The Sith language (or simply Sith) was the native language of the people of Ziost and Korriban. It was adopted as the mystical language of the Sith Order after the Dark Jedi Exiles enslaved the Sith species. Sith was an agglutinative language, in which words or even phrases were made up of linears sequences of distinct meaningful units. Despite the preeminence of the Galactic Basic Standard, the Sith language remained in use up until the post-Imperial period. To the Lost Tribe of Sith, an order founded on the remote planetKesh the Sith language was known as the Old Tongue.
Originally, this language was only spoken by the Sith, a species of red–skinned Humanoids[1] from the Stygian Caldera.[2] It was later expanded upon and evolved when the second generation of Dark Jedisplit from the Jedi Order in 7,000 BBY, just after the Battle of Corbos, and enslaved the natives of Korriban.[1] The Sith language became a symbol of the newly created Sith Order, a powerful sect of dark side adepts. This was made easier through the creation of devices known as translation talismans.[3] Such artifacts, initially designed and created by the Jedi Exiles who sought to learn of the Sith's secrets, allowed their wearer to read the Sith language as if it were their own mother tongue.[4] The Code of the Sith, originally penned in Basic by the Exile Sorzus Syn and inspired by the lifestyle of the Sith Purebloods,[5] was also translated in Sith language as Qotsisajak.[6]
Around 5,000 BBY, the Sith dreadnaughtOmen was forced to crash land on the remote planetKesh. The marrooned Sith were never able to to return to space, so they settled amongst the native Keshiri and founded the Lost Tribe of the Sith. This allowed the Sith language to expand far from its cradle.[7] In this marginal Sith colony, the language became known as "the Old Tongue".[8]
Three of Master Atris's Sith holocrons
Even after the majority of Sith were of other species than the Sith Pureblood, the language was preserved in holocrons,[9] temples, and tomes.[10] However, outside of the dark side circles, very few scholars knew how to decipher this language, and even fewer could pronounce its complex word structures.[4] There is a possibility that the Sith LordDarth Nihilus, who lived around 3,951 BBY, spoke the Sith language, as his hissing speech sounded verbally identical to the voices within Atris' Sith Holocrons.[9] Much later, in the eleventh century before the Battle of Yavin, the Human Darth Bane became familiar with the tongue of the ancient Sith during his studies at the Academy of Korriban, unlike most of his fellow students. Bane would seek the wisdom of Masters long dead in leather-bound volumes covered with blood-red ink.[11]
Millennia after the founding of the Sith Order, individuals as modern as the fallen Jedi Vergere[12] and Jerec[13] or the Sullustan naturalist Dr'uun Unnh,[14] spoke it. The members of the Lost Tribe of Sith also managed to preserve the knowledge of the Old Tongue, and all members from apprentices and higher knew it. For example, Vestara Khai was able to use it to communicate with a pack of Tuk'ata on Korriban.[8]
The phonetic palette of the Sith language consisted of 23 phonemes or speech sounds. There were 17 consonants: t, d, k, q, m, n, ts, dz, s, z, h, ch, j, sh, r/l, w, y. There were also 6 distinct vowels: i (as in "hit" or "heat"), â (as in "bash"), u (as in "suit"), û (as in "club"), o (as in "toad"), a (as in "ah"). In addition, a and o would combine with i to make diphthongs: oi (as in "toy") and ai (as in "buy").[15]
Because of this limited segment inventory, Sith scribes faced difficulties when trying to translate non-Sith names. For example, the name of Palpatine would have to be transcribed as Marmûtin, as the Sith language did not have a "p" sound or an "l" between two consonants. To overcome such difficulties, creative scribes would actually translate the name into their language based on its etymology.[15]
Sith morphemes—the smallest meaningful units in the grammar of a language—were often made of closed syllables (syllables ending with consonants), which made them sound brisk and choppy. The language was regularly stressed, with every word accented on the first syllable.[15]
The Sith language discouraged vowels in hiatus, and glides were inserted when two vowels appeared next to each other. The phrase siqsayanjat ("about a demon") was in fact composed of siqsa ("demon") and anjat (ablative marker), with the addition of the glide y to eliminate the hiatus.[16]
