Chat corner 6: Methods of communication

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

 

Optional prompt

This week’s prompt is “languages”. The movies have Huttese, the fandom loves Mando’a, then there’s the anecdote about Nien Numb from Empire Strikes Back actually speaking Kikuyu (a Kenyan dialect), and I have even found a few fans who built their own conlangs for their fic. What about you? Do you have any favorites?

 

Comments

[fleurviolette]

The one Star Wars language that I’m most familiar with is Basic lol

I’m still not over calling glass transperasteel or popcorn as bangcorn! 😂

[annathecrow]

Star Wars and its newspeak, lol. There was a fandom secret a few weeks ago where someone complained about fanfic for The Mandalorian having a lot of (according to them) gratuitous Mando'a, and I was like... honey, you might not be in the right franchise if this is a problem for you XD

It makes writing SW fic goddamn hard, though. If you keep things too normal, it stands out. If you get the newspeak wrong, it stands out. Some things aren't standardized, so you just have to guess and hope the reader will buy it. (Is it a "comm code" or a "comm frequency"?) Not to mention that it doesn't even come from the movies for the most part, but from all the accompanying material through a fandom filter.

[fleurviolette]

Yeah, it’s definitely a challenge to get it right.
I recall watching Episode IV when Luke looks into some type of binoculars and you see some numbers. I was expecting some kind of alien or futuristic language text of sorts.

Sometimes I wonder in gffa, how does everyone somehow understand each other without using any type of universal translators?

[extrapenguin]

Huttese is cool, and SWTOR actually has several cantina songs with lyrics in Huttese! My favorite is Kayfoundo Naweea, which has its own Wookieepedia page with translations of the lyrics! The others have been transcribed and translated by a guy on the SWTOR forums.

However, my actual favorite Star Wars universe language is Sith, both because it sounds cool and because unlike e.g. Mando'a, its grammatical structure is not a total copypaste job off English.

[annathecrow]

That's a really funky song, I like it :D

Now I'm wondering if the Huttese in KOTOR is just wah-wah or if it's an actual language. Either way, I have "muliraa" stuck in my brain forever now. XD

Sith looks really cool! I don't have patience for conlang theory, but I love when people really spend time on it, past (as you said) just word-for-word translating English.

[extrapenguin]

Alas, the alien languages are all gibberish in KOTOR. You can look forward to loads and loads of "Michi shaka pakah!" and "Oop garrap garrap goop." as you go through the game.

Mostly I go "what a missed opportunity" at all the Star Wars languages, since they are all so English based they make German look exotic. :P Sith is a welcome break.

[yourlibrarian]

Funny that this should be the question of the week. We are watching the truly wretched Caravan of Courage on Disney+ and my SO quipped that the Ewok language seemed to consist largely of repeating one another's names.

[annathecrow]

:D I suppose we should have mercy, it's not a necessity for every story with an imaginary language to have a complete conlang created for it. Although that's not as easy to pull off in a movie than it is in a book/comic (I LOVE my [foreign language markers], yes I do)

(also, A+ for the matching icon)

[stellar_dust]

I have a soft spot for droids who speak Bocce.

Also, written Aurabesh is ... interesting. And I've always found it interesting that there are certain earth things that are fine but others you can never have in star wars -- paper? Coffee? NOT ALLOWED

In fandom, i really enjoy all the different ways people have riffed on fialleril's tattooine slave culture, including the language.

[fleurviolette]

Yeah apparently there are no eyeglasses in a galaxy far far away?

Although, hot chocolate exists in Star Wars, which is nice.

[sathari]

Back in the day, there was a fan-created version of Sithskrit/Sithspeech that I positively adored, but alas, it has vanished even from the Wayback machine. :((((((((

[annathecrow]

Ugh, losing things to the depth of internet is the worst. :(

[stellar_dust]

And of course we should not forget Shyriiwook. Best conlang.

[annathecrow]

Even if it isn't a proper conlang, my favorite SW language is probably binary :D Droids go bleep-bloop, aww!