
close enough for any Mandalorian to
understand.”
31. Traviss, Karen (October 27, 2009). Star
Wars Imperial Commando: 501st. Del Rey.
p. 105. ISBN 978-0-345-51113-3. “In
Concordian, the Concord Dawn dialect of
Mando’a, the phrase—brother, sister—
sounded very similar.”
32. Hsu, Melinda (January 29, 2010). "The
Mandalore Plot". Star Wars: The Clone
Wars. Season 2. Episode 12. Event occurs
at 7:57. “He was speaking in the dialect
they use on Concordia, our moon.”
33. Grossblatt, Ben (June 2012). "Speak
Like a Sith". Star Wars Insider. No. 134.
Titan Magazines. pp. 40–43.
34. "Star Wars: Databank | Chewbacca" .
Archived from the original on December 1,
2006. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
35. Peterson 2015, p. 3-6.
36. Peterson 2015, p. 19.
37. Peterson 2015, pp. 6.
38. Zimmer, Ben (December 4, 2009).
"Skxawng!" . On Language. The New York
Times. Retrieved July 26, 2016.

Bibliography

Peterson, David J. (2015). The Art of

Language Invention. Penguin Books.
ISBN 978-0-14-312646-1.

Further reading
 Ben Burtt, Star Wars: Galactic Phrase
Book & Travel Guide, ISBN 0-345-44074-
9.
Stephen Cain, Tim Conley, and Ursula K.
Le Guin, Star Wars, Encyclopedia of
Fictional and Fantastic Languages
(Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006),
173-176 .

External links
Language on Wookieepedia, a Star
Wars wiki

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"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Languages_in_Star_Wars&oldid=824423189"

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