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Author Topic: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Tricky  5356 posts
Registered: Jul '01
43253_Boba Fett
Date Posted: 4/26/07 2:39pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
I'm sure it's not correct but it's what I always assumed made sense, the other name for basic is Aurebresh(sp?) & that is the universal written & spoken language of the SWU. We the audience that are getting to see glimpses of the happenings of this universe would essentially all have a Babel Fish in our ear, understanding nearly all the languages spoken in the GFFA except for the odd Geonosian, Huttese or Aqualish.

If one of us were to get into a time machine & go to this galaxy that's far far way & a long time ago, we'd be crippled in that we couldn't understand a thing being said by species that look remarkably the same as us or even quite different. We'd have to fall into hand gestures & the like until we are taken to an Imperial learning station & are given electronic fast learning courses in speaking & understanding Basic. After a few hours of that then we can hang out on a street corner amid the Jawa's begging for credits. wink

 

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Lord_Hydronium  6296 posts
Title: Literature Gardener
 Registered: Jun '02
15597_Vergere
Date Posted: 4/26/07 2:41pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Aurabesh isn't a language, just an alphabet. They speak and write Basic, and they write it in Aurabesh.

 

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Ris_jSarek  2553 posts
Registered: Feb '05
18187_Z-95 Headhunter
Date Posted: 4/26/07 2:47pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Yes, Galactic Basic = English, with a few nonce words (e.g. Moff, kriff, transparisteel) included.

The Aurebesh writing in Star Wars, when read, exactly duplicates English. THAT'S something they don't do in movies - they either don't translate writing at all, they subtitle it, or they directly translate it into English in the Latin alphabet. They *don't* phonetically spell out English words in the foreign alphabet.

Furthermore, as others have pointed out, puns and wordplay seem to directly translate easily and freely. In and of itself, this isn't of major significance (as others have mentioned, translators often find appropriate equivalent jokes to include in a "place where a joke should go" in a work), but when taken with the above, and in light of how freely and easily it seems to be done, it's evidence.

 

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dp4m  36469 posts
Registered: Nov '01
13878_Luke Skywalker Dark Empire
Date Posted: 4/26/07 2:52pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Ris_jSarek posted:
Yes, Galactic Basic = English, with a few nonce words (e.g. Moff, kriff, transparisteel) included.


There's nothing canonically to validate your assertion.

 

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Lord_Hydronium  6296 posts
Title: Literature Gardener
 Registered: Jun '02
15597_Vergere
Date Posted: 4/26/07 2:53pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
And the nonexistence of "consecrate" in Basic is evidence against.

 

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Rogue_Follower  8553 posts
Title: Manager:
• Lit
 Registered: Nov '03
6468_Blackhole
Date Posted: 4/26/07 3:03pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Or we could just agree with 000 and conclude that Voren is a moron. tongue

 
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Thrawn McEwok  13640 posts
Title: TFN EU Staff
 Registered: May '00
43231_Chiss Ewok
Date Posted: 4/26/07 3:14pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Is Galactic Basic really English?

As jSarek said, there's quite a lot of information suggesting that it is. To this, we can add what are clearly English-linked words in other Star Wars languages - "outman" (Huttese for "foreigner"), for example...

Either it's English, or it's a language relatively closely related to English... or, it might be that the entire series has been "translated" in a way resembling Tolkien.

Try not to think about it? raised_brow tongue

- The Imperial Ewok

 

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SuperWatto  5932 posts
Registered: Sep '00
45743_Azzameen Crest
Date Posted: 4/26/07 3:20pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
It was translated, put to celluloid, videotape, and dvd.
Or are DVDs canon, too?

 
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Tricky  5356 posts
Registered: Jul '01
43253_Boba Fett
Date Posted: 4/26/07 3:43pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not? - Date Edited: 4/26/07 3:46pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Tricky
This is a prime example of the "suspension of disbelief" theory. Would Star Wars have worked if it was done similarly to Passion of the Christ's all Aremeaic(sp?) speaking with english subtitles, would that work in a story/movie intended for children? I think not.

Lucas is not the genius that Douglas Adams was, why is it that nearly no one else in the fantasy/sci-fi genre has invented their own version of the Babel Fish? Protocal droids work for in universe chars speaking to & understanding each other, but how do we who are on the other side of the 4th wall know what is going on?

When we in our own world are split into many different lands & speak many different languages, like for example black people the world over speaking English, Swahili, Afrikaans, Haitian, Puerto Rican, Zulu, French, etc..............what makes you think that humanoids that either descended from us or us from them in a whole other galaxy would speak & understand the Queen's English as we do?

