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Click here for Wookieepedia's article on the Canon version of this subject.  This article covers the Legends version of this subject. 
"Language is an organism. The entity of language is born, germinates, hybrids itself, and through the earnestness of social and political forces, languages can even die."
Arner Figgis, Chief Linguist at the University of Be'Nal on Issor[src]

There were a number of languages throughout the galaxy, with Galactic Basic being the most common. It was not uncommon for beings to speak at least two languages in addition to their native tongue, particularly among those involved in space-faring occupations and those who had attended military or educational academies. For a comprehensive list of languages, see the category languages linked to at the bottom of the page.

Common languages

"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."
Qui-Gon Jinn[src]

Galactic Basic Standard

Galactic Basic Standard, also known as Galactic Standard, was a constructed language, inspired largely by the languages of the various founding species of the Galactic Republic: the Humans, the Duros, and the Bothans. It was the lingua franca of the galaxy, and almost all Humans spoke it instead of their historical language.

Galactic Basic used the Aurebesh script.

Some aliens had difficulty speaking Basic, often due to the structure of their vocal cords or analogous organ.

Binary

Binary, or Droidspeak, was a language of beeps, trills, and whistles spoken primarily by astromech droids such as R2-D2. It was also spoken by other models of droid. Organic beings who spent a lot of time with droids could often pick up a basic understanding as well.

Bocce

Bocce was an artificial language used by spacers. It was composed of elements from several languages.

Bothese

Bothese was the language of the Bothan species, natives of the planet Bothawui.

Cheunh

Cheunh was the language of the Chiss species, a dominant force in the Unknown Regions.

Dosh

Dosh was the language of the Trandoshan species, natives of the planet Trandosha.

Dug language

Dug language was the language of the Dug species, natives to the planet Malastare.

Durese

The Duros language remained a popular language among space travelers due to the abundance of Duro spacefarers, despite the predominance of Basic.

Ewokese

Ewokese was the language of the Ewok species, natives of the planet Endor.

Gamorrese

Gamorrese was the language of the Gamorrean species, natives of the planet Gamorr.

Geonosian language

Geonosian was the language of the Geonosian species native to Geonosis. It consisted of click consonants, possible through the dual-mandibles of Geonosians—one moving vertically, and a second, internal set moving horizontally.

Hapan

The Hapan language was spoken by residents of the Hapes Cluster.

High Galactic

High Galactic was a prestige language, most commonly used among Imperial courtiers.

Huttese

Huttese, the language of the Hutts, was popular among criminals, especially in the (considerable) sections of the galaxy where the Hutt criminal network was powerful.

Jawaese

Jawaese was the language of the Jawa species, natives of the planet Tatooine.

Kaleesh language

Kaleesh language was the language of the Kaleesh species, natives of the planet Kalee.

Kaminoan language

Kaminoan language was the language of the Kaminoan species, natives of the planet Kamino.

Mando'a

Mando'a was the traditional language spoken by Mandalorians.

Olys Corellisi

Olys Corellisi ('Old Corellian') was the language spoken by the original settlers of Corellia, becoming extinct around 4000 BBY.

Pak Pak

Pak Pak was the language of the Neimoidian sub-species, native of the planet Neimoidia.

Rodese

The native tongue of the Rodians, Rodese, was popular due to the large number of spacefaring Rodians.

Shyriiwook

Shyriiwook was the main language of the Wookiees. It was considered to be the most emotive of Wookiee tongues, as opposed to the technical Thykarann or tribal Xaczik dialects. It could be understood by those who spoke Basic, however it was nearly impossible for non-Wookiees to pronounce.

Snivvian language

Snivvian language was the language of the Snivvian species, natives of the planet Cadomai Prime.

Sullustese

Sullustese was the language of the Sullustan species, natives of the planet Sullust.

Sith language

The Sith language is the native language of the people of Ziost and Korriban. Later it was the language of the Sith.

Tarc language

The Tarc language was spoken by the Tarc species who were unable to speak Galactic Basic Standard.

Togruti

Togruti was one of the main languages of the Togruta species, natives of the planet Shili. The language was often spoken partnered with Galactic Basic Standard.

Twi'leki

Twi'leki was the language of the Twi'lek species, natives of the planet Ryloth.

Tusken

Tusken was the language of the Tusken Raider species, natives of the planet Tatooine.

Yuuzhan Vong

The language of the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong invaders was guttural and grammatically different from Basic, but otherwise straightforward.

Droids and computers

Droids and computers used either the natural languages that their masters used, usually Basic, or special machine languages. Protocol droids such as C-3PO were "fluent in over six million forms of communication" and were often employed as translators, with the ability to also download new language packs for languages such as Tusken.[1] Astromech droids such as R2-D2 were able to understand commands in Basic and perhaps other languages, but could only communicate through an information-dense language of beeps and whistles; although devices existed that could translate this language into Basic (such as the display in an X-wing cockpit that allowed the ship's astromech and pilot to commmunicate). Simpler droids communicated only through sounds indicating affirmative/negative, or other simple replies.

Behind the scenes

Language building

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The languages of some fictional worlds have been worked out in great detail, with grammatical rules and large vocabularies, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Elvish languages and the Klingon language of Star Trek. The Star Wars languages, in contrast, are not systematically worked out. The Wookiee growls and the beeps of the astromechs mainly carry emotional indicators for the audience via intonation, and Huttese is mainly a jumble of words taken from numerous real Human languages.

Other languages heard are longer chunks of actual Human languages, albeit ones likely unfamiliar to most of the audience. In A New Hope, for instance, the language spoken by the character Greedo in conversation with Han Solo (in the cantina) is actually a simplified version of Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andean region of South America. In Return of the Jedi, Lando Calrissian's copilot, Nien Nunb, speaks the real Human language Haya, a dialect spoken in Tanzania (page 31, Star Wars Insider 67). Similarly, the Ewok language was based on Kalmyk, although some fans claim that they also hear English being spoken by the Ewoks at some points during the film. When C-3PO rises from the undergrowth, it seems that the Ewoks exclaim, "It's a robot!", while when the assumed "god" says hello to the diminutive aliens, one appears to say, "That guy's wise.".[source?]

One can also hear some Finnish in the Phantom Menace. After the first lap of the pod race competition, Watto yells 'Kiitos!' ('Thank You!' in Finnish) to Sebulba, and Sebulba answers 'Ole hyvä!' ('You're Welcome!' in Finnish).

In the The Clone Wars episode Liberty on Ryloth, an all Aurebesh Republic display includes the text "UND UBERHAUPT", German for "and anyway". In The Academy, when Soniee and her fellow students break into the Government warehouse, her datapad says "ENTRARE" - Italian for "enter".[2]

Despite these inconsistences however, a language guide to the most common Star Wars languages such as Huttese and Bocce exists: The Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide, which collects much of the data given in the books and movies surrounding the saga, forming some kind of official vocabulary, rules and phrases. Also covered in the book is Droidspeak, Ewokese, Gunganese, Jawaese, Neimoidian, Shyriiwook, Sullustan, and Tusken.

Recently however, Mando'a has evolved in a useable conlang by author Karen Traviss.

Appearances

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Sources

Notes and references

External links

See also

In other languages
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