Not to mention that a parsec is a unit of distance. Which must mean he took a shortcut that no-one before him had been able to accomplish.

Also. In the original now decanonized novelization of a new hope - there were mention of ducks.

Meh - the Star Wars galaxy has humans, so why not ducks? Personally, I think real-world animals are fine. Just add some exotic-sounding descriptor, like womp rat, or Corellian sand panther. For some reason, though, it kind of bugged me when Luke drank hot chocolate in Heir to the Empire .

He could've been drinking an extract from Alderaan blackseed fruit, but then the author would have to spend a bit of time on what exactly is that. "Chocolate" immediately gives a point of reference to the reader. The same with "duck" - when you see "Naboo duck" you immediately know what kind of bird it is and how it behaves. If instead it was an exotic name the reader would have no idea wtf the author is talking about.

Exactly. That's why I would've preferred something like "Alderaanian chocolate." The oft-used "caff," I think is perfect - we assume that it's a coffee-like beverage, but don't call it coffee.

I think Costi makes a good point: Authors often have to conserve detail to points of character development in order to keep the reader engaged.

Even terms like light-saber are made with this streamlining in mind.

What is it? A saber.

What does it look like? Beam of light.

Hmmmmm....

Let's call it, the Huanheliostaticticplasloopconvertercrystalmachine.

... Genius.

Lightsaber is actually an example of what I was talking about - not exactly a real-world term like duck, but close enough that the audience understands what it is. In my opinion, it doesn't take a lot of effort to come up with them.

Let's assume for a moment that Star Wars is real, in a galaxy far far away, set a long time ago.

Then there is no chance that galaxy is populated by humans, that speak English, and that actually look a lot like second grade actors from the 70s.

In order to being able to metabolize that impossibility, let's assume that what we see or hear in the movies is a visual translation of what the story actually meant to be.

That is, the humans in Star Wars aren't really humans, but a species that fundamentally has the same set of traits and flaws as humans do. They look like humans in the movies because they needed to use human actors, and didn't bother putting a lot of make up on them to make them look different.

Then we can perform the same mental exercise with Greek letters, Latin letters shapes, animal names, etc.

The empire used letter or symbol designations for their different flight groups during a mission. In order not to overwhelm the viewer with explanations about what Aure, Besh, Kesh, is... they use Greek letters. So the viewer gets the idea that the Empire uses absolutely non-creative designations, just like the kind of names that are given to the different constants in math.

Probably there is something in Star Wars that is clearly shaped like an Incom T-65, and something that is clearly shaped like a Koensayr BTL-A4. Then pilots call their ships with the names of those things that remind the shape of the ship, because it is shorter to say that, whatever it is, than to say "Koesayr BTL-A4". But because we, the audience, know nothing about the Star Wars universe, the "translators" opt for picking something else in our culture that reminds the shape of those fighters. X-Wing, Y-Wing, Starwing, etc. Who knows, maybe there is something in the Star Wars universe that totally looks like a B-Wing, but our "translators" drew themselves into a corner when they decided to use latin letters and now it makes no sense. Lost in translation, as they say.

Not to mention that a parsec is a unit of distance. Which must mean he took a shortcut that no-one before him had been able to accomplish.

That's how it's retconned, yeah.

An X-wing is so called because it looks like the letter X.

In a universe with a language that has no letter X.

Hrrrmmmm...

There are apparently some sources that talk about how (what we call) the Roman alphabet exists in the Star Wars universe in much the same way we use the Greek alphabet today - it's a very fancy set of letters that are used in a few specific places. We use Greek letters as math symbols and representations for a lot of technical things. Presumably, people in Star Wars use the Roman alphabet (or whatever they call it) in a similar manner. Hence, X-Wings, Y-Wings, etc.

http://completewermosguide.com/

Your complete guide to languages of SW. Huttese, Mando'a, Bocce etc.

Let's assume for a moment that Star Wars is real, in a galaxy far far away, set a long time ago.

Then there is no chance that galaxy is populated by humans, that speak English, and that actually look a lot like second grade actors from the 70s.

I now want to see a bunch of second graders in a stage versions of a New Hope. Highlights:

• "Hewp me obi-one kenobi, youw ouw only hope."
• A little kid in a sh*tty cardboard r2-d2 costume falling over and not being able to get up.
• Asthmatic kid playing darth vader has to take of his helmet to use his inhaler.
• 4th grader chewbacca constantly scratching the itchy places in his costume
• Pew pew sound effects as the kids fly around in imaginary spaceships.

Coming soon to an elementary school near you!

An X-wing is so called because it looks like the letter X.

In a universe with a language that has no letter X.

