While we can debate all day whether Star Wars constitutes a western, science fiction, or fantasy, the military aspect of the franchise has always been close to its core. While the fine ends of galactic military procedure are seldom spelled out, we constantly see hints at an implied cohesive system. Such worldbuilding is often better left vague, but we as fans never seem satisfied with these unsolved mysteries. We consistently see cryptic code words and technobabble thrown around in the GFFA. One such system often hinted at is a phonetic alphabet, standard amongst Earth militaries. While such a system has never been revealed in Star Wars, to my knowledge, I believe we have the tools to arrive at a reasonable approximation. The Star Wars Phonetic Alphabet (SWPA), as I'll be calling it, seems to be inspired by the NATO phonetic alphabet. However, it almost certainly couldn't be a one to one copy. The NATO alphabet has many illusions to Earth culture and geography that would baffle any galactic resident. Additionally, the most common alphabet in the GFFA is Aurebesh, which has an additional 8 letters not found in the standard Latin alphabet (the sounds "ch", "Æ", "eo", "kh", "ng", "oo", "sh", and "th"). With this in mind, the SWPA would need to replace several NATO letters while accounting for the 8 Aurebesh-exclusive letters. The NATO Alphabet is as follows. Spoiler Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliet Kilo Lima Mike November Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey X-ray Yankee Zulu I provided sources for most of the letters' inclusion in the SWPA. Some I couldn't find a source for, but barring a superior candidate, I see no reason they wouldn't be used. The letters in bold, however, would likely make little sense in the GFFA. Mike and Oscar are names that don't seem to be very common among the galactic populace. Romeo and Juliet belong to a story that doesn't exist in the GFFA to my knowledge (I'd be happy to be proven wrong). India, Lima and Quebec are strictly Earth locales. Yankee, similarly, refers to a certain Terran nationality. Golf may exist in the Star Wars universe, but it doesn't seem to be particularly common; there are many other sports that would sooner warrant inclusion IMHO. November seems unlikely to me. I can't recall the use of Earth months, but I may be wrong. Either way, it's clear that different planets often have unique month systems. The presence or absence of "November" will definitely depend on how months work in the GFFA. While included, "Zulu" is certainly of note. I'd wager it belongs to a mythical tribe from humanity's mysterious past. All that remains are the eight Aurebesh letters: "ch", "Æ", "eo", "kh", "ng", "oo", "sh", and "th". The real debate here is what words to assign to the 18 or so letters missing from the SWPA. Certainly taking a close look at Star Wars fiction will reveal great candidates for missing letters. Additionally, there are many naming conventions found among Galactic militaries that can help us solve this mystery. One good resource is @Pellaeon-Firke's thread on the matter. Notably, Pellaeon points out that "Naboo" and "Ithor" were used in Enemy Lines. Most of the letters may very well come from the Greek Tionese alphabet. Indeed, Tionese letters are very common among Imperial starfighters, clone troopers, and many other groups. Other options are obviously planets. For example, I'd argue that "Rail" could represent the letter "R", since we have Rail-class ARC Troopers, preceded by Alpha-class ARCs. As it stands, here are the letters I think we need to find codes for: Spoiler -G -I -J -L -M -N -O -Q -R -Y -Ch -Æ -Eo -Kh -Ng -Oo -Sh -Th For this discussion, I'd like to know how y'all think this should be handled. Are there good codes in Star Wars that fit the missing letters? How should we go about patching the holes? Did I miss anything? Is "golf" actually a logical candidate?
It presumably doesn't carry the same connotations, but the name Romeo does exist in the GFFA. Running with the Rail-class ARC idea, though, would presumably also give us Null for "N". Omega would make sense to me, too.
Just throwing out whatever pops into my head: -G galaxy -I ion -J junior -L lava -M meteor -N nova -O optic -Q queen -R robot -Y young -Ch cheese -Æ aether -Eo eopter (I just made that up) -Kh khalid -Ng ngennifer (See note to Eo) -Oo oopsy -Sh shatter -Th thimble
I really like that idea, but Triple Zero heavily implies the Kaminoans simply chose the name to indicate the Nulls' defectiveness. Very solid on all accounts! "Ion", in particular, would be a great fit! If anything, in a place as large as the Star Wars galaxy, there are likely several different phonetic alphabets used by different groups, each with different versions over time. Additionally, different scripts like High Galactic, Huttese, Tionese, and so on would likely have their own variations. So while "Alpha" might be standard for the Republic military, The Centrality may have used "Able".
Edit: While Golf might technically exist in star wars, the main star wars equivalent seems to be Greenput, which would work well as a replacement I think.
WEG's old Adventure Journals once featured a miniatures scenario in which the Rebel squads Darius, Nomad, and Parody (!) were pitted against the Imperial squads Baung, Grung, and Tharlst. Nomad could be the "N". (Grung could also be the 'G', but honestly I agree with Havac there that the Imperial squad names just sound kind of nasty, and not in the normal 'ISD Malevolence' sense. Though I also seconded the opinion that they could all originate from the same non-Basic language or alphabet).
Can we not use any person names whatsoever? mental note this time not to date anyone with a name on the phonetic alphabet by making sure there are NONE on the alphabet
