SW Basic = English

[Jim Raynor]

There are people who think that SW Basic is English, and then there are those who believe that they are not, pointing out the different writing in the SW universe. And they are right in that English and SW writing is nothing alike. I've also seen explanations for the Rebel "alphabet-wing" fighters, saying that the fighter names are derived from SW characters that just so happen to be similar to real-life letters, and that the name we hear is just a translation. However, I'm convinced that orally, Basic and English are exactly the same. Why? Because of the lip movements of the characters who are speaking. This is undeniable visual evidence. We know that they're saying those words, since the actors really said them. Now I can't read lips, but someone who can could probably figure out what they're saying even if the sound was muted. How the people in the SW galaxy are speaking English is mystery to me.

[Mr Bean]

Its Irony pure and simple

Like how a planet can end up with the name France yet be home to a Bloody thirsty bunch of Warmongers who kick ass and take names

[Darth Garden Gnome]

Let me just start off by saying I do notbeieve Basic is English. If you want Star Wars with subtitles, your weird, so no there not gonna speak in some weird alien dialect.

Lips moving Jim? Please. Unless you want this to look like Godzilla!

[japaneses guy] Oh my god-(lips begin moving)! Its Gozdzilla! Wha-(lips stop moving)tever will we do! Is the-(lips start moving)re anything that can save us! (5 seconds later, lips stop miving) [/japanese guy]

I say thee neigh! Thats not the movie I want, and it ssilly to assume that GL would make the actors learn a new language (or just move there lips) so he can do the movie, or put there voice over, perhaps poorly, ala Godzilla.

I believe the fighter situation, ie-X-Wing, Y-Wing....can be solved similarly. What sounds cooler: Daboojda-Wing (made up number), or X-Wing? Because unless you want your Daboojda-Wings flying aroud, you get my point.

[FireNexus]

Suspension of disbelief, my friend.

We saw them speaking english in the movie, thus they did.

[Ender]

Its Irony pure and simple

Like how a planet can end up with the name France yet be home to a Bloody thirsty bunch of Warmongers who kick ass and take names

No, that is Germany. France kisses ass and preys for another country to come to it's aid.

[Mr Bean]

No, that is Germany. France kisses ass and preys for another country to come to it's aid.

You don't understand what Irony is do you ender? For shame!

[Soontir C'boath]

Anyone know a place that translate Basic writing or there is none?

Cyaround,
Jason

[Darth Yoshi]

Suspension of disbelief, my friend.

We saw them speaking english in the movie, thus they did.

Oh, please. If that's the case, then Trekkies are right when they say Turbolasers are lasers because they have the word laser in the name.

[IRG CommandoJoe]

Basic is not the same as English. Just because they speak English does not mean that Basic is supposed to be the exact same language as English. If you watched a WWII movie and saw Nazis speaking English with an accent, this does not mean they are really supposed to be speaking English. They are supposed to be speaking German. The directors just don't want the audience to read subtitles. Same case in SW. And they would have to invent up a whole new language to boot. Face it: SW would kinda suck if the characters spoke in a whole different language. The acting would be really weird. Such phrases as, "I am your father," followed by "Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!," just wouldn't have the same effect if it were, "Gord heg loocha usso." followed by "Nechaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Jim Raynor]

Basic is not the same as English. Just because they speak English does not mean that Basic is supposed to be the exact same language as English. If you watched a WWII movie and saw Nazis speaking English with an accent, this does not mean they are really supposed to be speaking English. They are supposed to be speaking German. The directors just don't want the audience to read subtitles. Same case in SW. And they would have to invent up a whole new language to boot. Face it: SW would kinda suck if the characters spoke in a whole different language. The acting would be really weird. Such phrases as, "I am your father," followed by "Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!," just wouldn't have the same effect if it were, "Gord heg loocha usso." followed by "Nechaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yet in those same movies, those Nazis are perfectly capable of speaking with American POWs. People from different countries or even different planets communicating in English is one of those unwritten laws of Hollywood. And I'm not just saying that SW people speak English because that's what we hear, it's backed up by the visual evidence of how their lips move when they speak. Yes, it would suck if everyone in the SW movies spoke in some imaginary alien language. But you know what else would suck? Seeing starships duke it out from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, accurately hitting their targets with boring standoff attacks. This is a favorite excuse Trekkies use to explain away the piss poor combat ranges seen in ST battles, and it goes against the entire idea of suspending belief and accepting what we see on screen as truth. Real life concerns about entertaining the audience shouldn't factor into debates.

[FireNexus]

It's simply the matter of suspension of disbelief. The name of a technology doesn't fall into that. It's called a turbolaser, so what? It doesn't exhibit the properties of a laser.

However, they speak english. Their mouths move in english.

So basic is english. Perhaps the written language is different, but that isn't the issue.

But for all intents and purposes, without a shadow of a doubt, those people are speaking english.

[Cpt_Frank]

Baah, english isn't basic, if you go after the movement of the lips, then basic could also be french, german or russian etc. in those synchronized versions the movement of the lips also fits the spoken words (that's why the translation of the dialogues in movies usually aren't word by word, but only conserve the meaning of the sentence).
If you now suspend disbelief you could say:
the characters speak basic but they are perfectly synchronized so that it seems as if they were really speaking english/french/german etc.

[Lusankya]

I have star wars original trilogy monoploly, which has "basic" writing on it - it's the Roman alphabet, just using different symbols.

