Lit Constructed languages in Star Wars

Again, I want to emphasize that this isn't an inherently bad thing. Tolkien has left a long shadow over the sci-fi/fantasy genre, but pretty much the whole reason he even invented a fantasy setting was to provide context for the language(s) he was making up for fun. No one who isn't also a linguist needs to be held to that standard.

 

Interesting - where did "muni" come from?

 

If my memory serves me right, it originated on Andras Rajki's Huttese website. Was later used in the Star Wars: Legacy comics, and now in TFA.

 

For Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, there were multiple scenes aboard a Klingon starship, and director Leonard Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett decided they wanted a real systematic language for the Klingons instead of gibberish. They hired former linguistics professor Marc Okrand, who had already created Vulcan words that were looped into a short scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that matched the lip movements of Spock and Saavik, who had filmed the scene in English. For ST III, Okrand was given a mandate to create something guttural-sounding, and he expanded on that mandate to create a language that, through unusual phoneme and grammar choices, would seem alien to English speakers. He incorporated the handful of Klingon words created by James "Scotty" Doohan for the opening scene of Star Trek: The Motion Picture into the language, and as was the case in ST II, some of the language was created to successfully dub scenes that had been filmed in English (for example, Klingon Ha'DIbaH, "animal," was created to dub over Kruge's use of the English word).

Do you mean Basic/English loanwords in SW conlangs, or conlang words in Basic/English?

Either way, I don't see this as a problem so much as an opportunity for some interesting diachronic linguistics in the hand of a deft author, and as a nice way to retcon some ... less creative choices in those conlangs. (There's no way, to my eye, that "chik yungee" meant "dancing girl" in Huttese before cross-pollination with Basic speakers.)

Grr. When Karen Traviss first announced that she was creating a Mandalorian language on the old Official Site message boards, I happily provided a number of links to websites that would be helpful in creating a language and avoiding common pitfalls. Her response was basically that she knew what she was doing and, regardless, was far enough along that she wouldn't be changing things. And sure enough, when Mando'a dropped, it was basically a relexification of English, whose sole grammatical quirk was a lack of gender marking. Whee.

I've never developed a conlang for an existing universe, but I've got a functional sketch of one language and the start of a sketch for another for my own SF setting. And, ironically in light of your comment, GURPS stats for the species that speak them. ;-)

No, and I really don't blame Burtt for not doing more to make Huttese functional, because when he was doing it, the Secret Vice of conlanging was still secret enough that there were no resources for those looking to do it themselves. But that's no longer true; conlangs have enough visibility today that those wanting to create more than a lazy relexification of English have the established wisdom of several decades of conlangers to build upon. Websites like Zompist.com's Language Construction Kit (or for those scared of websites, its more detailed dead tree version) lay out the basics and point out how to avoid common mistakes in an easily understood manner.

A little more information on Lin Manuel Miranda (!) digging up Huttese lyrics from a fansite for the song can be found here. I was originally pointed to that article by SummerWermo of The Complete Wermo's Guide to Huttese & Other Star Wars Languages fame, and given both her site's comprehensiveness and its prominence in online searches for the langauge, I would be surprised if it wasn't the unnamed source of Miranda's Huttese.

 

Yes, you're right about that. Neverthreless, the phrase "Umo ji muna" (for "I love you") used in SW: Legacy definitely belong to Andras Rajki's system; his page is now gone, but here's a link to an archived version. As you'll see, "muni" actually orignated with Rajki, and is absent from the Wermo's Guide canon dictionary for a reason: it wasn't used anywhere before.

 

I don't think I've ever gotten Gratuitous Foreign Words Overdose from any work like I have from Karen Traviss' Star Wars books.

The fact that she apparently wasn't even very good at creating a new language is icing on the cake.

 

One possibility is that I think SW could use is using lesser know languages instead of a made up one; like Finnish, Icelandic, Welch, most African languages, the Baltic languages, Swedish, etc. If you also use it with phonetically written dialects, or (in the case of audio media) put it through a voice changer, will it even be less recognised.

Yes.

My main problem is that it lack words like: god; spirit; spiritual power; magic; ghost (or really any kind of undead); priest; luck; bad luck; and soul. That there seems to be no loan words in mando'a is also vexing

There is not even a word for the Force or that could be used as a substitute for it. How is a mando supposed to say "That Jedi didn't really beat me, she cheated using the Force" if there is no word for the Force?

Also, that the mando'a word for Sith is dar'jetii, literally meaning no longer a Jedi to my understanding, which feels more like Traviss was trying to make a point then actual language evolution to me.

I lack the knowledge and discipline needed to create a conlang so I work with slang (either stolen from other, RL or made up by myself) and RL languages that I know. SW is surprisingly lacking in slang.

 

Whoops, I didn't mean that as a correction, but as additional information.

They did this with Sullustese and Haya for the films, though they walked it back in Legends. The problem with that is Star Wars is everywhere, so at some point it's going to be shown to native speakers of that language and they'll just hear the words for what they are. There's also a minefield of possible issues of minority representation if this isn't done with extreme care.

Lacking a word for the Force is indeed a little odd. Anyone with the Mandalorians' reputation for taking on Jedi should have a word for that thing that Jedi do that they can't.

There are a lot of weird word origins in real world languages. I wouldn't sweat this one too much, though really, a loanword would be a better choice here.

Another thing that WEG got right; they included several lists of slang and jargon throughout their works, tailored to certain groups.

If you have any interest in conlanging beyond slang, I do encourage you to look at the Language Construction Kit, linked above. I think you will find it provides a lot of the basic knowledge needed to get started.

 

Personally I would find it wonderful if I realised that person speaking was talking Swedish with a thick dialect.

And regarding minority representation s was non of the languages that I mentioned by name a minority language.

Also have you seen this, the part I think you would be interested in start at ca. 4:20

Maybe later.

 

I'm interested in the "-aaan/-on" and "-ooine" thing for planet naming. They're all close enough to come from the same root, and too common to not be given some sort of thought IU.

 

Perhaps a result of the Pius Dea era or human stellar cartography around say 10,000 BBY?

 

Yes, it is very similar to the 'stans' in real life.

 

-istan, -land, -ia

 

I wish we'd seen a full Vong languages.