Accents

This page uses the International Phonetic alphabet to transcribe some of the sounds made on the podcast and in the films. For more info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA

Used in the movies

Formal Voice

This is heard in both Padmé Amidala, and her daughter Leia Organa. When they are speaking in formal circumstances, (such as when addressing the Senate, or when on diplomatic missions), they will use an affected accent that is different from their speaking voice. The in-universe explanation cobbled together by the Hosts is that this is a formal accent. Amidala uses a stilted monotone as her formal accent, while Leia uses a haughty British voice for all her official functions.
The real-world reason for Leia's inconcistent accent was explained by Carrie Fisher in an interview with the Daily News. Essentially, Fisher was a young and inexperienced actress acting against veteran British actor Peter Cushing, and the dialog she was given was so awkward as to be almost unreadable. To quote Fisher, "Who could say those lines? ‘I thought I recognized your foul stench when I was brought aboard.’ What? Say that like an American and I'll pay you."
Harrison Ford put in another way, "George, you can type this [s-wing], but you can't say it!"

English vs. American accents

In Star Wars in particular, many characters either were British and had their voices dubbed with American accents, or were imitating an American accent. In later movies, all the Imperial officers use English accents, and many were allowed to use their own voices. There are several reasons for this, but one of the most important is that most of the dialog in the original film had to be re-recorded due to noise on the sets, and this was done later, mostly using the voices of Californian DJs.

Long "a"? Short "a"? What about "e"?

Star Wars is famous for its inconsistent pronunciation of words and even character names. One of the main reasons for this is that many of the names are never said out loud in the movie, and only officially exist in written form. Even those that are are said differently depending on who's saying it and when.

• Examples:
  • Han Solo's name: hɑn (pronounced with a long "a" sound that rhymes with "gone") and hæn (pronounced with a short "a" sound that rhymes with"hat").
    • Though to pronounce it the way he does, use the long "a".
  • Han Solo's ship: fælkən (pronounced with an "a" sound like that in "Albert") and fɔːlkən (pronounced with an "a" sound like that in "wall").
    • To hear an audio montage of 8-DAY-GREEDO callers saying "Millenium Falcon" how they grew up saying it, check out SWM 53.
  • Leia Organa: Is it leɪʌ (pronounced lay-uh) or liʌ (pronounced lee-uh)

Just as you can say Tom-ay-to or To-mah-to, these differences in pronunciation are (according to Star Wars canon) just due to regional accent variation and perceived differences are meaningless.

Yoda

While not technically an accent (it's more an issue with syntax), Yoda's mode of speech is interesting nonetheless. He seems to be using an alternative sentence structure (Subject-Object-Verb) that is rarely used in English (which normally uses Subject-Verb-Object). Interestingly, SOV syntax is actually more common in Earth languages (see Hindi, Latin, and Japanese to name a few) than SVO syntax[1]. The peculiar thing about Yoda's speech it is that he only does this about half the time. This means he is doing something different, called "fronting" where you sometimes take the end of a sentence and put it at the front for emphasis of the important information[2].

Inherited Accents

If all the Jedi grew up from infancy in the Jedi Temple, why don't they all have the same accent? This was discussed in The Phantom Menace 54. It would seem that accents are not acquired in the way they are on Earth, where you speak like the people that you were around when you learned to talk. The possibility is raised that it might be a genetic inheritance thing, but then Anakin would have a space-Swedish accent inherited from his mother Shmi.

Racist Accents

Neimoidians

It's not hard to argue that the Nemoidians speak using an accent that is pretty offensive. But who specifically should be offended? Apparently, this will vary depending on what version of the films is being viewed.

• In the English language version, Silas Carson (the actor playing Nute Gunray) imitated a Thai actor's reading of the lines [3].
• In the German version, they were dubbed with French-sounding accents.
• In the French, Spanish, Czech and Italian versions, the Neimoidians were given Russian accents.

Interestingly, in the English language version at least, other Nemoidians (such as Tey How) do not have the same accent as Nute Gunray.

Notable words and phrases in Nemoidian

Word	Pronounced like...
Senate	Sehhhhnnate
Is it...legal?
I object!	I oba-ject!

Watto

Here's a tricky one. People have compared Watto's accent to (at minimum) stereotypes of Arabs, Italians, and Jews, with no clear favorite. The hooked nose, and business acumen fit the stereotype of a Shylock-type character, but is this more a reflection of racism on the part of George Lucas, or on the part of the viewing audience? This is discussed in greater detail in (Which episode?).
These issues aside, Watto is a pretty popular character among fans of the STAR WARS MINUTE.

The Gungans

Jar Jar Binks is one of the most controversial (and many would say "reviled") characters in Star Wars, not least of which because of his accent. Ahmed Best, who played and voiced Jar Jar, does a blatant impression of Jamaican patois for the voice of the Gungan.

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References

1. Brode, Douglas, and Leah Deyneka, eds. Sex, politics, and religion in Star wars: an anthology. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012.