Skip to main content

star wars - What language does Greedo speak?


In the Clone Wars S03E04, Greedo speaks English Galactic Basic/Common. However, in "A New Hope", Greedo speaks... well, whatever he speaks, it's not English. What language is it, and also, does he manage to un-learn English in the next 20 years?



Answer



Greedo is probably speaking Huttese in A New Hope. I say probably because there doesn't seem to be a canonical source that explicitly states the language in use.


Supporting, but not conclusive evidence for this:




  • several of Greedo's lines appear on the "Speaking Huttese" page at Wookieepedia

  • Wookieepedia also lists Huttese as one of the primary languages for Greedo's people, the Rodians. It cites the Galactic Phrase and Travel Guide for this information, which is a licensed work but not canon -- yet apparently explicitly states that Greedo's part of this conversation is Huttese.

  • he is currently in employ of a Hutt (Jabba), who is never seen speaking anything else.

  • other collaboratively-edited sites (such as IMDB) typically state it as Huttese in their quotes.


Detracting evidence:



  • the script simply lists "a foreign tongue", but this is one of only a few occurrences of non-English dialogue.

  • the novelisation makes out that they are both speaking the same language, or makes no mention of Greedo speaking something different.


  • Rodians didn't even have a name until after the film came out. It first appeared in an RPG supplement. Like a lot of other things to do with Star Wars, people have built up much around it that isn't necessarily supported by the original sources.


Anyway... That he chose to speak this language to Han can not be taken as evidence that he didn't know Galactic Basic at this time -- he knew Han would be able to understand, and was able to understand Han's responses to him. Particularly the blaster bolt.


Huttese is the second most common language in the galaxy. Choosing to address Han in this language has no disadvantage.


In his appearance in the Clone Wars TV series he is talking to people who are somewhat more removed from the criminal spheres in which knowing Huttese is expected. Talking to Chairman Papanoida in Basic is necessary here.


Plus, there's really no need to make us read in a cartoon, is there?


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...