Yoda's accent

This might belong in another section, but oh well.

Since Anakin was the first and only (that we know of) Jedi not trained from birth, we can presume all Jedi padawan are taught everything they know about well...everything from their Jedi teachers. Therefore it seems logical to me they'd all speak more-or-less the same way (unless their alient philiology wouldn't allow them to). That being the case, why does Yoda talk the way he does? None of the other Jedi that we meet have his speech pattern. I can understand it on Dagobah to confuse and annoy Luke, but in the PT that wouldn't be necessary.

 

-Yoda speaks "Galactic Basic" in a distinctive manner by placing verbs (and more frequently, auxiliary verbs) after the object and subject. In linguistic typology this is the "Object Subject Verb" format. A typical example of Yoda's speech pattern is from Return of the Jedi: "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not." This speech pattern has been the source of much parody.

Straight from the Wikipedia. Hope this explains his dialect.

 

That explains what Yoda does, but not how or why he does it, which is what the poster is asking. Honestly I think this is one of those things about Yoda that will never be explained. His origins are not explained.

 

On a slight side note, it appears to me that he does this ALOT in the PT
as compared to the OT. Now of course he had a lot more lines in the PT, but
there are times on Dagobah where he speaks 'correctly'.
In the PT? I can't think of any. I think GL 'commercialized' this a little to
much in the PT. Not a gripe, just an observation.

"Around the survivors, a perimeter create!"
That cracks me up!

 

Therefore it seems logical to me they'd all speak more-or-less the same way (unless their alient philiology wouldn't allow them to).

No, no. The younglings are more apt to pick up the speech patterns of their fellow younglings than from a funny talking frog-pig teacher. And Yodas verb order is perfect when directly translated into German and Eastern European languages.

 

If we are to believe that all Jedis are brought to the Temple as babies and then are raised there,then they all should have the same accent. Where does Yoda's weird speech pattern come from?

 

Maybe Yoda wasn't trained as a baby. Only discovered later.

 

I thought it was an archaic form of Galactic Basic, because he is 900 years old...

 

Why does Shakespeare write as he does? No one spoke like he wrote it. Sure they used the same words as he does but they still use modern english. Yoda probably does it because he wants to.

 

There's a big difference between speech patterns and accents...

 

Ok so poor choice of words on my part. I meant speech pattern and not accent.

The fact that he's 800+ years old and may have (probably did) learn a different form of speech and old habits die hard. Good call on that one.

 

Actually Yoda in German is also a bit mixed around structure wise. The verbs do not ALWAYS go at the end in German. Anyway they mix up his sentences a bit in German as well to yield the same effect.

 

Good question. Perhaps Yoda has been around for so long and has gained so much wisdom that talking in the manner that he does is wiser. If anyone can listen to Yoda's dialect in all the SW fils he's been a part of, it would seem that if he talked 'regular' he would seem less wise.

 

I always assumed his species was incapable of talking the 'normal' way, despite doing it a lot in Empire and Jedi. I think he almost became a self-parody of himself, much the way Anthony Daniels performance of Threepio became him doing an impression of the character from earlier movies. (What I mean by that is, Mr. Daniels heard his voice in the early movies for over 20 years, as it was altered by Ben Burtt to sound mechanical, and then in the later films, Mr. Daniels seems to be imitating the way Threepio sounded in early movies.)

 

maybe thats how his sentences are structured in his native language(if he has one)

 

Yoda is supposed to be 900 years old. and that's the way that people talked when he was growing up. it's Old Skool.


and here's a few examples of Yoda speaking "correctly" in the prequels.

"Everything. Fear is the path to the dark side... fear leads to anger... anger leads to hate.. hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you."

"Young Skywalker's fate will be decided later."

"The Dark Side clouds everything."

"It's a flaw more and more common among Jedi."

"How embarrassing... how embarrassing. Liam, the shades. An interesting puzzle. Gather, younglings, around the map reader."

"Only a Jedi could have erased those files."

"Something terrible has happened. Young Skywalker is in pain. Terrible pain."

"The fear of loss is a path to the dark side."

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force."

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

"A little more knowledge might light our way."

"An old friend has learned the path to immortality."

 

and here's a few examples of Yoda speaking "correctly" in the prequels.


So he has unlearned what he had learned. Being around people useing a different verb order would influence his speech after a while.

Anyway they mix up his sentences a bit in German as well to yield the same effect.


I always wondered what they did.

 

I think that Yoda's speech is something to do with his homeworld or the race he is. In the Jedi Quest books Yaddle is the same species as Yoda and she also talks like Yoda.

 

But you have to remember, it's also possible that Yaddle is from the generation that Archaic Galactic Basic was used.

 

This is the best answer for the "yoda speak", and the only one that really makes sense. Nicely done.

A lack of youngling accent is likely due to the fact that they are taught to talk by someone without any accent like a droid. They likely pick up any accent (like obi-wan) from their later teachers. Speach pattern is difficult, but not impossible to change so it's quite possible that there are some jedi that do speak like Yoda.

There's still no explination for why the clones talk with an accent...

 

They could have watched training videos hosted by Jango Fett.

 

More than I gave the little frog credit for! Thanks.

 

Yoda's voice always amuses me. He's 900 years old, but he never learnt to speak properly. On Dagobah I used to think he did it just to trick Luke into not thinking he's a Jedi Master, but even in dramatic scenes in the PT he does it. It being an archaic form is quite a clever explanation, but for somebody who talks about unlearning what you have learnt, you'd think he'd get with the times.

It's just part of his character I always figure. Something that makes him iconic far beyond the fact he's a small green muppet. People always remember the way he speaks.

And it is quite funny; 900 years, and he still can't speak like the rest of the galaxy. That's some major speech impediment.

 

Uh huh. And your point would be...
The only way the clones would have an accent like Jango's would be if Jango taught each and every one of them to talk. Since we saw that the clones learn everything through a computer assisted program, they shouldn't have accents at all. Or, at the very most, they should have that wierd drawn out way of talking like the Kaminoans if you assume that they spent a lot of time with them.

Boba makes sense. 1.2 million units of others do not.