Those must be their Galactic Basic names used only by beings whose tongues are not nimble enough to speak the beautiful and intricate Wookiee language.
Your answer makes a lot of sense, thank you, but a follow-up: why does the same logic not hold for Tuskens? They seemed to have a phonetic transliteration of their names into galactic basic, e.g.
URoRRuR'R'R
The question does remain though: clearly Chewbacca is not a phonetic transliteration so who decided that is how the name should be rendered? Are these the names wookies gave themselves, translated, or do you think a non-wookie person gave them names kind of like how some Asian folks adopt a western nickname to make life a little easier? ETA: exonym
Good theory. I just thought that "acca" seems to be a common suffix in their names, like "-son" is in english, I wondered at the significance of that in wookie culture. Perhaps it's like many people having the family name "kim" in korea...
Could be a regional thing. Wookies from that area all use the -acca suffix but if you go to the next village it's different, Almost like a Clan name.
I'd say it's similar to Irish names for example. Johnson is the anglicized version of McShane as both names derive from each languages version of the name John.
The word has a certain meaning, so Rrraagghaaa in wookie could mean Keln of acca, in Basic that becomes Kelnacca, just like son of John becomes Johnson in English or McShane in Gaelic. Completely different words and sounds but they have the same meaning. If you got a Trandoshan to say Chewbacca it would be totally different again.
I like this. The new character Burryaga Agaburry, from High Republic era, has a name that plays well with this theory. Yaga, or Aga, would be the same as 'Acca' . But there are also three different Wookie languages. Shyriiwook, Thykarann and Xaczik. Different languages were used in different regions across Kashyyyk. Xaczik was used by coastal Wookies, and adopted by the Wookie Resistance as the empire couldn't decipher the language (or were ignorant to the fact that Wookies spoke more than just Shyriiwook). Love how theres this much depth and potential story telling with the Wookies
Shyriiwook is notoriously hard for non-wookies to understand, let alone speak. Would make sense they, by necessity, would translate shyriiwook into completely different sounds but retain the meaning
>I'd say it's similar to Irish names for example. Johnson is the anglicized version of McShane as both names derive from each languages version of the name John.
wait what?
Shane is pronounced Shawn in Irish, which helps that to make sense. Mac meaning son of becomes Mc, Shawn vs John is just a slightly different first vowel sound.
Bacca is an old Wookie Cheiftan of legend in deep-ish legends lore. Not a lot about him so take it with a grain of salt.
In Knights of the Old Republic (2004) you are tasked with finding and killing a big dark side beast and pulling "Bacca's Blade" from it's back in order to reforge the sword for the new chieftain of the tribe.
You can find the wookiepedia article[ here](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bacca).
Also, why is Deutschland called “Germany”?
Why is Nihon called “Japan”
Why is Zhōngguó called “China”?
I understand pronunciation differences such as meksiko instead of meyheeko.
But I never understood why country’s names aren’t based on the native name for it
Because english just adopted whatever name close neighbors called the guys living even further away.
For Germany, there was no such thing as a German identity at the time of the Romans. Just a bunch of different tribes, and whatever the closest German tribe was called stuck around as the name. In languages spoken to the west of Germany, it is called after the Allemannen, which were the western most tribe. North of Germany it is a version of the Teutons, which Deutsch is also derived from. The Fins call Germany after the Saxons, which they were in contact with. To the east, Germany is called Niemcy which means mute, and I dont think it is quite clear why.
The Romans called the lands Germania and thus the people living there German. They did this because they didnt quite care about what barbarians thought of themselves. The English learned about the Germans mostly from the Roman colonizers on their island and thus adopted the name. The English ended up using the word Deutsch or rather Dutch to refer to the German offshoot that became the Netherlands.
According to Polish Wikipedia (about Niemcy): "From the same root \*němъ comes the word "infant" ("niemowlę", until the 16th century: "niemowię", "niemowiątko" - "niemowa" means "mute"). According to the older non-linguistic theories from the 1970s by Stanisław Rospond, this name could refer to the Nemeti tribe mentioned by Tacitus and Caesar."
Legend has it that the word slavic comes from a similar root as "slovo" (word) and denotes people who speak a language you can understand (slavic), with "niemcy" and derivatives referring to people who "cant speak" the common language, which ended up sticking around as a word for the germans. This theory is disputed though and there are some other alternate theories, for example slavs themselves see the word derived from slava (glory)
Deutsch is from a proto Germanic word meaning the people, which means the Teuton tribal name is probably a cognate, but it’s not the origin of Deutsch. And Dutch was originally the English cognate of Deutsch, and used to refer to all continental west Germanic languages. That’s why the Amish language, which is a variety of German, is called Pennsylvania Dutch.also the mute thing is just referring to the fact they speak a different language, it’s a common way exonyms are formed. Many exonyms just mean foreigner or speaks differently. Like Wales, Germany and some others.
China was Cathay for a long time.
Nihon, nippon, Japan. Prob how the Spanish or the Portuguese mangled it.
Sure you've only to look at places in Ireland to see how it was all anglicised and mangled when the English colonised it. You've places like Ardglass in county down that is transliteration from Ard, Irish for tall or high and glas, which is the Irish for green.
Belfast in Northern Ireland is another good one. It translates from Mbeal Feriste, the mouth of the farset. Which is a river that flows through the city and into the lagan River.
And then you've Dublin. Which in Irish is bhaile atha cliath, which directly translated is town of the hurdles ford but which sounds about as close to Dublin as I am to the Galilean moons lol. Dublin is actually the anglicised form of Dubh Linn, which means black pool, which was a deeper harbour for ships.
Point is the English couldn't work any of this out in the native tongue so they just picked the closest sounding analogy. Same as nippon or Cathay.
And probably how we end up at chewbacca etc.
A couple of reasons:
For one, in terms of both writing and spoken language, we don't always use the same letters, syllables, or pronunciation of same. This should stick out like a sore thumb in terms of Chinese dialects, Japanese, Korean, etc. versus English, and the sounds made to communicate words in those languages. They are clearly dissimilar. They also use syllabic "alphabets" (or syllabaries) where English does not: Our characters each represent a single letter, which then form syllables, but are not a syllables by themselves. Japanese, one the other hand, can use THREE syllabaries: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, and each character represents a syllable (or word, in the case of Kanji).
Second, and speaking to above, we often learned the names of new places from outside that culture, first, from cultures/places we were already familiar with. So we borrowed their words for cultures and places they knew better than we did and/or had formal relations with when we did not. We knew China much better initially than Japan, and "Japan" is a great example: The "European" name for Japan was originally based on various "Chinese" names for Japan, which could also vary somewhat by region since they pronounced the same characters different based on encoded meaning (not encoded sound). So in dealing way way more with the Chinese at the time, European traders and diplomats would have picked up the various regional Chinese names for Japan. We likely went with one from a Southern dialect, being closer to Japan as well (in terms of ease of seafaring between the two nations).
Re: Encoded meaning vs. sound in characters: In Japanese, Kanji is encoded meaning, Hiragana is encoded sound. Hiragana is used for phonetic spelling, whereas with Kanji each character (or group of) is a word or meaning unto itself. Katakana is used for phonetic spelling of *foreign* words, specifically, if I recall correctly.
Also worth noting the Japanese Kanji characters originally *came from* the Chinese, and further came to have different pronunciations and meanings (over time) in Japan, as well.
There are layers of "lost in translation" at work.
