Phonetics Of Star Wars
We know that sounds are not the same thing as letters, and when looking at a universe as expansive as the Star Wars universe it is clear that the usage of multiple species, along with multiple languages, that span across many different planets, it should come to no surprise that there is a difference in phonetics within the Star Wars universe. While the main phonetic language is known as “aurebesh”, it actually doesn’t stray too far away from The International Phonetic Alphabet.
If you look at the image above, you can see several similarities to letters that are seen in the phonetic language. An example of this is the use of the aurebesh letter thesh, which has the same sound the that International Phonetic Alphabet has with the letter “eth”. Some interesting points to note is the fact the language used in Star Wars also has some letters that are not used in the standard English alphabet, not in The International Phonetic Alphabet (or at least not directly). An example of this is the use of the letter “Kenth” which has the ‘Kh” sound which is not something that is really common in english, or really in any language. That letter may be used by different species and represent a sound that cannot be pronounced phonologically by humans.
This leads into an interesting look at some other creatures and how they speak or even alter the ‘basic’ phonetic and phonological structure, while still speaking basic. The gungans are known for doing this specifically, but only occasionally. Sometimes, a character will pronounce a word such as “think” as “tink” however sometimes they will pronounce it correctly. This leads to an interesting discussion, and perhaps a want for the producers and creators of the films to feature more gungans to allow fans to fully analyze and study the altered version of the sample language which most characters speak. (Squire) (Star Wars Wiki)
We know that sounds are not the same thing as letters, and when looking at a universe as expansive as the Star Wars universe it is clear that the usage of multiple species, along with multiple languages, that span across many different planets, it should come to no surprise that there is a difference in phonetics within the Star Wars universe. While the main phonetic language is known as “aurebesh”, it actually doesn’t stray too far away from The International Phonetic Alphabet.
If you look at the image above, you can see several similarities to letters that are seen in the phonetic language. An example of this is the use of the aurebesh letter thesh, which has the same sound the that International Phonetic Alphabet has with the letter “eth”. Some interesting points to note is the fact the language used in Star Wars also has some letters that are not used in the standard English alphabet, not in The International Phonetic Alphabet (or at least not directly). An example of this is the use of the letter “Kenth” which has the ‘Kh” sound which is not something that is really common in english, or really in any language. That letter may be used by different species and represent a sound that cannot be pronounced phonologically by humans.
This leads into an interesting look at some other creatures and how they speak or even alter the ‘basic’ phonetic and phonological structure, while still speaking basic. The gungans are known for doing this specifically, but only occasionally. Sometimes, a character will pronounce a word such as “think” as “tink” however sometimes they will pronounce it correctly. This leads to an interesting discussion, and perhaps a want for the producers and creators of the films to feature more gungans to allow fans to fully analyze and study the altered version of the sample language which most characters speak. (Squire) (Star Wars Wiki)