One odd thing I've noticed in the OT is that there seems to be varying ways characters' name are pronounced. For example, there are times when Han Solo's name is pronounced with a short a (Han) and times when it's said with a long a (Hahn, which is how I prefer to say it and seems to be the standard way people say it). And when Lando first appears on the Cloud City landing pad in TESB, he introduces himself as Lando Calreesian, pronouncing the first i as a long e. But then when he calls for the evacuation of Cloud City later in the same film, he refers to himself as Lando Calrissian, pronouncing the first i as a short i which is how I've heard it pronounced by other people and in various media. What I'm wondering is how these issues came about. Did the actors misspeak and the editors just left the errors in? Did Lucas have conflicting pronunciations of Han and Lando's names in the scripts and this bled over into the movie?
I don't think they are 'errors'. Leia is likewise said two ways. It simply shows not everyone is from the same place. Just like life.
That doesn't explain why the same person says the same word two different ways though. An alternative explanation - one pronunciation is "traditionally upper class", one is "traditionally lower class" - Lando is showing off when he uses the one, and reverting to "his normal mode of speech" when he uses the other.
A real-world explanation was that Lucas and the other two CT directors didn't give the actors proper direction. Lucas, for example, says "DOE-koo" in his AOTC commentary. He apparently didn't tell the actors how he pronounces Dooku or Naboo. But for the sake of the story, I'm going with Cushy and Iron Lord's explanations.
Right. Lucas wasn't so anal retentive that he demanded them to be pronounced a certain way. He, Kershner and Marquand just went with the flow.
I've always found this a fascinating subject. I guess Lucas didn't really care if the name were pronounced consistently. I always figured the British cast were the ones who pronounced it "Leeah", that explained that. I've always kinda figured Billy Dee wasn't the best at remembering lines, so when he kept pronouncing it "Haan", they figured "Why mess up the take over his choice of pronunciation." What's funniest is once he's in a scene with any of the others, they quickly revert to calling him "Haan" even if they never do elsewhere in the saga. (Leia: "What about Haan?" 3PO: "We're trying to save Haan from the Bounty Hunter!") It's funny but my mother chose the "alternate" pronunciations when I was a kid (Leeah, Haan ) so I often find myself reverting back to using those versions.
The Doku one has a reason, because Doku means something rude in Portugeese. I can't remember what though.
Indeed. But this whole conversation is getting sophomoric. At least we're not being so serious about things anymore.
Tarantino purposely has this kind of stuff in his films to lend a certain b-movie swagger to them. Maybe George did likewise.
How IS Leah (that spelling) pronounced anyways? At work I see it and the Star Wars nerd in me wants to say Lay-uh but I've also heard Lee-uh. If I'm recalling correctly, the Prequels do it too but I'm forgetting the examples.