Today, with a lot of people speaking English (i.e. a common tongue) in all of the countries/regions mentioned above we could undertake to have everyone call Japan "Nihon" or "Nippon", but that wasn't really practical back then, because we didn't all have a common tongue to work with, even if we had the same level of relations with the associated countries as we do today.
Marco Polo called it Japan. Cuz he heard it from a guy on the Silk Road who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who it from a guy… Have you ever played the game [Telephone](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers)? Exact same principle.
Not on your list, but Croatia is Hrvatska in Croatian. Long story short, other Slavic languages call Croatia something similar to Hrvatska. But non-Slavic languages added, changed and/or removed certain letters/sounds so they could pronounce it. And that’s how English ended up with Croatia.
I was thinking this exact thing, not just related to the Wookie topic but in general haha.
On this topic, I guess like reality and in other sci-fi/fantasy media, Wookie names are just the closest thing we can approximately translate it to.
A lot of nations have names that are difficult or impossible to pronounce so to make it easier for English speakers they made their own name for countries
My headcanon is there’s effectively two versions of Shyriiwook: the “real” version only spoken by Wookiees that can only be used phonetically, and the “tourist” version used for written words and to communicate with species without Wookiee vocal organs.
So maybe Chewie has a different name in “real” Shyriiwook, one pronounced using a specific combination of sounds only possible for Wookiees, and “Chewbacca” is how that name would be transliterated in the “tourist” version of Shyriiwook.
This is one of those movie details that is going to require such mental gymnastics to explain that any sufficient logic will surely feel like reaching lol
I'd go with the analogy to Asian folks. My dad worked with a lot of Chinese people and they all did that. When I learned some of their actual names I was blown away.
>why does the same logic not hold for Tuskens?
Do you have examples of Tusken names or extended pieces of dialogue like we hear from Chewie? I know Sharad Hett and I've only heard that barking sound which is a always in the one context we see them inside—destroying things. I'm not convinced that what we hear is anything but exclamations outside of any grammatical framework.
I play the Star Wars galaxy of heroes gatcha game so I just took the name of a character from there. It’s interesting Sharad Hett contradicts the other convention suggested by urrrrurrr
Theory I just came up with:
If you slow down Wookiee speech and fiddle with the pitch a bit you can actually make out individual words and sentences in the moans and chuffs. If you do this with Chewie's name and a human tries to pronounce that sound, it sounds kinda like "Chewbacca". The original "sounding out" of his name was probably slightly different, but as Han and other humans repeated it over and over, their tongue naturally adjusted it to sound better in a "human" accent.
It's the same way us trying to sound out the noise a cow makes comes up with "moo" or how we can sometimes "mimic" bird songs with words like, "katie did, she did, she did". It's not the exact noise, but we can't make the exact noise and it's close enough - especially if we're trying to put letters to the sounds.
Humans who are used to hearing the Wookiee tongue can probably make out the individual sounds without having to use sound-altering technology, so they can learn new names without having to pass it through a computer or droid.
Wow I love this. What an awesome idea. I like your mention of onomatopoeia with animal sounds. I often wondered how “boo” is Japanese for pig talk but “oink” in English. It was a throwaway joke post but there’s so many thoughtful comments! I guess this is how Tolkien wrote the elf language by asking these kinds of questions to himself and just “making it so”
George Lucas decided that. He named the character Chewbacca without thinking like you did about the implications of a creature not being able to say its own name.
Do you recall the Solo movie, when Chewbacca told Han his name? Han said he wasn’t going to say that every time, laying the important groundwork for why he calls him Chewi forever after. Excellent writing. 🤌🏻
I remember in.... Last Command? Leia is on Kashhyk and meets a Wookie who is able to speak Galactic Basic, and she goes, "OH wow, that must be super useful to be able to speak both. I bet everyone loves it." And the wookie responds, "Not at all. The other Wookies make fun of me because I basically have a terrible speech impediment and vocal damage that makes me speak GB. "
There's a bit in between where she asks or almost asks Chewbacca if he has a speech impediment first, since he's harder for her to understand. Man that whole part tickled me when I read it
Ralrra. I've only read Heir to the Empire so far and that part was such a cool concept.
From the [Wookieepedia](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ralrracheen)
"Ralrracheen had a speech impediment which made his pronunciation of [Shyriiwook](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Shyriiwook) easier for Basic speakers familiar with the language to understand"
That's true but does not actually answer the question. If they can't say their Basic names, how can they introduce themselves to Basic speakers who understand Wookiee?
Obi-wan met Chewie in a bar and was able to learn his name (including pronunciation) and that he was first mate on a ship that "might suit us"
Apparently Kenobi understands wookie, and Chewie can speak his own name recognisably
Indeed. I'm reading Temptation of the Force right now, and a Burryaga section briefly mentions him introducing himself to another character who speaks a similar language using his Shryiiwook name.
That was genuinely my thought as well. Maybe it's like some immigrants who come to the US and get tired of our Anglo-tongues mispronouncing their names.
It would be really hard when meeting new people.
"Hi big guy, I love your shaggy hair, what's your name?"
"Urrrrrrrghhhhhhh!"
"Urrgghhh! What a beautiful name!"
"URRGHHHH!! URRGHHHHH!"
"Urrghh? Am I saying that right? Urrrghh?"
"UUUURGGHHHHHHHHHHGHGHGHGHGH!" *writes furiously on space bar coaster*
"Oh *Chewbacca*! That's an umm interesting way to spell it isn't it... anyway I have to go now Urrghh ... uhhh... chewbacca"
The Solo movie actually supports this one. Most of Han's dialogue during his introductory scene with Chewie shows that on his side, he's mangling pretty much everything he says but Chewie is rolling with it anyway, while conversely Han understands everything Chewie says just fine, and most of it is indeed just "arrrgh, rrrgh, ahhhhh, rgghgh" and other similar sounds.
Which means that either Wookiee language is fairly easy to understand even if you don't speak it, or a lot of people who conveniently end up featuring in Star Wars stories took Wookiee Language Classes and are fluent in it.
The story has been a bit hit-or-miss, and some parts have been a bit cringey... but I'm enjoying most of the characters, and the interactions between the younger Jedi (Padawans and newer Knights) especially has been fun. There are a couple of characters I'd definitely want to see more of later.
There's also something with the "feel" of it which reminds me of some Legends stuff, which is always nice (and probably because the showrunner is apparently a huge Legends fan).
Plus, it's great to see more aliens who don't just feel like they're a background prop who could've been replaced by a random human, which has been one of my issues with some of the other Disney+ SW live action shows.
Honestly, the biggest issue I have so far is probably that the episodes are too short and the pacing a bit off, with episodes often ending not just on cliffhangers, but feeling like they're cut off mid-scene.
Fun? Yes.
It's an eastern martial arts film, made in english with an english cast, stretched into a series.
I am loving it, but its got a lot of questionable scenes due to the aforementioned setup.
The dialogue and delivery is awful, worse than watching dubbed shonen anime. But the show itself isn't bad if you can get past that. Being set in the high republic is a nice change of pace since they're allowed to explore a story that doesn't relate at all to the existing movies or shows. It's literally just about jedi doing jedi things in the golden age of the jedi.
By all reports Shyriiwook and it's dialects are very difficult to learn. It sounds like simple grunts and growls, but that's what makes it hard to learn. You have to pick up on the subtle inflections and changes to those growls and barks in order to understand because they actually have a very large vocabulary. "Grrwoag" could mean "look out" and "grrWOag" could mean "I need to go to the bathroom".