Hrrrmmmm...

And TIE fighters are from Twin Ion Engines and not because Bow Ties are cool ?

Hmm... just sayin'

Aurebesh (Basic) is just one of millions of different forms of written communication in the Star Wars universe which is so old and ancient.... why can't there be X's and Upsilons??

Because George Lucas is not like Tolkien who was a professor of languages and he couldn't be bothered inventing hundreds of alien languages for Star Wars.

Because George Lucas is not like Tolkien who was a professor of languages and he couldn't be bothered inventing hundreds of alien languages for Star Wars.

Or even one.

Once you accept 'physics' of the Star Wars universe, you can't really question anything else. it is space opera.

Why in manda are there Greek letters?

ex Lambda class shuttle, epsilon squadron, etc

Exactly!

In a galaxy where they speak English even!

An X-wing is so called because it looks like the letter X.

In a universe with a language that has no letter X.

Hrrrmmmm...

There are apparently some sources that talk about how (what we call) the Roman alphabet exists in the Star Wars universe in much the same way we use the Greek alphabet today - it's a very fancy set of letters that are used in a few specific places. We use Greek letters as math symbols and representations for a lot of technical things. Presumably, people in Star Wars use the Roman alphabet (or whatever they call it) in a similar manner. Hence, X-Wings, Y-Wings, etc.

Yeah. This. The canon explanation for X's and B's and A's and Y's existing in-universe is that they came from the High Galactic alphabet (which just so happens to share some stunning similarities with our own ;P).

'Course, that's really just bogus. Let's be honest, nobody ever thought any of this through to that extent because nobody expected anyone to care.

Thing is, Star Wars DOES have an alphabet, and it's letters even have names.

So at the very least, those squadrons should use THOSE names instead.

Alpha Squadron should be Aurek Squadron. A Lambda-class Shuttle should be a Leth-class Shuttle. etc.

Yeah, and utterly ruin the suspension of disbelief. You don't stuff a story full of made up words and expect it to work. Xesh-Wing? Vev-Wing?

Besides, it's not as if actually existed during the OT.

My xwing doesnt look like a triangle, is it broken? or underpowered?

Aurebesh was made up by West End Games when they created their sourcebooks for their Star Wars RPG in the 90s. "Aurebesh" means basically the same as "Alphabet" means on Earth: just the two first letter names put together.

West End Games based it on what can be seen on the scanner screen at the beginning of Return of the Jedi when an imperial officer is scanning Vader's shuttle (or was it the Tydirium shuttle?).

They tried to make that screen actually say something meaningful, but desisted and just mapped every symbol in that shot to a latin letter.

Actually, what was on the scanner screen was actually gibberish made up for the movie shot, not meant to mean anything real. Just as someone said earlier, nobody expected anyone to care.

Then Lucasarts games started using Aurebesh too, and soon comics and other works used it.

Then in 1996 Lucas used it in the Special Edition of A New Hope in the scene where Obi Wan disables the Death Star's tractor beam, and Aurebesh entered canon, as basically English with transliterated characters.

Now, had Tolkien cared at all about Star Wars, these succession of events would likely apply a considerable angular velocity to his corpse in his grave (probably enough to power the Death Star's superlaser), considering that he first designed the languages, then from the languages he inferred the cultures that could have used those languages, and finally from those cultures he generated the stories that became the Silmarillion or the Lord of the Rings.

Star Wars is virtually in the opposite end of the "who cares"-spectrum to Tolkien, though.

Is it not possible that the galaxy far far away has some 'relation' to our galaxy (like. The first humans in that galaxy were human explorers from outer galaxy... Then basic as a cognate to English and the usage of English idioms and historical aspects (X, Lambda etc) are hang overs from the first human settlers.

Is it not possible that the galaxy far far away has some 'relation' to our galaxy (like. The first humans in that galaxy were human explorers from outer galaxy... Then basic as a cognate to English and the usage of English idioms and historical aspects (X, Lambda etc) are hang overs from the first human settlers.

So, like BSG?

Is it not possible that the galaxy far far away has some 'relation' to our galaxy (like. The first humans in that galaxy were human explorers from outer galaxy... Then basic as a cognate to English and the usage of English idioms and historical aspects (X, Lambda etc) are hang overs from the first human settlers.

So, like BSG?

Sure.. Has it been stated that humans in starwars aren't humans proper?

Thing is, Star Wars DOES have an alphabet, and it's letters even have names.

So at the very least, those squadrons should use THOSE names instead.

Alpha Squadron should be Aurek Squadron. A Lambda-class Shuttle should be a Leth-class Shuttle. etc.

Maybe they are, and just translated into English:).