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Ewokese

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Ewokese

Locations

Endor^[1]

"Chuug-obo-fangowa!"

―An Ewok speaking Ewokese^[4]

Ewokese was the livelylanguage spoken by the furry, diminutiveEwoks who lived on the forestmoon ofEndor. It was mutually intelligible with thelanguage of theYuzzum, and contained more than three dozen words forconifers that they inhabited. The most common of those terms was "life trees."^[5]

When theRebel Alliance's strike team came to Endor to destroy thesecond Death Star's shield generator, theprotocol droid C-3PO communicated with the Ewoks using Yuzzum,^[5] and managed to translate the Ewokese intoGalactic Basic Standard so the Ewok namedWicket was able to guide the Rebels to theImperial bunker.^[1]

Ewokese had a word to describe those who were not Ewoks, which literally translated to "nakeds" inGalactic Basic Standard.^[3]

Thehuman scavenger Rey learned the language from a salvagedship computer onJakku, but had not found an opportunity to use it.^[2]

Known phrases[]

Alaay loo ta nuv— "Celebrate the love"^[6]
Coatee-cha tu yub nub! — "Celebrate the freedom!"^[7]^[6]
Labu labu?— "How much?"^[8]
Doh,Doh, Va Doh, Doh!^[9]
Ee chee wa maa!— "Wow!"^[7]
Dangar!^[10]
Den—"No"^[8]
Een Et Manay!^[9]
Jub Chaa.^[9]
Noo Cha Eh!^[9]
Patu Nay!^[9]
Yaa-yaah!— "Greetings!"^[7]
Yub nub!— "Hooray!,"^[7] "Freedom"^[11]^[6]
Frip trak?^[3]
Fraza koonatzgah! - "I understand basic." (Approximately)^[3]
Kri - "Captain"^[3]
Pata pata - "t h i s"^[3]
Freepa!^[3]
Freepa kapatreebo pratzbar!^[3]
Cheeesaaaboookaaaaaah!^[3]
Chewfandoola macheeeeego!^[3]
Fazeeen!^[3]
Freepalapala? - likely something close to "Are we there yet?" or "Where is it?"^[3]
Safaka - "Right" (in the meaning: truth) (Approximately)^[3]
Pakapaka^[3]
Fazwakreemo - "We're looking for info about..." (Approximately)^[3]
Chubba chubba^[3]
Safakal^[3]
Freegraka!^[3]
Fringa data moshvee!^[3]
Faka bratiiin - a swear^[3]
Bataka^[3]
Breetchaka!^[3]
Frizi prat sabreenka Phylanx chacha. Freebata srinkacha malamala spratnu bala kaaatan chara-chara mak. - "The Imperials had been tracing the Phylanx Redux Transmitter but couldn't get an accurate enough signal to bother deploying for it. It would pop up every couple of years, but only the slightest blip of a signal, and then it'd be gone. When it next showed up, it'd be somewhere else entirely."^[3]
Pritka pritka - "Very dangerous"^[3]
Strrapkit paka di - "Even if we eliminate him" (Approximately)^[3]
Fripraktz chubba jamjam!^[3]
Kata kupa^[3]
Kibi kibi shan^[3]
Taba grata, bosheentrak^[3]
Chubba bucha^[3]
Shaktiiiba!^[3]
Pika! Pika!^[3]
Feeba?^[3]
Chudo ba.^[3]
Kala kala?^[3]
Shakti bata!^[3]
Freebee toosano!^[3]
Frizkrit!^[3]
Faka deebo lub lub!^[3]
Skriba jubtuk^[3]
Pata kiso. Kisa - "Me" (Approximately)^[3]
Chiba chiba sohpa? - "Hide and then come out chopping heads?" (Approximately)^[3]

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Behind the scenes[]

The Ewokese language first appeared in the1983 movieStar Wars: Episode VIReturn of the Jedi, the last installment of theoriginal trilogy ofStar Wars.^[1] It was first identified as "Ewokese" in theStar Wars Legends continuity in thenovelization of the film.^[12]

It was developed byBen Burtt, sound designer atILM, and was a mix of words imitatingTibetan,Kalmyk Oirat andLakota.^[13]African andSouth-Pacific languages also influenced Ewokese.^[14] In addition, Burtt and actorAnthony Daniels later used and even invented their own terms in the language when doing the scene where C-3PO was reciting the story of the protagonists's against the Empire inYuzzum.^[15]

Burtt firstly decided to make Ewokese based on Tibetan and Kalmuck after hearing it in a documentary. After interviewing two Tibetan speakers, a father and son,^[13] he gotKosi Unkov, an 80-year-old Mongol woman to speak tales of her people through her native Kalmyk.^[15]^[13]^[16] He then recorded the sounds, with the various actors imitating various portions of the recording.^[15] Burtt credits Kosi Unkov, Lama Kunga, Sr. and Jr., M.K. Nepali, Khendup and Ditry Daza as the principal contributors of the Ewokese sounds, withAdeal Crooms as the voice ofWicket Wystri Warrick.^[13]