Editing Languages in Star Wars (section)

== Development ==
Language development was approached as [[sound design]] and was handled by [[Ben Burtt]], sound designer for both the original and prequel trilogies. He created the alien dialogue out of existing non-English language phrases and their sounds, such as [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]] for [[Greedo]] in the original ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' film and [[Haya language|Haya]] for the character [[Nien Nunb]] in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''.<ref name="WSJ">{{Cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-languages-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens-1452892741|title=The Languages of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'|last=Zimmer|first=Ben|author-link=Ben Zimmer|date=January 15, 2016 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |department=Word on the Street|access-date=July 25, 2016|url-access=subscription}}</ref> He also used English, as in the original ''Star Wars'', where he synthesized originally English dialogue from a [[Western (genre)|Western]] film until it sounded alien.<ref name="BanthaTracks17">{{cite magazine |first=Ken |last=Rowand |publisher=Official Star Wars Fan Club |title= Interview: Ben Burtt |magazine= Bantha Tracks|issue=17|page= 2|date= August 1982}}</ref> Burtt said of the process: "It usually meant doing some research and finding an existing language or several languages which were exotic and interesting, something that our audience — 99 percent of them — would never understand."<ref name="MTV">{{cite web|last1=Katzoff|first1=Tami|title='Return Of The Jedi' Turns 30: Secrets Of Ewok Language Revealed!|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/1708006/star-wars-return-jedi-ewok-language-secrets/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504233818/http://www.mtv.com/news/1708006/star-wars-return-jedi-ewok-language-secrets/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 4, 2014|publisher=[[MTV]]|access-date=July 26, 2016|date=May 24, 2013}}</ref>

This methodology to create the sound of [[alien language]]s was carried into production of ''[[Star Wars: The Force Awakens|The Force Awakens]]''. Director [[J. J. Abrams]] asked [[Sara Forsberg]], who lacked a professional background in linguistics but created the [[viral video]] series "What Languages Sound Like to Foreigners" on [[YouTube]], to develop alien dialogue spoken by Indonesian actor [[Yayan Ruhian]].<ref name="WSJ" /> Forsberg was asked to listen to "Euro-Asian languages", and she drew from [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Hindi languages|Hindi]], and other Asian languages<ref name="Variety">{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/news/star-wars-sara-maria-forsberg-language-1201663521/|title='Star Wars': YouTube Star Creates New Language For Aliens|last=Rizzo|first=Carita|date=December 16, 2015|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|access-date=July 25, 2016}}</ref> as well as [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] and [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]], Ruhian's [[First language|native language]].<ref name="WSJ" /> She also listened to languages she did not understand to better structure the words and sentences to sound believable.<ref name="Variety" />

During production of the prequel trilogy, Lucas insisted that written text throughout the films look as dissimilar from the [[English alphabet]] as possible and strongly opposed English-looking characters in screens and signage. In developing typefaces for use in [[Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones|''Episode II – Attack of the Clones'']], including Mandalorian and Geonosian scripts, graphic artist Philip Metschan created alphabets that did not have twenty-six letters like the English alphabet.<ref name="Metschan" />