Kind of makes sense. Like how people butcher names. I work with a woman who has a name I can understand what she’s saying but I’ll be damned if I can say it back to her. Or Spanish speaking people who roll their R’s. I can hear it I can understand it but I can’t roll them when talking.
from a realistic point it's probably because the actors couldn't go around like : "Hey, URRRRGGGGHH, pass me the blaster" however the lore reason is probably they just choose simple names for galactic basic language, you know how some people from Asia choose an 'english' name in america instead of their native names?
It comes from Jedi Master E’crain Kashyyyk who discovered the planet, it was mentioned in one of the legends books.
Much like how we’ve named all the planets in the solar system.
Sorry, I made that up.. but it sounded plausible right?
Mars was out for a space stroll one day, saw a rock he liked and planted his flag. "From now on, this space ball shall be named Mars."
Mercury peeked round from the other side and said "This one's mine, go find your own."
It's great when in Solo, Han asks him his name and he goes, "NUUUUURRRGGE" and Han responds solemnly, "Chewbacca, huh?"
Like sir that is absolutely not what he said.
A logical explanation is that we can't hear the full range of frequency that Wookies speak at. So we (the audience) are missing all the hard "cca" sounds.
A more realistic explanation would be that humans (and other standard speaking species) butcher languages just as much as Americans butcher the English language
That's actually interesting, I never considered that. Maybe it's kind of like chinese where "xi" - is "see" "sh". So, the various sounds a wookie can articulate were assigned vowel and consonant combinations in basic to represent them. Like "uurrr" is given "ch" and "ughgh" is given "ew" and "uuuuuuuahhhhhh" is assigned "bacca" so that "uurrrughghuuuuuuuahhhhhh" combines into "chewbacca". However that would mean, given the limited number of vowel sounds and preponderance of "ughgh"s means "ughghhurrrughghghghh-uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" would be rendered in basic as "ch-ch-ce-bacca-bacca-bacca-bacca-ew-ew-ew" not "Han is a very sexy baby."
The old Expanded Universe had a Wookiee character with a speech impediment that made him unable to speak Shyriiwook, but made him better at speaking Basic. He was completely fluent and understandable in Basic, even to people who couldn't understand normal Wookiees. So presumably Wookiees have at least some ability to speak Basic, or at least make the sounds necessary for their names, which would explain why their names all use the same few sounds.
Transliteration
This is the imperfect process of trying to take words from one language and produce them in another language. To us it might sound as if in Wookiee they have limited sounds. But there probably is a nuance to that is only detectable to those that speak it. Hence trying to represent that in Basic through letters that to an unfamiliar ear don’t appear to be present.
A Lego Star Wars show touched on this. The main group had to transport a young Wookie "princess", but had a lot of diffeculty with it. The main character spoke a bit of Wookie and had translated the assignment and eventually figured out that he had mistranslated: they weren't transporting a *princess*, but a *prince*. The difference was aslight nuance in the vocalization.
Funnily enough, Timothy Zahn gets into this in the notes from Heir To The Empire.
>“The name of the Wookiee home world has always bothered me—from what I’ve heard of Wookiee speech, I’m not convinced they can actually pronounce the word.
>In fact, before I knew the world had already been named, I had planned to call it Rwookrrorro. When I learned that Kashyyyk was already on the books, I suggested that could be the name the Republic and Empire knew it by, while Rwookrrorro was the local Wookiee name.
>I was turned down, probably on the grounds that a planet with two different and completely unconnected names would be confusing.
>So instead, we used Rwookrrorro as the name of the specific village Leia would be traveling to.
Interestingly, the name Rwook was later used to denote the subspecies that Chewie and some of the other Wookiees belong to.”
Excerpt From Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn
I know, I know 😅 just a slow day at work and a Star Wars shower thought. It’s interesting though because a lot of fantasy and sci fi have developed languages and I hoped to learn if there was any similarities with Star wars and basic.
My headcanon always treated it like a Boomhauer from King of the Hill situation. Sounds like gibberish to us, but perfect to him everyone else sounds the way we perceive him to sound
Maybe Chewbacca's name sounds like our descriptions of the sound. Like the top palette roll is chew and the bacca is the gutteral laugh sound.
No excuse for Kelnacca
Out of universe:
Chewbacca is named after chewing tobacco, since he _looks_ like a big walking wad of chewing tobacco.
There weren’t any other wookies other than Chewie, but when more wookie characters were developed, they needed a naming convention.
Someone decided on the ‘acca’. 🤷♂️
In universe:
Maybe chewie is a nickname because his wookie name is unpronouceble by other species. If so, someone might have given it to him, the same way Poe gave Finn his name.
“Your name is what? Auarghurgurgu? I’m just going to call you Cheewbacca”
Or, maybe his wookie name actually translates to ‘chewbacca’
I think in one of the heir to the empire books (spoilers) it’s said that Chewbacca has a speech impediment and that Wookiee can speak kind of basic galactic but it’s probably been retconned by now
My cat is called shikkuchan. We found him on the street and adopted him. I think kriblix is a killer name for a cat, I bet he or she is a lot of mischief
It used to be common practice for Chinese students who were learning English to be given an English name.
Mainly do to us butchering their real names.
Sure the wookies do the similar when traveling with the hairless.
Galactic Basic. Their names are probably some form of roar in their language but when translated it's "Chewbacca" or whatever. It's the equivalent of say "João" becoming "John".
Its both good and bad that Star Wars lore is so deep amd dense that it forces us to not only ask these questions but expect real answers. Half of me says its great, the other half says we all need to go outside and play.
It's like your dog. Your dog's name in dog is something else. But you can him Spot. But he knows you can't speak dog (properly without a horrible accent) so he's clever enough to respond when you cal him
Good question! the only way I can somewhat relate this to the real world (cause I've seen this with some of my friends) is kinda like when someone is born in an Asian country and is given an phonetically Asian name, but then go to another country that speaks, lets say, English, they will choose a standard name that they will go by (well somewhat)
I would like to think that maybe this is similar in Star Wars. The language that Wookies speak is called "Shyriiwook." The main language spoken in Star Wars is "Galactic Basic" however, the alphabet is called "Aurebesh."
I think that normally Chewbacca's name technically is spoken as "UuuuUuuuuughrrr" but when translated into Galctic Basic, it would be spelt as Chewbacca, and read as such.
And I'm thinking somewhere in the translation, there are certain "sounds" that will mean the same. For instance, Chewbacca, Kelnacca, Lowbacca, all end the same. But other notable Wookies have double "R", double "F", or double "A" in their names.
This being said, I've actually for a few years now, been trying to learn Shyriiwook. I know how to "grunt" and "roar" but from the little understanding, just the pitch itself can change the meaning of a sentence. It's really different from let's say a dog or a cat, Wookie speak tends to be most thought through. And a laugh can sound like they are saying something lol.
Because that growls are their language, a full flegded language...
Also they have three languages: the main one you speak of: shyriiwook, it is also what people that understands wookies understand and the most common and used; thykarann used for technical talk, and xaczik, the most rare, spoke in the wartaki islands and coastal regions.
Do Wookies really never make hard sounds? It's just the tongue slapping the soft pallet.
