Language/Legends

There are a number of languages throughout the galaxy, with Galactic Basic being the most common.

Galactic Basic
Galactic Basic, also known as Galactic Standard, is a constructed language, inspired largely by the languages of the various founding species of the Galactic Republic: the Humans, the Duros, and the Bothans. It is the lingua franca of the galaxy, and almost all humans now speak it instead of their historical language.

Galactic Basic uses the Aurabesh script.

Some aliens have difficulty speaking Basic, often due to the structure of their vocal cords or analogous organ.

Binary
Binary, or Droidspeak, is a language of beeps, trills, and whistles spoken primarily by astromech droids such as R2-D2. It is also spoken by other models of droid. Organic beings who spend a lot of time with droids can often pick up a basic understanding as well.

Bocce
Bocce is an artificial language used by spacers. It is composed of elements from several languages.

Cheunh
Cheunh is the language of the Chiss species, a dominant force in the Unknown Regions.

Dosh
Dosh is the language of the Trandoshan species, natives of the planet Trandosha.

Duros
The Duros language remains a popular language amongst space travelers due to the abundance of Duro spacefarers, despite the predominance of Basic.

Hapan
The Hapan language is spoken by residents of the Hapes Cluster.

High Galactic
High Galactic is a prestige language, most commonly used amongst Imperial courtiers.

Huttese
Huttese, the language of the Hutts, is popular among criminals, especially in the (considerable) sections of the galaxy where the Hutt criminal network is powerful.

Shyriiwook
Shyriiwook is the language of the Wookiees. It can be understood by those who speak Basic, however is nearly impossible for non-Wookiees to pronounce.

Rodese
The native tongue of the Rodians, Rodese, is popular due to the large number of spacefaring Rodians.

Droids and computers
Droids and computers use either the natural languages that their masters use, usually Basic, or special machine languages. Protocol droids such as C-3PO are "fluent in over six million forms of communication" and are often employed as translators. Astromech droids such as R2-D2 are able to understand commands in Basic and perhaps other languages, but can only communicate through an information-dense language of beeps and whistles; although devices exist that can translate this language into Basic (such as the display in an X-Wing cockpit that allows the ship's astromech and pilot to commmunicate). Simpler droids communicate only through sounds indicating affirmative/negative, or other simple replies.

Language building
The languages of some fictional worlds have been worked out in great detail, with grammatical rules and large vocabularies, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Elvish languages and the Klingon language of Star Trek. The fictional languages of Star Wars, in contrast, are not systematically worked out. The Wookiee growls and the beeps of the astromechs mainly carry emotional indicators for the audience via intonation, and Huttese is mainly a jumble of words taken from numerous real human languages.

Other languages heard are longer chunks of actual human languages, albeit ones likely unfamiliar to most of the audience. In A New Hope, for instance, the language spoken by the character Greedo in conversation with Han Solo (in the cantina) is actually a simplified version of Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andean region of South America. In Return of the Jedi, Lando Calrissian's copilot, Nien Nunb, speaks the real human language Haya, a dialect spoken in Tanzania (page 31, Star Wars Insider #67). Similarly, the Ewok language was based on Tibetan, although some fans claim that they also hear English being spoken by the Ewoks at some points during the film.

One can also hear some Finnish in the Phantom Menace. After the first lap of the pod race competition, Watto yells 'Kiitos!' ('Thank You!' in Finnish) to Sebulba, and Sebulba answers 'Ole hyvä!' ('You're Welcome!' in Finnish).

Despite these inconsistences however, a language guide to the most common Star Wars languages such as Huttese and Bocce exists: The Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide, which collects much of the data given in the books and movies surrounding the saga. Also covered in the book is Droidspeak, Ewokese, Gunganese, Jawaese, Neimoidian, Shyriiwook, Sullustan, and Tusken.