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Binary, also known as Droidspeak^[1], was the computer language composed of electronic beeps, bloops, buzzes, chirps, whines, and whistles of droids. All droids could "speak" and understand binary. There were some examples of people that spent so much time with their droids that they were able to pick up a fluency of the language—such as Revan, the Jedi Exile, Kit Fisto, Atton Rand, Bao-Dur, Anakin, Cade and Luke Skywalker, Wat Tambor, Kyle Katarn and Corran Horn —although they were not able to synthesize it. Generally, a whistle ascending in pitch was an affirmative, and one of descending pitch was a negative. It was sometimes possible to understand Binary from the pitch in which it was spoken - notably, expert slicer Zakarisz Ghent displayed an ability to understand the details of the language to an almost perfect degree.

HistoryEdit

Preceded by the archaic CBell-1, the droidspeak standard was established by Industrial Automaton's line of astromech droids. It later became the standard mode of communication for droids from many manufacturers, all of whom paid IA a small licensing fee to use the language.

The father of modern droidspeak was considered to be none other than cyberphilologist Yperio Baobab, of the prestigious Baobab family. His program, created circa 200 BBY, allowed droids to communicate in a far greater context than that of "yes" and "no". With Bab-Prime, as it was dubbed, droids could recall and pass on sensory-gathered data between one another. Some time later, a cybersociologist working for the Baobab Merchant Fleet added a layer of code to the programming which gave droids an "essence of personality". Consequently, this code acted like a rampant computer virus that spread across the entire droid population. Droids then began to experience every known emotion imaginable, from arrogance to comradeship. Some owners preferred this new mode of interactivity between droid and master, however many chose to wipe their droids' memory clean of this personality code. As a result, droidspeak fluorished and transformed from Bab-Prime into Bab-Neo, or "Babno" as it was known.^[1]

Replicating droidspeakEdit

Even as most speakers of Basic and other widely used languages could be interpreted by droids, there were cases where the user might have needed to communicate with the droid in Binary. This varied by class and model, and typically those falling under the 0500 to 0999 class were capable of understanding. Models outside this class range would ignore Basic or any sounds or even sign language the being might make. A droid that understood Basic might only be programmed to respond to the voice of its master, and by communicating exclusively in Binary, outside interference that might effect the droid's behavior or function could be limited during the conversation.^[1]

In order to assist communication with droids, reed whistles like the Baobab Larynx-7 were created. With some practice, all the necessary chirps, whistles, and buzzes could be replicated.^[1]

Some examples of phrases are given below:

A four-note beep with a step down from the first note, then the last two notes each higher in pitch than the first ("Can you help me?")
Make a single, one-second rising note beep. Beeeep! ("Turn on the power.")
Make a single, one-second falling note beep. ("Turn off the power.")
Make a six-note chirp, falling in pitch in the middle of the notes and forming an interrogative envelope at the end of the statement. ("Where is your master?")
Give a two-note chirp, and hold up your hand, palm open. ("Stop!")
Make a series of short buzzes with your tongue. (Your buzzing should be at a pitch distinguishable from those of electrocution.) ("Lower the voltage. You are damaging my molecules!")
Four equal-pitch buzzes. ("Can you repair this?")
Make a two-note beep and tap on the door. ("Open the door.")
Make a single beep and tap on the door. ("Close the door.")
Make a series of high-pitch "whoops". ("Please help me.")
Make a long, sirenlike wail. ("Emergency!")
Create a staccato series of short rising whistles. ("Get help!")
Make a sound resembling the noise "ank" and shoo the droid away. ("Leave me alone. I will do it myself.")

During communication, statements were to remain scientific and straightforward in nature.^[1]

Behind the scenesEdit

There is a disparity in the timeline since droids of Revan's era (KotOR) like the T3-series utility droid had already used droidspeak (more than 3000 years earlier).

AppearancesEdit

This list is incomplete. You can help Wookieepedia by expanding it.

SourcesEdit

Notes and referencesEdit

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide

In other languages

[GPBTG-0] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide

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