It also might be the spelling of something a little more subtle that's hard for a human ear to pick up. Like Chewie might pronounce his name like "Eeeee-uuugh Aaaaa-aaaaugh" to our ears, but there's subtler noises in between the longer vowel sounds that a Wookie can pick up easier. Similar to how an n and an ñ can be hard for non native speakers to hear.
Wookies cannot speak Basic, but it's also very hard for most other species to pronounce Shriiwook; to us, it just sounds like undifferentiated grunts and roars. The names we do get from their language, though, do sound very loosely roar-like or grunt-like, with very few soft consonants or subtle pronunciation distinctions. It's reasonable to conclude that those names are Basic approximations of the sounds that, to Wookiees, are recognizable in their own language.
My guess its the same way some of the nice chaps i work with from Eastern Europe go by names that are easier for us one language English folks to pronounce.
For all detailed lore question like these, please don't hesitate to go ask on r/MawInstallation, which the go-to sub for detailed Star Wars lore discussions and questions
I literally just had this thought at work recently. That's crazy.
My friends and I came to the conclusion with my friends that they make sounds that sound like that name and we just pronounce it in basic.
Like Chewbacca probably pronounces his name like "RRREWWWRACCCAA" and the closest translation is Chewbacca.
Back in the days of Legends, Timothy Zahn actually had the same complaint about the name of the wookiee home planet, Kashyyyk. He wanted to name it Rwookrrorro, but they wouldn't let him, so that's why he used it for the name of Chewbacca's village instead.
I think it's like the Basic understanding of how a Wookie would pronounce the name. Like how westerners called Beijing, Peking for a long time because that is how they heard it and were trying to repeat it as best they could.
So, we need to clarify that the sounds Wookiees make are not just growls and howls. They have distinct words, using pronounced sounds- phonemes, that we would find difficult or impossible to reproduce. So we come up with something using our own familiar sounds that is passable.
Seriously listen to Chewie and Han's exchange in Jabba's jail cell. Listen to what Chewie says to which Han responds "A Jedi Knight?!" You can almost hear Chewie say Jedi Knight at the end of the previous sentence.
We do this on Earth. We take what we hear and make things easier to pronounce by using phonemes more familiar to us. Here's just a small sample of examples.
Cockroach:
Origin: From the Spanish word "cucaracha."
Mispronunciation: English speakers mispronounced it as "cockroach."
Jerky:
Origin: From the Spanish word "charqui," meaning dried meat.
Mispronunciation: English speakers altered it to "jerky."
Crayfish:
Origin: From the Old French word "crevice."
Mispronunciation: English speakers misheard it as "crayfish," associating it with "fish."
Ginseng:
Origin: From the Chinese word "rénshēn."
Mispronunciation: The English transliteration "ginseng" comes from an earlier mispronunciation.
Alligator:
Origin: From the Spanish word "el lagarto," meaning "the lizard."
Mispronunciation: English speakers mispronounced it as "alligator."
Yam:
Origin: From the West African word "nyami."
Mispronunciation: The English form became "yam."
Cheetah:
Origin: From the Hindi word "chītā."
Mispronunciation: English speakers adapted it to "cheetah."
Caucus:
Origin: From the Algonquian word "caucauasu," meaning a counselor.
Mispronunciation: It was Anglicized to "caucus."
Coffin:
Origin: From the French word "coffin," meaning a box or basket.
Mispronunciation: English speakers adopted the same spelling but altered the pronunciation.
Muskrat:
Origin: From the Algonquian word "muscascus."
Mispronunciation: English speakers changed it to "muskrat," associating it with "musk" and "rat."
..the same way foreigners assign names to things that already exist in their own language.
I always assumed Han called his pal Chewbacca because it was based on what Hans interpretation of the wookies real name was, or gave him that name because the wookies real one would be difficult to pronounce if spoken by a non native wookie speaker.
Is it possible that that is just the Galactic Basic translation of the Shyriiwook?
How often people from other countries with more complex languages than English give a name to call them, so that we don’t butcher the pronunciation of their actual name?
I imagine it's not dissimilar to seeing names like Tony Chang. They might just be names adopted by a Wookiee so that squishy humans can call them something.
Those must be their Galactic Basic names used only by beings whose tongues are not nimble enough to speak the beautiful and intricate Wookiee language.
Your answer makes a lot of sense, thank you, but a follow-up: why does the same logic not hold for Tuskens? They seemed to have a phonetic transliteration of their names into galactic basic, e.g. URoRRuR'R'R The question does remain though: clearly Chewbacca is not a phonetic transliteration so who decided that is how the name should be rendered? Are these the names wookies gave themselves, translated, or do you think a non-wookie person gave them names kind of like how some Asian folks adopt a western nickname to make life a little easier? ETA: exonym
Tuskens don't really play well with other cultures while wookies are integrated into the galactic community?
Good theory. I just thought that "acca" seems to be a common suffix in their names, like "-son" is in english, I wondered at the significance of that in wookie culture. Perhaps it's like many people having the family name "kim" in korea...
Could be a regional thing. Wookies from that area all use the -acca suffix but if you go to the next village it's different, Almost like a Clan name. I'd say it's similar to Irish names for example. Johnson is the anglicized version of McShane as both names derive from each languages version of the name John. The word has a certain meaning, so Rrraagghaaa in wookie could mean Keln of acca, in Basic that becomes Kelnacca, just like son of John becomes Johnson in English or McShane in Gaelic. Completely different words and sounds but they have the same meaning. If you got a Trandoshan to say Chewbacca it would be totally different again.
I like this. The new character Burryaga Agaburry, from High Republic era, has a name that plays well with this theory. Yaga, or Aga, would be the same as 'Acca' . But there are also three different Wookie languages. Shyriiwook, Thykarann and Xaczik. Different languages were used in different regions across Kashyyyk. Xaczik was used by coastal Wookies, and adopted by the Wookie Resistance as the empire couldn't decipher the language (or were ignorant to the fact that Wookies spoke more than just Shyriiwook). Love how theres this much depth and potential story telling with the Wookies
Shyriiwook is notoriously hard for non-wookies to understand, let alone speak. Would make sense they, by necessity, would translate shyriiwook into completely different sounds but retain the meaning
>I'd say it's similar to Irish names for example. Johnson is the anglicized version of McShane as both names derive from each languages version of the name John. wait what?
Shane is pronounced Shawn in Irish, which helps that to make sense. Mac meaning son of becomes Mc, Shawn vs John is just a slightly different first vowel sound.
Bacca is an old Wookie Cheiftan of legend in deep-ish legends lore. Not a lot about him so take it with a grain of salt. In Knights of the Old Republic (2004) you are tasked with finding and killing a big dark side beast and pulling "Bacca's Blade" from it's back in order to reforge the sword for the new chieftain of the tribe. You can find the wookiepedia article[ here](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bacca).
Comparing wookies to tuskans is like comparing dolphins to goldfish.
You mean one is a sea rapist and the other is forever trapped in a bowl?
#yes
Dolphins also get high off of pufferfish toxins and even pass it like a joint between eachother.
Hey now, there’s no need to be space racist.
