Galactic Basic Standard

Galactic Basic Standard (or Galactic Basic, Galactic Standard, Galaxy Standard or just Basic) was the most prevalent and most used language in the Galaxy.

Evolution
Old Galactic Standard started as a slang or jargon of traders, and spacers based on a mix of early Human languages, Durese, and Bothese. Because of its popularity with members of those professions its popularity and acceptance spread. Old Galactic Standard was later further influenced by Dromnyr, resulting ultimately in the standard Basic.

Under the Galactic Empire, a version of the language was known as Imperial Basic. The language was adopted by the Rebel Alliance, and as such was spoken in the Alliance of Free Planets, the New Republic, the Imperial Remnant, the Galactic Alliance, and the Galactic Empire.

Usage
Most sentient species that made galactic contact could and did speak Basic in addition to whatever native or regional language they might have used on a daily basis. Some beings normally did not possess the organs necessary to speak Basic, including Polis Massans, Ssi-Ruuk, P'w'ecks, Wookiees, and a number of insectoid races. Most Gamorreans could not speak Basic, though there were exceptions (such as Governor Kugg.) Whether or not a being could speak Basic, it was usually in their best interest to comprehend it, and most did.

The Towanis taught the Ewoks a mysterious and undocumented language, which didn't help them understand Leia Organa, and later, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, who spoke Basic. The relation of that language to Basic is not known.

High Galactic was a dialect (perhaps a vocabulary of alternative words) intended for displaying reverence and honor to religious figures. Its connection to Basic is unknown.

Basic used the Aurebesh script.

Known accents and dialects
Various cultures created different accents around the Galaxy, each with their own unique set of pronunciations.
 * Coruscanti accent&mdash;as exemplified by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Palpatine, Dooku, etc. Most inhabitants of the Core Worlds, such as Mon Mothma, also spoke in this manner, whereas those from farther reaches did not, such as Padmé Amidala (Naboo) Luke Skywalker (Tatooine), and Leia Organa (Alderaan).
 * Eriaduan accent &mdash; as exemplified by Grand Moff Tarkin.
 * Corellian accent&mdash; exemplified by Han Solo and Wedge Antilles.
 * Gungan dialect&mdash;as exemplified by Jar Jar Binks and Tarpals.
 * Concord Dawn inflection&mdash;as exemplified by members of the Fett family. This is the most common accent among Mandalorians, perhaps due to the influence of their native language, Mando'a.
 * Neimoidian accent&mdash;exemplified by Nute Gunray and Rune Haako.
 * Cathar accents&mdash;as exemplified by Juhani.
 * Kaleesh accents&mdash;as exemplified by Grievous.
 * Barabel accents&mdash;as exemplified by Saba Sebatyne.
 * Yoda's accent &mdash; an unusual form of Basic utilized by Jedi Grand Master Yoda and others of his tridactyl species, including Yaddle; it is charactaterized by an object-subject-verb format. However, another member of this species, Vandar Tokare, did not use this dialect.

Behind the scenes
In both the films and books, Basic is virtually the same as English. In translations to non-English languages, Basic is assumed to be reciprocally the same language as the one being used. As a result, in non-English versions, spoken Basic is considered dubbed and Aurebesh text is considered translated. As in the Lord of the Rings books, the "dubbing" and "translation" had some implications. For example, dialects in English belong to different in-universe accents in the movies. Ewan McGregor's and Ian McDiarmid's accents are for example Coruscanti accents in the movies. Imperial characters had British accents while Rebels usually had North American accents. However, it would seem that this is perhaps a representation of social class, as stormtroopers and other low-ranking Imperials are heard to speak with American accents, and some Rebels in British accents (Mon Mothma, for instance). Other accents are also heard, such as
 * Jamaican (Gungan Basic),
 * Irish (Emon Azzameen and an unnamed Czerka officer outside Anchorhead in KOTOR),
 * Asian (Neimoidian),
 * Australian (Owen and Beru, Episode II, as well as some Mandalorians in KOTOR II),
 * New Zealander (The Fett family),
 * Ukrainian (Grievous), or Russian (Juhani and Queen Talia).

In E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, which possibly shares its continuity with the Star Wars saga, a character mentions that she needs help with her "basic". However, in the context of the book, "basic" is most likely a reference to the computer programming language known by that name.

Original etymology
Star Wars authors have coined original English-like words derived from real English elements but which don't exist in the English language; they seem useful to a space-driven civilization of the Star Wars characters, but totally useless for our daily language. Such words are 'speciesism' (equivalent to racism, but against sentient beings other than the speakers), 'gentlebeing' (gentleman other than a Human or humanoid.), 'offworlder', 'bird' (slang for spaceship, cf. how US Navy slang calls 'torpedo' as 'fish'), 'hyperspace', 'homeworld', 'spacer', 'sentientologist', 'youngling' (young + suffix -ling meaning 'person') and other technology terms like blaster, midi-chlorian, droid (from android), durasteel, astrogation etc.

However, Basic vocabulary includes some totally original, of inexplainable etymology, words also unrelated to English, like Moff, Jedi, Padawan, Darth etc. or even compounds like Twi'lek ("twin lekku"). It is possible that such words are derived from other languages.