Hans Language Skills

[Aaron]

Does Han actually understand Chewie or does he have some sort of comunications implant like Hunt in Andromeda?

[Ghost Rider]

Does Han actually understand Chewie or does he have some sort of comunications implant like Hunt in Andromeda?

Actually throughout the EU...and I believe one of the movie novels actually says Han know Wookiese, so really to him it's not loud gibberish.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

IIRC, in one of the Solo book trilogies, one of the reasons Han doesn't actually ever speak it is because he sounds silly pronouncing it.

[Stofsk]

Does Han actually understand Chewie or does he have some sort of comunications implant like Hunt in Andromeda?

Given that one of those two scenarios has plausibility and evidence in favour for it, I would go with Han actually understanding Chewie and vice versa, rather than some uber microchip that can translate languages.

[Shogoki]

It's written in one of the books that he does indeed understand wookiese, but "humans lack a couple of mouthpieces" or something like that, it's phonetics are just too different from human languages for us to speak it adequately, same thing goes for Hutese, Han can understand it, but it just doesn't sound right when he tries to speak it, too high pitched, I guess.

[Lord of the Farce]

To speak in Shyriiwook, open your mouth, lock it open, and try not to use your tongue at all in forming sound. No lips either. All sound emanates from the back of the throat.

Shyriiwook: Wua ga ma uma ahuma ooma.
Translation: I think my arm has been pulled out of the socket.

[Galvatron]

And it's not just Han either. Lando apparently understood Sullustan while the stormtroopers on Tatooine understood Kubaz...

This is why I think we could have done without a lot of the "English-speaking" aliens in the prequels. We didn't even need subtitles for the most part so long as the main characters were able to understand them.

[Illuminatus Primus]

How is there a lot of them?

Look at all the Seperatists except the Nemodians. Look at Wat Trembor, especially.

This has hardly changed.

[neoolong]

Does Han actually understand Chewie or does he have some sort of comunications implant like Hunt in Andromeda?

Given that one of those two scenarios has plausibility and evidence in favour for it, I would go with Han actually understanding Chewie and vice versa, rather than some uber microchip that can translate languages.

He also understood what Greedo was saying too. Han knows a lot of languages.

[Elheru Aran]

I figure Han can probably speak Wookieese, but if it's anything like that book says, he'd look seriously idiotic speaking it. He's a smuggler, he's got an image to maintain!

More seriously, I figure he does know it-- enough to be able to translate Chewie's speech easily, and probably enough to read Wookiee script (if they have any writing system-- not too improbable, if you ask me). Since Chewbacca obviously understands Basic well, Han doesn't need to speak it, just understand it.

Question-- could Wookieese be Basic as spoken by Wookiees? Their vocal equipment is obviously different from humans'. There may also be regional variants of Basic, which coupled with the different sounds would explain the reason why it's classified as a different language.

I know, wild idea, but it could explain how many characters in the EU can apparently understand Wookieese (ie, Dash Rendar, Lando, etc); all it would take would be some time with Wookiees, and getting used to the different sounds and dialect. Just an idea... it makes sense to me though.

[Galvatron]

How is there a lot of them?

Look at all the Seperatists except the Nemodians. Look at Wat Trembor, especially.

This has hardly changed.

Neimoidians, Gungans, Kaminoans, Watto, and Dexter Jettster just off the top of my head. There were a lot of English speaking aliens in the prequels.

Yes, this is a big change.

[Stofsk]

How is there a lot of them?

Look at all the Seperatists except the Nemodians. Look at Wat Trembor, especially.

This has hardly changed.

Neimoidians, Gungans, Kaminoans, Watto, and Dexter Jettster just off the top of my head. There were a lot of English speaking aliens in ANH.

Er, don't you mean TPM and AOTC? I can't think of any english/basic speaking aliens in ANH.

[Galvatron]

How is there a lot of them?

Look at all the Seperatists except the Nemodians. Look at Wat Trembor, especially.

This has hardly changed.

Neimoidians, Gungans, Kaminoans, Watto, and Dexter Jettster just off the top of my head. There were a lot of English speaking aliens in ANH.