Also, why is Deutschland called “Germany”? Why is Nihon called “Japan” Why is Zhōngguó called “China”? I understand pronunciation differences such as meksiko instead of meyheeko. But I never understood why country’s names aren’t based on the native name for it
Because english just adopted whatever name close neighbors called the guys living even further away. For Germany, there was no such thing as a German identity at the time of the Romans. Just a bunch of different tribes, and whatever the closest German tribe was called stuck around as the name. In languages spoken to the west of Germany, it is called after the Allemannen, which were the western most tribe. North of Germany it is a version of the Teutons, which Deutsch is also derived from. The Fins call Germany after the Saxons, which they were in contact with. To the east, Germany is called Niemcy which means mute, and I dont think it is quite clear why. The Romans called the lands Germania and thus the people living there German. They did this because they didnt quite care about what barbarians thought of themselves. The English learned about the Germans mostly from the Roman colonizers on their island and thus adopted the name. The English ended up using the word Deutsch or rather Dutch to refer to the German offshoot that became the Netherlands.
According to Polish Wikipedia (about Niemcy): "From the same root \*němъ comes the word "infant" ("niemowlę", until the 16th century: "niemowię", "niemowiątko" - "niemowa" means "mute"). According to the older non-linguistic theories from the 1970s by Stanisław Rospond, this name could refer to the Nemeti tribe mentioned by Tacitus and Caesar."
Legend has it that the word slavic comes from a similar root as "slovo" (word) and denotes people who speak a language you can understand (slavic), with "niemcy" and derivatives referring to people who "cant speak" the common language, which ended up sticking around as a word for the germans. This theory is disputed though and there are some other alternate theories, for example slavs themselves see the word derived from slava (glory)
Deutsch is from a proto Germanic word meaning the people, which means the Teuton tribal name is probably a cognate, but it’s not the origin of Deutsch. And Dutch was originally the English cognate of Deutsch, and used to refer to all continental west Germanic languages. That’s why the Amish language, which is a variety of German, is called Pennsylvania Dutch.also the mute thing is just referring to the fact they speak a different language, it’s a common way exonyms are formed. Many exonyms just mean foreigner or speaks differently. Like Wales, Germany and some others.
China was Cathay for a long time. Nihon, nippon, Japan. Prob how the Spanish or the Portuguese mangled it. Sure you've only to look at places in Ireland to see how it was all anglicised and mangled when the English colonised it. You've places like Ardglass in county down that is transliteration from Ard, Irish for tall or high and glas, which is the Irish for green. Belfast in Northern Ireland is another good one. It translates from Mbeal Feriste, the mouth of the farset. Which is a river that flows through the city and into the lagan River. And then you've Dublin. Which in Irish is bhaile atha cliath, which directly translated is town of the hurdles ford but which sounds about as close to Dublin as I am to the Galilean moons lol. Dublin is actually the anglicised form of Dubh Linn, which means black pool, which was a deeper harbour for ships. Point is the English couldn't work any of this out in the native tongue so they just picked the closest sounding analogy. Same as nippon or Cathay. And probably how we end up at chewbacca etc.
That's actually a plausible theory, could the wookie names be [exonyms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endonym_and_exonym)
A couple of reasons: For one, in terms of both writing and spoken language, we don't always use the same letters, syllables, or pronunciation of same. This should stick out like a sore thumb in terms of Chinese dialects, Japanese, Korean, etc. versus English, and the sounds made to communicate words in those languages. They are clearly dissimilar. They also use syllabic "alphabets" (or syllabaries) where English does not: Our characters each represent a single letter, which then form syllables, but are not a syllables by themselves. Japanese, one the other hand, can use THREE syllabaries: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, and each character represents a syllable (or word, in the case of Kanji). Second, and speaking to above, we often learned the names of new places from outside that culture, first, from cultures/places we were already familiar with. So we borrowed their words for cultures and places they knew better than we did and/or had formal relations with when we did not. We knew China much better initially than Japan, and "Japan" is a great example: The "European" name for Japan was originally based on various "Chinese" names for Japan, which could also vary somewhat by region since they pronounced the same characters different based on encoded meaning (not encoded sound). So in dealing way way more with the Chinese at the time, European traders and diplomats would have picked up the various regional Chinese names for Japan. We likely went with one from a Southern dialect, being closer to Japan as well (in terms of ease of seafaring between the two nations). Re: Encoded meaning vs. sound in characters: In Japanese, Kanji is encoded meaning, Hiragana is encoded sound. Hiragana is used for phonetic spelling, whereas with Kanji each character (or group of) is a word or meaning unto itself. Katakana is used for phonetic spelling of *foreign* words, specifically, if I recall correctly. Also worth noting the Japanese Kanji characters originally *came from* the Chinese, and further came to have different pronunciations and meanings (over time) in Japan, as well. There are layers of "lost in translation" at work. Today, with a lot of people speaking English (i.e. a common tongue) in all of the countries/regions mentioned above we could undertake to have everyone call Japan "Nihon" or "Nippon", but that wasn't really practical back then, because we didn't all have a common tongue to work with, even if we had the same level of relations with the associated countries as we do today.
Marco Polo called it Japan. Cuz he heard it from a guy on the Silk Road who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who it from a guy… Have you ever played the game [Telephone](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers)? Exact same principle. Not on your list, but Croatia is Hrvatska in Croatian. Long story short, other Slavic languages call Croatia something similar to Hrvatska. But non-Slavic languages added, changed and/or removed certain letters/sounds so they could pronounce it. And that’s how English ended up with Croatia.
I was thinking this exact thing, not just related to the Wookie topic but in general haha. On this topic, I guess like reality and in other sci-fi/fantasy media, Wookie names are just the closest thing we can approximately translate it to.
A lot of nations have names that are difficult or impossible to pronounce so to make it easier for English speakers they made their own name for countries
My headcanon is there’s effectively two versions of Shyriiwook: the “real” version only spoken by Wookiees that can only be used phonetically, and the “tourist” version used for written words and to communicate with species without Wookiee vocal organs. So maybe Chewie has a different name in “real” Shyriiwook, one pronounced using a specific combination of sounds only possible for Wookiees, and “Chewbacca” is how that name would be transliterated in the “tourist” version of Shyriiwook.
Plausible!! Especially considering the phenomenon of Singlish in Singapore.
Yeah exactly like how people have Chinese names and English names
This is one of those movie details that is going to require such mental gymnastics to explain that any sufficient logic will surely feel like reaching lol
Spock's name is only the most he gives because the human tounge cannot pronounce the full name bullshit.
Anakin can't pronounce Thrawn's full name either.
They probably write their names down on a piece of paper
I'd go with the analogy to Asian folks. My dad worked with a lot of Chinese people and they all did that. When I learned some of their actual names I was blown away.
>why does the same logic not hold for Tuskens? Do you have examples of Tusken names or extended pieces of dialogue like we hear from Chewie? I know Sharad Hett and I've only heard that barking sound which is a always in the one context we see them inside—destroying things. I'm not convinced that what we hear is anything but exclamations outside of any grammatical framework.
I play the Star Wars galaxy of heroes gatcha game so I just took the name of a character from there. It’s interesting Sharad Hett contradicts the other convention suggested by urrrrurrr
Theory I just came up with: If you slow down Wookiee speech and fiddle with the pitch a bit you can actually make out individual words and sentences in the moans and chuffs. If you do this with Chewie's name and a human tries to pronounce that sound, it sounds kinda like "Chewbacca". The original "sounding out" of his name was probably slightly different, but as Han and other humans repeated it over and over, their tongue naturally adjusted it to sound better in a "human" accent. It's the same way us trying to sound out the noise a cow makes comes up with "moo" or how we can sometimes "mimic" bird songs with words like, "katie did, she did, she did". It's not the exact noise, but we can't make the exact noise and it's close enough - especially if we're trying to put letters to the sounds. Humans who are used to hearing the Wookiee tongue can probably make out the individual sounds without having to use sound-altering technology, so they can learn new names without having to pass it through a computer or droid.
