One of our favorite elements of the Star Wars universe is the brilliant use of language and dialects. Diverse species from thousands of planets don’t just speak proper English, but use a variety of sounds and styles to enrich the multilingual dialogue between our favorite characters. Many characters are multilingual, and some… don’t speak a “language” at all.
Yoda
“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained.”
Yoda’s iconic passive voice rearranges the order of subjects, verbs, and objects, breaking the rules of traditional English. But far from coming across as “weak-minded,” Yoda’s speech pattern makes him seem mysterious and sage.
R2-D2
“Beep beep.”
Unlike many of the galaxy’s other foreign languages, R2-D2’s meeps and beeps have never needed subtitles. Occasionally, C-3PO and others rephrase Artoo’s statements in the form of a question (“What message? The one you’re carrying in your rusty innards!”), but generally, Artoo’s digital voice is enough to communicate his thoughts and feelings. His musical riffs expressed fear while creeping through the canyon on Tatooine, sadness when his scanners couldn’t detect Luke and Han on Hoth, and playfulness while periscoping through Yoda’s bog.
Jabba the Hutt
“Han ma bookie.”
(“Han, my boy.”)
Many residents of Tatooine, including the gangster Jabba the Hutt, speak Huttese. This language sometimes includes English cognates—foreign words that sound similar to English words with related meanings. When Jabba condescends to Han Solo calling him “ma bookie,” English-speaking audiences reading the subtitles hear the similarity to “my boy,” and the interlanguage dialog is believable.
Jar Jar Binks
“Whosa are yousa?”
Jar Jar Binks and the Gungans have not been the most popular characters among Star Wars purists. But their playful dialect of English appealed to The Phantom Menace’s younger audiences as Lucasfilm sought to reboot the franchise in 1999 for a new generation.
This is not the video you are looking for. You don’t want to click below.” – (not) Luke Skywalker
Emperor Palpatine
“Oh no, my young Jedi. You will find that it is you who are mistaken, about a great many things.”
The Emperor’s verbose phraseology could really be cut down. In the quote above, for instance, he could have just told Luke, “You’re wrong,” but his circumlocution undergirds a basic premise of the character: Palpatine is full of pride. As Luke retorts six lines later, “Your overconfidence is your weakness.” How we speak is an expression of who we are.
Princess Leia
“Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!”
What’s a Nerf Herder anyway?! Leia’s sharp-tongued smack established her as a feisty warrior who meant business. Some of her best-loved insults include:
- “I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on-board.”
- “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”
- “Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?”
- “I don’t know where you get your delusions, laser brain.”
This punchy attitude reflected Leia’s discontent with the Empire (and often Han).
The Star Wars saga has wielded creative language since 1977, and later releases (12 movies, 9 TV series, and a Holiday Special) have been no exception, as Lucasfilm and now Disney have taken Star Wars dialog to exciting new places.
We OBVIOUSLY missed some! The Wookies and Chewbacca? Finn and Rey? Which Star Wars character’s language fascinates you the most?
Note: This is a republished “boxed set edition” of a trilogy of Language of Star Wars articles we initially published in 2015.