Er, don't you mean TPM and AOTC? I can't think of any english/basic speaking aliens in ANH.

Yeah, I fixed my post.

[Galvatron]

Oh, I almost forgot: Uncle Owen understood the Jawas too.

Yeesh, just think of all the non-English speaking aliens in the OT. The Jawas, the Tuskens, Ponda Baba, Chewie, Greedo, Garindan, Jabba, the Ugnaughts, Bib Fortuna, Nien Nunb, and the Ewoks. Did I miss anyone?

[neoolong]

Not aliens, but droids. Han could understand the droid in ESB. And Luke could understand R2's whistles and stuff.

[Galvatron]

Not aliens, but droids. Han could understand the droid in ESB. And Luke could understand R2's whistles and stuff.

What droid did Han talk to? Not disagreeing, just asking for a refresher.

[neoolong]

Not aliens, but droids. Han could understand the droid in ESB. And Luke could understand R2's whistles and stuff.

What droid did Han talk to? Not disagreeing, just asking for a refresher.

When Han was fixing the Falcon at the Hoth Base, he was talking to a repair droid.

[Galvatron]

Not aliens, but droids. Han could understand the droid in ESB. And Luke could understand R2's whistles and stuff.

What droid did Han talk to? Not disagreeing, just asking for a refresher.

When Han was fixing the Falcon at the Hoth Base, he was talking to a repair droid.

Gotcha! It's amazing how easy it is to forget those obscure little moments until discussions like this start up.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

How is there a lot of them?

Look at all the Seperatists except the Nemodians. Look at Wat Trembor, especially.

This has hardly changed.

Neimoidians, Gungans, Kaminoans, Watto, and Dexter Jettster just off the top of my head. There were a lot of English speaking aliens in the prequels.

Yes, this is a big change.

So?

[Galvatron]

So?

You want me to repeat myself? Fine...

This is why I think we could have done without a lot of the "English-speaking" aliens in the prequels. We didn't even need subtitles for the most part so long as the main characters were able to understand them.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

That's not even a reason.

Again I ask you: so?

[Galvatron]

That's not even a reason.

Again I ask you: so?

Because the OT already established that the aliens could speak their own languages and the human characters could still communicate with them rather easily.

A lot of what made Jar Jar and the Neimoidians so annoying were their voices and virtually unintelligible dialects of English.

[Elheru Aran]

Well, it's not unreasonable to consider that there may be dialects of Basic peculiar to a particular alien species, due to their different vocal equipment. After all, they are alien, are they not? Their larynxes (assuming that's what they use to produce sound; Gands force air through their exoskeleton to speak or something like that.... it's in the X-Wing books somewhere) are going to be different from human voiceboxes.

As to the profusion of languages thing and being able to understand them, when you think a little, it's really not that big a deal. Almost any culture that has a multiplicity of languages will adapt easily enough; in Nigeria there are >200 languages, but only a few common trade languages. Children grow up knowing at least two languages: their home language, that of their indigenous tribe, and the trade language. More often it's three, four different languages that they have fluency in. It's not impossible-- in fact, it's downright possible-- that in a society so diverse as the Star Wars galaxy, people might actually grow up hearing and learning several different languages as they go.

Take the Jawa language, for example-- Owen Lars and Luke could both obviously understand it pretty well. Jawas are indigenous to Tatooine (IIRC), and from the amount of trade they do with the moisture farmers, it wouldn't make sense to always have a translator at hand; much more economical to be able to at least piece together their jabber in your mind.

Something interesting-- even though many species can't speak Basic, they understand it well enough to be able to carry out complex commands (for example, Nien Nunb in the Falcon's cockpit during ROTJ). This would indicate that it goes both ways...

[Robert Treder]

Most of the aliens in the OT speak Huttese: the only major character to speak a non-Huttese alien language is Nien Nunb.

There are plenty of Huttese-speaking aliens in the PT: Sebulba, Jabba, Watto, Dar Wac, Anakin's Rodian friend, the two-headed announcer, Anakin himself, etc.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Not to mention most of what we see in the PT is in the Core, and often relates to the Senate, which I would expect would involve more Basic being used.