Aqualish (language)

This article is about the language of the alien species Aqualish. You may be looking for the Aqualish species.

"Negola dewaghi wool dugger?"

―Ponda Baba to Luke Skywalker — 20?cb=20250116042720

Aqualish was the official language of the planet Ando, spoken by the Aqualish species.^[3] The three subspecies of Aqualish—Aquala, Quara and Ualaq—each had a different dialect. However, these regionalisms were so similar that they were easily understood by speakers of the separate dialects.^[3]

Aqualish vocal cords caused harsh guttural sounds, which were common in the Aqualish language, but uncommon in Basic. If an Aqualish spoke Galactic Basic Standard, it sounded coarse and brutish. Most Aqualish did not learn Basic unless they needed to, which usually meant they had been forced to leave their homeworld.^[3]

When the young Human Luke Skywalker entered Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley in 0 BBY, a drunk Aqualish thug named Ponda Baba gave Skywalker a rough shove, bellowing "Out of my way, human excrement!" in his mother tongue.^[4]

Behind the scenes[]

Aqualishan — Ponda Baba speaking Aqualish in the non-canon story *The Emperor's Court"*

The sound effect of the Aqualish language was created for the Cantina scene of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.^[2] In the novelization by Alan Dean Foster and in the Revised Forth Draft of the film by George Lucas, the line spoken by the Aqualish Ponda Baba was "Negola dewaghi wooldugger?!?"^[5] Baba's ranting went untranslated until the publication of the 1995 short story Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe.^[4] In the film itself, the Aqualish language, which was briefly heard by Baba above, utilized the vocal recordings of a walrus.^[6]