Post by ALMIGHTY ALICE on Feb 11, 2012 8:29:51 GMT -5
Common Languages of the Galaxy
Although there are millions of languages in the galaxy, some are widespread and are spoken by billions throughout the galaxy. Some of the most important ones include ;
Galactic Basic Standard
Galactic Basic Standard, also known as Galactic Basic, Galactic Standard, Galaxy Standard or just Basic, is the most prevalent and most used language in the galaxy. The language started out as a slang or jargon of traders and spacers, based on a mix of the early Human languages, as well as Durese and Bothanese. It gained wide popularity among spacers, who spread it out and it was further influenced by Dromnyr later on, which ultimately resulted in the creation of the language.
Most sentient beings who have made contact are capable of speaking and understanding Basic in addition to their native and/or regionally dominating languages. Not all species, how ever are capable of speaking Basic due to the lack of necessary organs. These include Polis Massans, Ssi-ruuk, P'w'ecks, Wookiees, and a number of other species, largely insectoid races to be precise.
There is a vast number of Galactic Basic accents and dialects. Here is a list of some of the most prominent ones ;
- High Galactic: High Galactic was a Pre-Republic language which was later used to show respect for the clergy and the elite.
- Coruscanti accent: Most inhabitants of the Core Worlds spoke in this accent.
- High Coruscanti accent: A more refined style of the Coruscanti accent. It is very posh and clipped and conveyed a sense of upper-class sensibility, sometimes described as sneering and using more pretentious words (sheen, emerald and ruby instead of shine green and red wines). The accent may also be faked to sound more important.
- Corellian accent: It is distinct enough so that a Corellian can instantly recognize another Corellian's speech.
- Concord Dawn inflection: This is the most common accent among Mandalorians (perhaps due to the influence of their native language, Mando'a), with the tendency to pronounce words that have an 'e' with an 'i', e.g. word - delta, pronounced - dilta.
- Eriaduan accent: It may simply be an artifact of the heavy influence of Coruscant, or "standard" language throughout the Core Worlds, and by implication, the elite of society, since people in the Colonies and Outer Rim speak differently.
- Barabel accent: The word 'I' and any other word assosciated with it like 'am' is not present in the language.
Other accents include Cathar, Kaleesh, Neimoidian, Onderonian, Chiss and countless others.
Galactic Basic uses the Aurebesh script.
Huttese
Huttese is the native language of the Hutts, although it isspoken by many races, especially those in Hutt Space. Because of the Hutts' commercial and criminal influence throughout the galaxy, Huttese is the second most common language after Galactic Basic, and serves as the lingua franca for most of the space surrounding the Hutts' territory.
All the Nimbanels are fluent in Huttese, as well as in Basic and their own language, because their snout structure makes it easy for them to articulate the Huttese language. Understanding the advantages of learning such an important language, the species made it a semi-official language of Nimban.
Huttese is so influential that it also became a primary language for the Rodian race. Toydarians are also usually fluent in Huttese, because the two species had had a long commercial history with each other. They usually prefer to speak their Toydarian language rather than Basic, but if that is not a choice, they try Huttese. Huttese was is of the primary languages of Tatooine and many Hutt-controlled worlds like it.
Furthermore, the Hutts are the owners of three species, Niktos, Klatooinians and Vodrans, since the time of the Third Battle of Vontor. Klatooinians and Vodrans have forfeited their respective languages
It should be noted that the Hutts has no words for the otherwise polite phrases of 'Please' and 'Thank You'.
Mando'a
Mando'a, sometimes referred to simply as Mandalorian, is the primary language spoken by the Mandalorian culture, with elements of it taken from the ancient Taung of Coruscant, from which the culture stemmed.
The origins of Mando'a is believed to have layed with the language of the Taung, an ancient race of Humanoid that originated on Coruscant in the time before the Galactic Republic's formation. The Taung were driven from Coruscant by the Human Battalions of Zhell after a lengthy war, and under the leadership of Mandalore the First, conquered a new planet they named Mandalore in their leader's honor, becoming the first Mandalorians—or Mando'ade, "Children of Mandalore" in Mando'a. Despite this direct lineage, and the fact that the Taung spoke an archaic dialect that evolved into the later Mando'a, unique elements contained in contemporary Mando'a were unlike any found in other galactic languages. Mando'a had no grammatical cases, only two forms for a verb to take, a tense prefix system, and simplistic rules for forming adjectives from nouns and verb stems. Spelling and punctuation forms were optional, decided upon by the preference of the individual speaker—"jagyc" and "jagla", for instance, were both correct ways of saying "masculine".