The language of the Sith extensively employed regular agglutination and used derivative suffixes to a greater extent than Galactic Basic Standard. Many different markers could be added to a root until very long words were formed—and a single word could constitute an entire sentence. For example, the phrase "because of dreaming about a demon" translated in Sith as a single word kûskutsiqsayanjat. This word was made of four distinct morphemes: kûsk + ut + siqsa + (y)anjat = "to dream" + (nominal marker) + "demon" + (ablative marker).[15]
The typical declarative word order of Sith was verb-subject-object—for example, "Wonoksh Qyâsik nun" was literally "Shall free-the Force-me". However, there also existed prepositional phrases, and subjects or objects could sometimes be put at the front of the sentence for emphasis.[6]
Verb roots were one syllable, with the mood or tense being indicated by suffixial markers. The addition of the marker -atul expressed the alethic mood, the speaker’s belief that an action was logically necessary or obviously true. "Châts nyu midwan" would be "I gain power", while "Châtsatul nyu midwan" could be translated as "I necessarily gain power".[6]
The Sith language was originally written in complex hieroglyphics. Over the centuries, Sith scribes wished to develope less complicated scripts. This resulted in the creation of two different scripts. The first one, known as "Common Sith" was used for mundane, everyday use, while the other, "High Sith" was for ecclesiastical use.[17] A third writing system known as the Kittât was also used for incantation scrolls. The latter consisted of thirty-seven runes, and was suitable for both calligraphy and epigraphy.[15]
Dzworokka yun; nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai. Wotok tsawakmidwanottoi, yuntok hyarutmidwanottoi.—"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."[15]
Eyah seh maat, shu kor huaan.—Unknown. Something soothing.[32]
Haa, neyo la yud masur kee, tah uhnah kahru lur shu.—Unknown. Something menacing and challenging.[32]
"To that end, I imagined a tough—but not barbarous—language, one that could convey a kind of confident, elegant cruelty. And Sith would have to ring with authority so you could envision it functioning among elites of the dark side the way Latin functioned in Europe for centuries: as a repository of culture and learning."
The Sith language first appeared in the 1990scomic book series Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. At the time, occurrences of that language consisted of nonsensical words, composed only of unpronounceable series of consonants—such as Nkrttw flgkllm shprrlt mdnnq.[34] This version of Sith does not blend well with ulterior appearances in canon, and should probably be considered an artistic licence. In Speak Like a Sith, Ben Grossblatt noted that no one would even try to speak a language if it consisted of unpronounceable words like r'rhhoqtk.[15] However, in the audio drama adaptation of Tales of the Jedi, the instances were Exar Kun speaks Sith sounded very different from their comic book counterpart, featuring a variety of vocalic sounds.[35]
In the 2004 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Darth Nihilus was heard communicating in the same fashion as the Sith holocrons kept by Atris, leading some fans to believe that the Dark Lord spoke Sith. However, when working on the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, Star Wars author Abel G. Peña wrote a whole passage devoted to Nihilus' mask that was ultimately cut. It would have notably provided two scholarly explanations of Nihilus' speech. According to that cut passage, the Dark Lord's hissings may have been the first language ever spoken in the galaxy, or the raw dialect of the Force itself, untranslated by midi-chlorians.[36]
While Grossblatt's system is realistic and functional, there are conflicts between his version of the Sith phonology and Sith vocabulary established in previous works. While the Star Wars Insider article states that the Sith has no 'e' 'p' or 'f' sounds, words or names such as "derriphan" "Ffon", "aleph", Jen'ari, Jen'jidai, Jensaarai or "Kressh" have appeared in older canon sources. Not even "Korriban", the name of the Sith species' homeworld, can be written using this system, due to the lack of 'b'. In fact, even some of the new words that were invented for Book of Sith—including "Grotthu" and "Zuguruk"—cannot be properly transcribed.[5][15] Although Grossblatt did create "new" Sith words consistent with his conlang for the caste names, they did not make it into the final version of the book.[16]
↑Ben Grossblatt has revealed the word Qotsisajak meant "code of Sith doctrine." With ajak being "doctrine" and qo being "code", the morpheme tsis must be "Sith."