Though I'm not sure how official that source is, of course.

[Howedar]

The fact that writing is completely different from English (on the screens in ROTJ for example) indicates that the language is not English, but was translated for our benefit so we could understand that damn movie.

[Howedar]

that=the

[Autochton]

The writing is called Aurabesh, btw, for those not in the know.

I support that Galactic Basic is not English. This does take place in a GFFA, and as anyone versed in English language history can tell you, it is a bastardized mix of the various Celtic languages of the Brit Isles, a few Germanic languages prominent among them Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings), Norman French, as well as a multitude of others. This constellation came about through a very particular combination of political, linguistic and social incidences, and only looks as it does now because, well, now is now. It will look different in a mere 100 years from now, and looked different 100 years ago.

Even if we take Mike Wong's fanfic as gospel, which might provide a somewhat useful explanation for an Anglic language being in use in such a distant place, the permutations it would have gone through over the course of a 30,000+ year history would be enough to make it all but irrecognizable. It took a mere 1500 years for Roman Latin to turn into modern Italian, which I'm guessing that hardly any Roman from the 5th century would recognize.

Also, the radically different script seen used in the movies support that the movies are 'dubbed' to English.

</2cents>

[Jim Raynor]

The writing is called Aurabesh, btw, for those not in the know.

I support that Galactic Basic is not English. This does take place in a GFFA, and as anyone versed in English language history can tell you, it is a bastardized mix of the various Celtic languages of the Brit Isles, a few Germanic languages prominent among them Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings), Norman French, as well as a multitude of others. This constellation came about through a very particular combination of political, linguistic and social incidences, and only looks as it does now because, well, now is now. It will look different in a mere 100 years from now, and looked different 100 years ago.

Even if we take Mike Wong's fanfic as gospel, which might provide a somewhat useful explanation for an Anglic language being in use in such a distant place, the permutations it would have gone through over the course of a 30,000+ year history would be enough to make it all but irrecognizable. It took a mere 1500 years for Roman Latin to turn into modern Italian, which I'm guessing that hardly any Roman from the 5th century would recognize.

Also, the radically different script seen used in the movies support that the movies are 'dubbed' to English.

</2cents>

What if the person saying "A long time ago" was really from the distant future? In that case, couldn't SW humans have originated from English speaking peoples on Earth who were somehow abducted and taken to soem other galaxy? And why must a language transform so radically just because Earth languages did? Not that SW doesn't have its own diffrences, with lots of alien names and slang (.5 past lightspeed is obviously different than what it would mean if someone in real life said it.).

[Jim Raynor]

Baah, english isn't basic, if you go after the movement of the lips, then basic could also be french, german or russian etc. in those synchronized versions the movement of the lips also fits the spoken words (that's why the translation of the dialogues in movies usually aren't word by word, but only conserve the meaning of the sentence).
If you now suspend disbelief you could say:
the characters speak basic but they are perfectly synchronized so that it seems as if they were really speaking english/french/german etc.

What do you mean by synchronized? As in translations for foreigners only conserve the meaning of the words so that the speaking starts and stops with the character's mouth? That still doesn't refute my point. It's not just the speaking matching the opening/closing of the mouth, it's also the different positions in which the lips must be in to produce certain sounds. Someone who could read lips would easily be able to verify that they are speaking in English.

And Howedar, the fact that the writing is different does not have anything to do with the spoken language. Sounds don't innately correspond to certain symbols, which are arbitrarily assigned by man. They might have different writing, but still speak the same.

[Darth Garden Gnome]

Jim, are you really taking this argument seriously? Its rather silly. They have diffrent writing, which while doesn't necessarily mean they speak a diffrent language, it helps out the idea.

And what are the odds that an a galaxy on the other side of the univers (speculation) would have the same language as ours? I mean our own Earth has dozens, if not hundreds of diffrent languages, so its silly to assume that a diffrent galaxy would have one of our own planet!

I can say, with 99.99999999999+% ceratainty, that Basic is not English.

[IRG CommandoJoe]

Hehehe....if you REALLY want to debate this, there was written English on the computer console in ANH when Obi-Wan Kenobi shut down the tractor beam. Mwuahahahahahaha..........[/i]

[Darth Garden Gnome]

*bonks IRG* SHOOSH! That was a typo.

[IRG CommandoJoe]

[Lord of the Farce]

One theory:
http://www.starwars.com/community/askjc ... 11210.html

[Jim Raynor]

Jim, are you really taking this argument seriously? Its rather silly. They have diffrent writing, which while doesn't necessarily mean they speak a diffrent language, it helps out the idea.

And what are the odds that an a galaxy on the other side of the univers (speculation) would have the same language as ours? I mean our own Earth has dozens, if not hundreds of diffrent languages, so its silly to assume that a diffrent galaxy would have one of our own planet!

I can say, with 99.99999999999+% ceratainty, that Basic is not English.

Yes, I am taking it seriously since there's actual visual evidence supporting my position. I do agree that it would be silly for a different civilization in another galaxy to share the same language as us. But it's also silly to have humanity, which definately developed here on Earth, in the SW galaxy as well. So if humans are in SW, why can't human languages be as well?

[jegs2]

So far as Engilish in the original trilogy is concerned, I believe that Lucas wasn't thinking that many people (like us) would be agonizing over whether or not English was the language of the Empire, and so........

Oversight, pure and simple. They seem to have corrected that error with the prequils.