To understand and be able to speak Mando'a is one of the Resol'nare, the central six tenets that an individual has to follow in their daily life should they wish to be a Mandalorian. This respect for the language, along with Mando'a's natural flexibility, meant that words drawn from other languages are a rarity, and Mando'a changed very little throughout the centuries in spite of the many languages the Mandalorians learned to speak and the vast influence from alien cultures. If a new word for a thing or concept was needed, Mandalorians typically draw upon the existing Mando'a vocabulary to form an appropriate term. Mando'a is an agglutinative language, meaning that many words were formed by combining two or more others, without changing their form, to create a new word with a new meaning. An example of this was the term dar'jetii, which is a combination of the Mando'a words dar, meaning "no longer", and jetii, the Mandalorian word for Jedi. Literally translated, dar'jetii meant "no longer a Jedi", but was mostly used contextually to mean "Sith." However, hut'tuun—the Mandalorian word for "coward"—found its roots in the common Mandalorian dislike for Hutts, specifically their tendency to hire others to handle their martial needs in their stead.
There is one dialect of Mando'a, the language of Concord Dawn and its's moon Concordia, and it is frequently referred to as Concordian. Though they differ in certain aspects, the two languages are mutually intelligible, meaning that they are similar enough that an individual speaking one can easily converse with someone speaking the other.
Bocce
Bocce is an interplanetary trade language comprising parts of multiple languages. It was created by the Baobab Merchant Fleet to allow communication between starcraft pilots, crews, and support personnel of various species. Though not commonly used by most, any experienced pilots or spacers would know a few Bocce phrases in case they came across those that did not speak the pilot's native language.
Binary
Binary, also known as Droidspeak, is the computer language composed of electronic beeps, bloops, buzzes, chirps, whines, and whistles of droids. All droids can "speak" and understand binary. There are some examples of people that spent so much time with their droids that they were able to pick up a fluency of the language — although they weren't able to synthesize it.
Generally, a whistle ascending in pitch is an affirmative, and one of descending pitch is a negative. It is sometimes possible to understand Binary from the pitch in which it is spoken.
Shyriiwook
Shyriiwook, also known as Wookieespeak, is the main trade language of the Wookiees. In Basic, Shyriiwook translates to "tongue of the tree people". It is not the only Wookiee language, but, being the main trade language, it is the language understood by most non-Wookiees who understood "the Wookiee language" — in fact, most non-Wookiees are unaware of the existence of multiple Wookiee languages.
To outsiders, this language usually sounds like mere animalistic barks, roars, growls, and moans, conveying little more than emotion. However, Shyriiwook is in fact just as much an intelligent language as Basic.
The unique shape of the Wookiee throat makes Shyriiwook a very difficult, even impossible language to speak for most non-Wookiees; presumably the word Shyriiwook itself, as well as other Wookiee words or names, are transliterations of the original Wookiee sounds into a form more easily pronounced by others. No tongue or lip movement is required to speak Shyriiwook; the jaw is typically locked open, with sound emanating from the throat and back of the mouth.
It is also incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for most Wookiees to learn to speak Basic. As a result, most inter-species communication involving Wookiees has to be carried out in a bilingual format, usually with the Wookiee speaking Shyriiwook and the other party speaking Basic.
Twi'leki
Twi'leki, Rylothean, or Ryl is the native spoken language of the Twi'leks. Ryl incorporates subtle body language, including movement of the lekku, and so is difficult for non-Twi'leks to fully understand. The written form of Ryl consists of pictographs.
In addition to Ryl, Twi'leks are also fluent in Lekku language, a silent form of communication using gestures made purely with the lekku. Only Twi'leks can express themselves this way, and few other species can understand them readily. Lekku is ideal for private conversation between Twi'leks in crowded areas. Jedi
Durese
Durese, also called Durosian, is the native language of the Duros.
Since the Duros are prominent spacers and traders, Durese became a common interstellar tongue. It was an influence for Basic, and most Duros are fluent in both languages. Is was also most likely the root language of Pak Pak. The Durese Writing system is a syllabary.
Rodese
Rodese or Rodian is the native language spoken by Rodians. Many Rodians living away from Rodia speak other languages more frequently, especially Huttese.
Other well known languages include, Mon Calamarian, Dosh, Quarranese, Hapan, Ceunh and so on.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]