I did go over this same arguement on the Age of Conan forums a while back, it was kinda fun!I'd want to be Conan's best friend & sidekick too, but how would we ever sucessfully get our ideas across to each other?

 

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SuperWatto  5932 posts
Registered: Sep '00
45743_Azzameen Crest
Date Posted: 4/26/07 3:55pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not? - Date Edited: 4/26/07 3:55pm (1 edits total) Edited By: SuperWatto
One thing in EJA's defense, however mind-boggling it may be on closer examination.

Pernilla: Isn't that strange, though, that I have a Swedish accent?
George (in a giddy mood): Naaaw... You just come from a star system where they speak Swedish.

I think that was in the Vanity Fair interview in '99... Or som'n.
Anyway, you could argue that GL doesn't have his story straight and he never thought about it, but it makes more sense to reason that some of us here may, from time to time, be taking this galaxy a little too literally.

 
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Ris_jSarek  2553 posts
Registered: Feb '05
18187_Z-95 Headhunter
Date Posted: 4/26/07 4:17pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
dp4m posted:
There's nothing canonically to validate your assertion.


Except, umm, the evidence I posted? And McEwok's evidence regarding other languages in contact with Basic (which, to be fair, did come after your post)?

Lord_Hydronium posted:
And the nonexistence of "consecrate" in Basic is evidence against.


The passage to which you refer makes no sense no matter how you look at it. How could a species which speaks with bird calls use the word "consecrate," either? As Abel once said in an email to me on this very topic, "Maybe Voren was just up very late and hadn't had his coffee when he translated the myth. tongue "

Thrawn McEwok posted:
As jSarek said, there's quite a lot of information suggesting that it is. To this, we can add what are clearly English-linked words in other Star Wars languages - "outman" (Huttese for "foreigner"), for example...


Exactly.

Thrawn McEwok posted:
Try not to think about it? raised_brow tongue


Probably the best decision, but since when have we ever been any good at that?

Tricky posted:
This is a prime example of the "suspension of disbelief" theory.
...
When we in our own world are split into many different lands & speak many different languages, like for example black people the world over speaking English, Swahili, Afrikaans, Haitian, Puerto Rican, Zulu, French, etc..............what makes you think that humanoids that either descended from us or us from them in a whole other galaxy would speak & understand the Queen's English as we do?


If we can suspend our belief that humans evolved on a world in another galaxy (near its center, no less, which astrophysics tells us is not a particularly likely place for life to evolve in the first place), then thinking that they naturally evolved 20th Century English as well is no more taxing on our suspension of disbelief.

 

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Tricky  5356 posts
Registered: Jul '01
43253_Boba Fett
Date Posted: 4/26/07 4:33pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Ris_jSarek posted:

Tricky posted:
This is a prime example of the "suspension of disbelief" theory.
...
When we in our own world are split into many different lands & speak many different languages, like for example black people the world over speaking English, Swahili, Afrikaans, Haitian, Puerto Rican, Zulu, French, etc..............what makes you think that humanoids that either descended from us or us from them in a whole other galaxy would speak & understand the Queen's English as we do?


If we can suspend our belief that humans evolved on a world in another galaxy (near its center, no less, which astrophysics tells us is not a particularly likely place for life to evolve in the first place), then thinking that they naturally evolved 20th Century English as well is no more taxing on our suspension of disbelief.


OK, I can deal with that.

 

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"Six pints of bitter," said Ford Prefect to the barman of the Horse and Groom.
"And quickly please, the world's about to end."
We like to Suckadelic.com.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book
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SuperWatto  5932 posts
Registered: Sep '00
45743_Azzameen Crest
Date Posted: 4/26/07 4:35pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Easily swayed!

 
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iamobiwan1970  2222 posts
Registered: Aug '05
16486_Kyp Durron
Date Posted: 4/26/07 4:37pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
It should be the other way around, Humans of Earth originated in the GFFA, i.e. Outbound Flight from 25,000 BBY.



I like that point! wink It as a long time ago and they came to earth to tell Georgethe story. (C3PO translated it).

Basic is it's own language which we hear as English in the English speaking world. Their alphabet, Aurabesh, cerainly looks different to give you the feel that this is a different galaxy and a different language. It sounds like English so we don't have to sit through subtitles.

 

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dp4m  36469 posts
Registered: Nov '01
13878_Luke Skywalker Dark Empire
Date Posted: 4/26/07 4:38pm Subject: RE: Galactic Basic Standard = English or not?
Ris_jSarek posted:
Except, umm, the evidence I posted? And McEwok's evidence regarding other languages in contact with Basic (which, to be fair, did come after your post)?


You both posted supposition.

Not canon.

Difference.

 

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