Editing Languages in Star Wars (section)

===Ewokese===
The [[Ewok]]s of the forest moon of [[Endor (Star Wars)|Endor]] speak a "primitive dialect" of one of the more than six million other forms of communication that [[C-3PO]] is familiar with.  Ben Burtt, ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''{{'}}s sound designer, created the Ewok language, or [[Ewokese]].

On ''Return of the Jedi'' DVD commentary track, Burtt identified the language that he heard in the BBC documentary as [[Kalmyk Oirat]], a tongue spoken by the isolated nomadic [[Kalmyks]]. He describes how, after some research, he identified an 80-year-old Kalmyk [[refugee]]. He recorded her telling folk stories in her native language, and then used the recordings as a basis for sounds that became the Ewok language and were performed by voice actors who imitated the old woman's voice in different styles. For the scene in which C-3PO speaks Ewokese, actor [[Anthony Daniels]] worked with Burtt and invented words, based on the Kalmyk recordings.<ref>Ben Burtt, DVD commentary on ''The Return of the Jedi''.</ref> In a previous scene as C-3PO levitates, the Ewoks also spoke words (such as "look", "this", and "beautiful") of [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]].

Marcia Calkovsky of the [[University of Lethbridge]] holds that Tibetan language contributed to Ewok speech along with Kalmyk, starting the story from attempts to use language samples of Native Americans and later turning to nine Tibetan women living in the San Francisco area, as well as one Kalmyk woman.<ref>{{cite book|author=Canadian Anthropology Society|title=Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUMWR1U7EVEC&pg=PA59|year=1991|publisher=Canadian Anthropology Society|page=59}}</ref> The story behind these languages' choices is referenced in Burtt's 1989 telephone interview, and many of the used Tibetan phrases translated. The initial prayer Ewoks address to C-3PO is the beginning of a Tibetan Buddhist prayer for the benefit of all sentient beings and/or [[brahmavihara|''brahmavihāra''s (or ''apramāṇa''s)]]. There is also the second quarter of a [[refuge (Buddhism)|refuge prayer]]. People of the [[Tibetan diaspora]] were puzzled, as many phrases they understood did not correlate to events on screen.