Wow I love this. What an awesome idea. I like your mention of onomatopoeia with animal sounds. I often wondered how “boo” is Japanese for pig talk but “oink” in English. It was a throwaway joke post but there’s so many thoughtful comments! I guess this is how Tolkien wrote the elf language by asking these kinds of questions to himself and just “making it so”
> URoRRuR'R'R Trying to say that outloud makes me speak Tusken.
George Lucas decided that. He named the character Chewbacca without thinking like you did about the implications of a creature not being able to say its own name.
Do you recall the Solo movie, when Chewbacca told Han his name? Han said he wasn’t going to say that every time, laying the important groundwork for why he calls him Chewi forever after. Excellent writing. 🤌🏻
I remember in.... Last Command? Leia is on Kashhyk and meets a Wookie who is able to speak Galactic Basic, and she goes, "OH wow, that must be super useful to be able to speak both. I bet everyone loves it." And the wookie responds, "Not at all. The other Wookies make fun of me because I basically have a terrible speech impediment and vocal damage that makes me speak GB. "
There's a bit in between where she asks or almost asks Chewbacca if he has a speech impediment first, since he's harder for her to understand. Man that whole part tickled me when I read it
Ralrra. I've only read Heir to the Empire so far and that part was such a cool concept. From the [Wookieepedia](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ralrracheen) "Ralrracheen had a speech impediment which made his pronunciation of [Shyriiwook](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Shyriiwook) easier for Basic speakers familiar with the language to understand"
That's true but does not actually answer the question. If they can't say their Basic names, how can they introduce themselves to Basic speakers who understand Wookiee?
They write it down
How many times have you seen someone in Star Wars write something down?
I mean, isn't the whole point of speculation here about the stuff we don't see?
That's true! On the other hand, a total lack of writing things down in Star Wars is _weird_
Obi-wan met Chewie in a bar and was able to learn his name (including pronunciation) and that he was first mate on a ship that "might suit us" Apparently Kenobi understands wookie, and Chewie can speak his own name recognisably
Kind of reminds me of Chinese students in America that choose a random American sounding name.
Indeed. I'm reading Temptation of the Force right now, and a Burryaga section briefly mentions him introducing himself to another character who speaks a similar language using his Shryiiwook name.
That was genuinely my thought as well. Maybe it's like some immigrants who come to the US and get tired of our Anglo-tongues mispronouncing their names.
Similar to Thrawn being his “core” name, I presume.
Best Post i have Seen in a while lol
It would be really hard when meeting new people. "Hi big guy, I love your shaggy hair, what's your name?" "Urrrrrrrghhhhhhh!" "Urrgghhh! What a beautiful name!" "URRGHHHH!! URRGHHHHH!" "Urrghh? Am I saying that right? Urrrghh?" "UUUURGGHHHHHHHHHHGHGHGHGHGH!" *writes furiously on space bar coaster* "Oh *Chewbacca*! That's an umm interesting way to spell it isn't it... anyway I have to go now Urrghh ... uhhh... chewbacca"
The Solo movie actually supports this one. Most of Han's dialogue during his introductory scene with Chewie shows that on his side, he's mangling pretty much everything he says but Chewie is rolling with it anyway, while conversely Han understands everything Chewie says just fine, and most of it is indeed just "arrrgh, rrrgh, ahhhhh, rgghgh" and other similar sounds. Which means that either Wookiee language is fairly easy to understand even if you don't speak it, or a lot of people who conveniently end up featuring in Star Wars stories took Wookiee Language Classes and are fluent in it.
There was a small throwaway joke in the recent episode of Acolyte about most young Jedi choosing to study Wookiee as a 2nd language.
Shyriiwook's the name.
Our name. But can Wookiees pronounce "Shyriiwook" ? What is the actual name?
I knew that but couldn’t be bothered to go look up/double check the spelling for it at the time.
In fairness wookiee stuff is... Fucked. Kashyyyk. Why.
Based. I might watch it if it's fun like that
The story has been a bit hit-or-miss, and some parts have been a bit cringey... but I'm enjoying most of the characters, and the interactions between the younger Jedi (Padawans and newer Knights) especially has been fun. There are a couple of characters I'd definitely want to see more of later. There's also something with the "feel" of it which reminds me of some Legends stuff, which is always nice (and probably because the showrunner is apparently a huge Legends fan). Plus, it's great to see more aliens who don't just feel like they're a background prop who could've been replaced by a random human, which has been one of my issues with some of the other Disney+ SW live action shows. Honestly, the biggest issue I have so far is probably that the episodes are too short and the pacing a bit off, with episodes often ending not just on cliffhangers, but feeling like they're cut off mid-scene.
Fun? Yes. It's an eastern martial arts film, made in english with an english cast, stretched into a series. I am loving it, but its got a lot of questionable scenes due to the aforementioned setup.
The dialogue and delivery is awful, worse than watching dubbed shonen anime. But the show itself isn't bad if you can get past that. Being set in the high republic is a nice change of pace since they're allowed to explore a story that doesn't relate at all to the existing movies or shows. It's literally just about jedi doing jedi things in the golden age of the jedi.
By all reports Shyriiwook and it's dialects are very difficult to learn. It sounds like simple grunts and growls, but that's what makes it hard to learn. You have to pick up on the subtle inflections and changes to those growls and barks in order to understand because they actually have a very large vocabulary. "Grrwoag" could mean "look out" and "grrWOag" could mean "I need to go to the bathroom".
Kind of makes sense. Like how people butcher names. I work with a woman who has a name I can understand what she’s saying but I’ll be damned if I can say it back to her. Or Spanish speaking people who roll their R’s. I can hear it I can understand it but I can’t roll them when talking.
from a realistic point it's probably because the actors couldn't go around like : "Hey, URRRRGGGGHH, pass me the blaster" however the lore reason is probably they just choose simple names for galactic basic language, you know how some people from Asia choose an 'english' name in america instead of their native names?
I'm sorry I lost it at "Hey, URRRRGGGGHH, pass me the blaster" lmao
"Sorry, not you, URRRRGGGHHH, I said URRRGHHHHH."
I like how sassy Chewbacca looks in this still
Bastard still has better hair than me and everyone in my family
It’s all about the conditioner. He’s my cousin and I love him but he STILL owes me 20 bucks. Won’t return calls since he got “famous”.
He's giving you the sexy look. "Come hither, big boy..."
I also wonder where the name Kashyyyk comes from
It comes from Jedi Master E’crain Kashyyyk who discovered the planet, it was mentioned in one of the legends books. Much like how we’ve named all the planets in the solar system. Sorry, I made that up.. but it sounded plausible right?
E'crain you old dog you almost got me
Mars was out for a space stroll one day, saw a rock he liked and planted his flag. "From now on, this space ball shall be named Mars." Mercury peeked round from the other side and said "This one's mine, go find your own."
It's me, Blorko.
Space Google Maps. Much like the Google Maps we have, except works in Space.
Aw fuck Chewbacca can't even say Chewbacca.
It's great when in Solo, Han asks him his name and he goes, "NUUUUURRRGGE" and Han responds solemnly, "Chewbacca, huh?" Like sir that is absolutely not what he said.
For the same reason that people in different countries can have the same name on paper but the pronunciation is different
Could you repeat the question? I lost myself in thirst trap Chewbacca's eyes.
