Do you speak Star Wars?
Unless you are C3-PO, fluent in more than six million forms of communication, you may not understand every Star Wars language. I’m not talking about the languages spoken in the saga such as Shyriiwook, Huttese, Bocce or even Binary (beep beep doop!), but the languages into which the Star Wars films have been translated.
Take the title of the saga, for example. Whereas in most languages the translation has kept the words “war” and “stars” (La guerre des étoiles in French, Krieg der Sterne in German, and Guerre stellari in Italian, for example) the Spanish translation refers to the war of the galaxies (La guerra de las galaxias).
These names are only used in the titles of the original trilogy, however. The subsequent prequels were named Star Wars (in English), followed by the translation of the episode title into the respective language. Despite this, the saga is normally still referred to by the original names in most countries as this display of posters shows.
When it comes to translating character or vehicle names, there was some degree of variation, particularly with the first Star Wars film. The German translation referred to the Millennium Falcon as Rasender Falke (Speeding Falcon), and the French had the Millennium Condor (Le Millennium Condor).
The French translators didn’t stop there: Han Solo became Yan Solo, Chewbacca was known as Chiktabba (and his “Chewie” diminutive “Chico”), and – most puzzlingly – Jabba the Hutt’s name was translated as Jabba the Forester (Jabba le Forestier), perhaps because translators assumed Jabba lived in a hut in a forest somewhere.
Unless you are C3-PO, fluent in more than six million forms of communication, you may not understand every Star Wars language. I’m not talking about the languages spoken in the saga such as Shyriiwook, Huttese, Bocce or even Binary (beep beep doop!), but the languages into which the Star Wars films have been translated.
Take the title of the saga, for example. Whereas in most languages the translation has kept the words “war” and “stars” (La guerre des étoiles in French, Krieg der Sterne in German, and Guerre stellari in Italian, for example) the Spanish translation refers to the war of the galaxies (La guerra de las galaxias).
These names are only used in the titles of the original trilogy, however. The subsequent prequels were named Star Wars (in English), followed by the translation of the episode title into the respective language. Despite this, the saga is normally still referred to by the original names in most countries as this display of posters shows.
When it comes to translating character or vehicle names, there was some degree of variation, particularly with the first Star Wars film. The German translation referred to the Millennium Falcon as Rasender Falke (Speeding Falcon), and the French had the Millennium Condor (Le Millennium Condor).
The French translators didn’t stop there: Han Solo became Yan Solo, Chewbacca was known as Chiktabba (and his “Chewie” diminutive “Chico”), and – most puzzlingly – Jabba the Hutt’s name was translated as Jabba the Forester (Jabba le Forestier), perhaps because translators assumed Jabba lived in a hut in a forest somewhere.
