Galactic Tongues

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Title:	Galactic Tongues
Creator:	Eva Albertsson
Date(s):	October 1982
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Wars
Topic:
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Galactic Tongues is a 1982 article by Eva Albertsson.

It was printed in Docking Bay #3.

The topic of the essay was spoken language and the Star Wars universe.

Some Topics Discussed

• were Han and Chewie telepathic?
• did Han formally study languages, is that why he could understand Greedo and Chewie and other characters, or did Han have just a basic working understanding of other languages due to the necessities of his job?
• does Han have a language implant chip in his brain?
• what are interpreter droids for?
• how do all these theories affect fanfiction?
• how many languages are there in the Star Wars universe?
• is there a standard accepted default language?

Some Exceprts

It is an indisputable fact that Han Solo and his Wookiee first have no language barrier between them. Also, that Han and Greedo understood each otlier perfectly well during their brief conversation. From these tv;o clear examples, the average fan-writer may — and does — consider herself safely entitled to assume our favorite Corellian to have at least a passive (i.e. understanding only or mainly) if not an active (understanding and speaking) knowledge of quite a lot of different tongues from all over his home cluster.

Over the years since Star Wars: A NEW HOPE was first released, theories have bloomed as to how such magic is possible. Among the more spectacular ones are the assumptions that Han should be to some extent telepathic, that Chewbacca is telepathic — which doesn't account for Greedo (or Jabba, if you want to include the radio series in your background material) — or that Han has some sort of electronic translation device implanted in his brain, I think — though I won't swear to it — that someone even invoked the Force.

I'm all in favor of telepathy in a futuristic tale, if it weren't for the fact that it gets to be such a damn nuisance after awhile, unless it is so restricted as to be rendered virtually useless. A constant link between Han and the Wookiee might be manageable, except that it simplifies most plots 'til the story caves in. Han, as the charming klutz that he is, has a great knack for landing headfirst in trouble — but how can there be any serious trouble, when all he has to do is open his mind and call on the Wookiee Marines? Unless, of course, we take care always to knock Chewie out first, which might be a little hard on him — and the readers — after the fifteenth story or so. As for leaving Han in steady contact with the whole galaxy, for just anybody to tap into his mind when he's too drunk to watch out — it's unthinkable. His headaches would be splitting enough the next morning without the Tower of Babel having gone on in his head.

Learning, however, doesn't ever really become obsolete. And isn't it the most plausible theory? Naturally, Han wouldn't be able to learn all the languages in the galaxy — but just as a mechanical device would not need to supply him with all languages, he wouldn't have to learn them all. Also, there are different degrees of knov/ledge. Personally, I don't speak more than three languages fluently, but I understand and speak three or four more enough to get along — that is, without running the risk of mistaking the toilet for the telephone booth, getting sent to the wrong places or being mistaken for somebody else in the countries where they are spoken.

How many languages are there in the galaxy then? Well, how many are there on Earth? Your guess is as good as mine, and it will be on the insufficient side, whatever it is. Not counting all the instances where it's impossible to determine whether or not we have separate languages or merely dialects of one and the same. But whatever figure v/e arrive at, it's fairly safe to multiply it by the niamber of habitable planets, moons and stations in the SW galaxy to get an estimate of the number of tongues spoken there. To this some of you will object that doubtlessly the same language will be spoken on Planet A, Moons MA 2-5 and Stations SA 3-7, for instance, having been colonized or built by the same species. Indubitably. But, and this is where quite a lot of us miss out, there will also be a wide variety of languages on the same planet/moon and v/ithin the same station. We must, once and for all, for the sake of believability if for no other reason, remember that a planet is not a bus stop in space (or, if we absolutely need a bus stop in space, give good reasons why this particular one happens to be so). It's a sobering thought that however colorful, however strange, however diversified the tales created by generations of sf-writers, so far their origin, and the experience forming their foundation, is always to be found on Earth. We simply don't have any other frame of reference yet. One single planet holds the material for the entire existing sf literature! As v/ell as all known languages. I think we can safely assume this to be true of most of the habitable planets in the SW galaxy as well — even if we generously discoiant all moons and stations. So, while most of us may yearn to hear Han speak his native 'Corellian', this is not v/hat he should do. He should, however, speak that particular one of the Corellian idioms which is his own. And why — George? — for heaven's sake doesn't he? Of course no one believes that a galaxy so incredibly dense as to be able to have a single ruler governing most of it, and so dense as to have established frequent trading and other communications between all parts of it from rim to hub, v/ould get along without a major overall language, known to and spoken by most of its nations on all planets — and this 'Intergalactic', or what we may call it, Han speaks fluently, and English will double for it very well.

But this uniform official language has not — could not have — replaced all of the other tongues. Or else, why would Chewie and Greedo speak their own? Maybe because their vocal apparatus cannot form the sounds of the official language, but if so, then that is reason enough for many other languages to also still be in existence. And Corellians, with their evident traditions of smuggling and other furtive activities, would certainly have retained their native tongues.

[Han] keeps flashing his skills in trading, engineering and piloting — plus quite a few others, I'd say ~ at us; why is he so modest about [being fluent in several/many languages]? I fully realize the difficulties in having most English-speaking people pronounce German or French and get away with it (and please don't take offense at this; no one can help what they were brought up to, and I'm handicapped by some pretty impossible 'r's myself). But here we're talking about invented languages, which may sound just any way at all and need not have any tricky sounds in them. And even this would not need too much consideration. I have no doubts that Harrison could imitate quite a variety of outlandish dialects if it were in his script; opinions might vary on his capability as an actor, but 'good' is about the unkindest verdict I've heard on it so far, so there's no earthly — or galactical — reason why he shouldn't be able to fake some reptilian or feline language. Also, who says Han would have to speak these tongues without any trace of an accent? He could have a Corellian accent thick enough to slice with a plasma cutter; that would only add to his charms. And why, above all, can't we ever get to hear a bit of that Corellian brogue!