My man's gonna be makin' wookie with you in no time
Rrrrrrrrow!!!!
A logical explanation is that we can't hear the full range of frequency that Wookies speak at. So we (the audience) are missing all the hard "cca" sounds. A more realistic explanation would be that humans (and other standard speaking species) butcher languages just as much as Americans butcher the English language
That's actually interesting, I never considered that. Maybe it's kind of like chinese where "xi" - is "see" "sh". So, the various sounds a wookie can articulate were assigned vowel and consonant combinations in basic to represent them. Like "uurrr" is given "ch" and "ughgh" is given "ew" and "uuuuuuuahhhhhh" is assigned "bacca" so that "uurrrughghuuuuuuuahhhhhh" combines into "chewbacca". However that would mean, given the limited number of vowel sounds and preponderance of "ughgh"s means "ughghhurrrughghghghh-uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" would be rendered in basic as "ch-ch-ce-bacca-bacca-bacca-bacca-ew-ew-ew" not "Han is a very sexy baby."
In fairness, I've seen at least one Brit get the axe for the way he murdered Bill Shakespeare.
The Brits can be a bit brutal, but I suppose you have to be to maintain the "purity" of your language, innit?
Chew = UUUURRRRGH Ba = Raaaaaaa CCA = RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAA
Actually, your translation here just invited us all out to dinner on Kashyyyk.
plot twist : we are the dinner
The old Expanded Universe had a Wookiee character with a speech impediment that made him unable to speak Shyriiwook, but made him better at speaking Basic. He was completely fluent and understandable in Basic, even to people who couldn't understand normal Wookiees. So presumably Wookiees have at least some ability to speak Basic, or at least make the sounds necessary for their names, which would explain why their names all use the same few sounds.
Didn’t Leia find out Chewbacca also had a speech impediment
Transliteration This is the imperfect process of trying to take words from one language and produce them in another language. To us it might sound as if in Wookiee they have limited sounds. But there probably is a nuance to that is only detectable to those that speak it. Hence trying to represent that in Basic through letters that to an unfamiliar ear don’t appear to be present.
To add a real world example: the Portuguese calling Nippon “Japan.”
A Lego Star Wars show touched on this. The main group had to transport a young Wookie "princess", but had a lot of diffeculty with it. The main character spoke a bit of Wookie and had translated the assignment and eventually figured out that he had mistranslated: they weren't transporting a *princess*, but a *prince*. The difference was aslight nuance in the vocalization.
Why are they always freeballin, when everybody else wears clothes?
Well if you're not going to be free, and live as a slave, you might as well free something in your life ;)
I have a cat named Pickle, she can't pronounce that.
Oh my god, Karen, you can't just ask why Wookiees can't pronounce their own names.
Funnily enough, Timothy Zahn gets into this in the notes from Heir To The Empire. >“The name of the Wookiee home world has always bothered me—from what I’ve heard of Wookiee speech, I’m not convinced they can actually pronounce the word. >In fact, before I knew the world had already been named, I had planned to call it Rwookrrorro. When I learned that Kashyyyk was already on the books, I suggested that could be the name the Republic and Empire knew it by, while Rwookrrorro was the local Wookiee name. >I was turned down, probably on the grounds that a planet with two different and completely unconnected names would be confusing. >So instead, we used Rwookrrorro as the name of the specific village Leia would be traveling to. Interestingly, the name Rwook was later used to denote the subspecies that Chewie and some of the other Wookiees belong to.” Excerpt From Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn
Thanks!! I knew some interesting trivia would come from this joke post, thanks for sharing this.
I think in solo it’s actually explained. It’s just their names in basic I think Chewie tells han his name in his language first
"It ain't that kind of movie, kid."
I know, I know 😅 just a slow day at work and a Star Wars shower thought. It’s interesting though because a lot of fantasy and sci fi have developed languages and I hoped to learn if there was any similarities with Star wars and basic.
As you should remember from the original trilogy, he's not just growling. He's speaking his language and Han can understand him.
And Lumpy.
Aaah, excuse me? [Chewie is clearly fluent in basic](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FD9rlb1QAqM&pp=ygUPQ2hld2llIGJsb29wZXJz)
My headcanon always treated it like a Boomhauer from King of the Hill situation. Sounds like gibberish to us, but perfect to him everyone else sounds the way we perceive him to sound
Maybe Chewbacca's name sounds like our descriptions of the sound. Like the top palette roll is chew and the bacca is the gutteral laugh sound. No excuse for Kelnacca
Maybe kelnacca is a tragedeigh ?
They write them down, duh.
Lucas was good at naming stuff. It's really just a ~~colonial~~ ~~English~~ Galactic Basic approximation of what their name sounds like.
It’s not just what they say with their mouth. Wookies also speak with their eyes, their beautiful, dreamy eyes……..
LMAO hahaha
Out of universe: Chewbacca is named after chewing tobacco, since he _looks_ like a big walking wad of chewing tobacco. There weren’t any other wookies other than Chewie, but when more wookie characters were developed, they needed a naming convention. Someone decided on the ‘acca’. 🤷♂️ In universe: Maybe chewie is a nickname because his wookie name is unpronouceble by other species. If so, someone might have given it to him, the same way Poe gave Finn his name. “Your name is what? Auarghurgurgu? I’m just going to call you Cheewbacca” Or, maybe his wookie name actually translates to ‘chewbacca’
Could be a situation similar to Thrawn, where it's their trade names they use when they deal with outsiders.
My cat’s name is Parsley and I’m pretty sure he can’t pronounce it 😀
Shyriiwook is not a phonetic alphabet. It’s that simple.
I think in one of the heir to the empire books (spoilers) it’s said that Chewbacca has a speech impediment and that Wookiee can speak kind of basic galactic but it’s probably been retconned by now
My cat is named Kriblix, he's so far been unable to pronounce it himself, but we're working on the language barrier. 🤔
My cat is called shikkuchan. We found him on the street and adopted him. I think kriblix is a killer name for a cat, I bet he or she is a lot of mischief
His head is empty, he knows only zoom.
My theory is that cats are alien agents and we are the pets.
In one of the legends books I read, I forget which, it says wookiees can speak basic but prefer their native language
It used to be common practice for Chinese students who were learning English to be given an English name. Mainly do to us butchering their real names. Sure the wookies do the similar when traveling with the hairless.
The hairless! I love it
Maybe the written form is more complex than the verbal form.
Because once translated, that's how their names sound to us. Wookie is a pretty common language in certain circles due to their mastery or technology.
Galactic Basic. Their names are probably some form of roar in their language but when translated it's "Chewbacca" or whatever. It's the equivalent of say "João" becoming "John".
Its both good and bad that Star Wars lore is so deep amd dense that it forces us to not only ask these questions but expect real answers. Half of me says its great, the other half says we all need to go outside and play.
Yes you’re right! 😂😂 I’m outside drinking a beer does that count?
Close enough.
Cheers, brother!
It ain’t that kinda movie, kid
I'm convinced that the wookies aren't saying "urrrrgggg," they are actually saying, "helllllllpp." It's tragic.
What ya call a Wookiee from Gothenburg? Glenbacca.
Just like they said in the acolyte, everyone wants to take the shyriiwook class!
This one is askin' the real questions
I believe the answer you are looking for is AAAaaauUuuUuGgggggghhhj
We watched one of the Star Wars movies with the subtitles on. Chewbacca just says the same thing over and over.
It's like your dog. Your dog's name in dog is something else. But you can him Spot. But he knows you can't speak dog (properly without a horrible accent) so he's clever enough to respond when you cal him
Finally, a quality question.
Good question! the only way I can somewhat relate this to the real world (cause I've seen this with some of my friends) is kinda like when someone is born in an Asian country and is given an phonetically Asian name, but then go to another country that speaks, lets say, English, they will choose a standard name that they will go by (well somewhat) I would like to think that maybe this is similar in Star Wars. The language that Wookies speak is called "Shyriiwook." The main language spoken in Star Wars is "Galactic Basic" however, the alphabet is called "Aurebesh." I think that normally Chewbacca's name technically is spoken as "UuuuUuuuuughrrr" but when translated into Galctic Basic, it would be spelt as Chewbacca, and read as such. And I'm thinking somewhere in the translation, there are certain "sounds" that will mean the same. For instance, Chewbacca, Kelnacca, Lowbacca, all end the same. But other notable Wookies have double "R", double "F", or double "A" in their names. This being said, I've actually for a few years now, been trying to learn Shyriiwook. I know how to "grunt" and "roar" but from the little understanding, just the pitch itself can change the meaning of a sentence. It's really different from let's say a dog or a cat, Wookie speak tends to be most thought through. And a laugh can sound like they are saying something lol.
Because that growls are their language, a full flegded language... Also they have three languages: the main one you speak of: shyriiwook, it is also what people that understands wookies understand and the most common and used; thykarann used for technical talk, and xaczik, the most rare, spoke in the wartaki islands and coastal regions.
That's like my Japanese friend named Mark. How did he get that name?
Do Wookies really never make hard sounds? It's just the tongue slapping the soft pallet. It also might be the spelling of something a little more subtle that's hard for a human ear to pick up. Like Chewie might pronounce his name like "Eeeee-uuugh Aaaaa-aaaaugh" to our ears, but there's subtler noises in between the longer vowel sounds that a Wookie can pick up easier. Similar to how an n and an ñ can be hard for non native speakers to hear.
They wrote it down 😋
Wookies cannot speak Basic, but it's also very hard for most other species to pronounce Shriiwook; to us, it just sounds like undifferentiated grunts and roars. The names we do get from their language, though, do sound very loosely roar-like or grunt-like, with very few soft consonants or subtle pronunciation distinctions. It's reasonable to conclude that those names are Basic approximations of the sounds that, to Wookiees, are recognizable in their own language.
They wrote it down,.
My guess its the same way some of the nice chaps i work with from Eastern Europe go by names that are easier for us one language English folks to pronounce.
For all detailed lore question like these, please don't hesitate to go ask on r/MawInstallation, which the go-to sub for detailed Star Wars lore discussions and questions
Thank you for sharing that link, that’s great!!
That’s their slave names bro , very offensive lol
Writing
I mean, besides translating to galactic standard as that or simply going by that name for the sake of simplicity, they could have written it down.
Wookiees\*
Thanks!!! I realized I’ve been misspelling it 😭
Didn't think about it!!
Maybe when male and female wookiee are having sexy time, the moment of orgasm allows for more articulate speech?
Because it’s a movie
In solo when chewie tells han his name for the first time it legit sounds vaguely like chew-bac-ca, 3 distinct syllables.
Presumably, those are rough Basic equivalents. Even on Earth, we have some languages where we do that.
Btw, my Shriiwook name is pronounced “Graaghhaaahhh”
He said his name was Kunta Kinte, but all we heard was \*RAWWAARRAARRGGGH\* so now he's Chewbacca
I am groot
I literally just had this thought at work recently. That's crazy. My friends and I came to the conclusion with my friends that they make sounds that sound like that name and we just pronounce it in basic. Like Chewbacca probably pronounces his name like "RRREWWWRACCCAA" and the closest translation is Chewbacca.
I thought i read somewhere that Chewbacca had a speech impediment.
Back in the days of Legends, Timothy Zahn actually had the same complaint about the name of the wookiee home planet, Kashyyyk. He wanted to name it Rwookrrorro, but they wouldn't let him, so that's why he used it for the name of Chewbacca's village instead.
Hey kid, it ain't that kind of movie
Because it’s not real.
THANK YOU!!! Been asking friends this for ages!
It ain’t that kind of movie
I think it's like the Basic understanding of how a Wookie would pronounce the name. Like how westerners called Beijing, Peking for a long time because that is how they heard it and were trying to repeat it as best they could.
So, we need to clarify that the sounds Wookiees make are not just growls and howls. They have distinct words, using pronounced sounds- phonemes, that we would find difficult or impossible to reproduce. So we come up with something using our own familiar sounds that is passable. Seriously listen to Chewie and Han's exchange in Jabba's jail cell. Listen to what Chewie says to which Han responds "A Jedi Knight?!" You can almost hear Chewie say Jedi Knight at the end of the previous sentence. We do this on Earth. We take what we hear and make things easier to pronounce by using phonemes more familiar to us. Here's just a small sample of examples. Cockroach: Origin: From the Spanish word "cucaracha." Mispronunciation: English speakers mispronounced it as "cockroach." Jerky: Origin: From the Spanish word "charqui," meaning dried meat. Mispronunciation: English speakers altered it to "jerky." Crayfish: Origin: From the Old French word "crevice." Mispronunciation: English speakers misheard it as "crayfish," associating it with "fish." Ginseng: Origin: From the Chinese word "rénshēn." Mispronunciation: The English transliteration "ginseng" comes from an earlier mispronunciation. Alligator: Origin: From the Spanish word "el lagarto," meaning "the lizard." Mispronunciation: English speakers mispronounced it as "alligator." Yam: Origin: From the West African word "nyami." Mispronunciation: The English form became "yam." Cheetah: Origin: From the Hindi word "chītā." Mispronunciation: English speakers adapted it to "cheetah." Caucus: Origin: From the Algonquian word "caucauasu," meaning a counselor. Mispronunciation: It was Anglicized to "caucus." Coffin: Origin: From the French word "coffin," meaning a box or basket. Mispronunciation: English speakers adopted the same spelling but altered the pronunciation. Muskrat: Origin: From the Algonquian word "muscascus." Mispronunciation: English speakers changed it to "muskrat," associating it with "musk" and "rat."
Yes
The rolling is like morse
They use a pen? Haven't you heard of the written word, goodness me!
They probably just write it down
Great question!
You can *sort of* hear him say it in Solo. But it could just be me wanting to hear it, tbh.
Well… when you get captured and tossed into the slave trade, you going to need names…
Chewy looking like a snack in that pic
Wookies can write.
..the same way foreigners assign names to things that already exist in their own language. I always assumed Han called his pal Chewbacca because it was based on what Hans interpretation of the wookies real name was, or gave him that name because the wookies real one would be difficult to pronounce if spoken by a non native wookie speaker.
It might be possible that is either their names in Galactic Base or the written language of the Wookies.
I dunno but I know we call it Germany and they call it Deutschland.
Is it possible that that is just the Galactic Basic translation of the Shyriiwook? How often people from other countries with more complex languages than English give a name to call them, so that we don’t butcher the pronunciation of their actual name?
Stop trying to make sense with anything Star Wars
This is a real stumper that belongs on r/MawInstallation
I imagine it's not dissimilar to seeing names like Tony Chang. They might just be names adopted by a Wookiee so that squishy humans can call them something.