Aurebesh

The Aurebesh


Aurek	Besh	Cresh	Cherek	Dorn	Esk	Enth	Onith


Forn	Grek	Herf	Isk	Jenth	Krill	Krenth	Leth	Mern


Nern	Nen	Osk	Orenth	Peth	Qek	Resh	Senth


Sen	Trill	Thesh	Usk	Vev	Wesk	Xesh	Yirt	Zerek

[Source]

Aurebesh was a writing system used to transcribe Galactic Basic, one of the most used languages in the galaxy.^[1] In the Outer Rim Territories, Aurebesh was sometimes used alongside Outer Rim Basic, another alphabet.^[2]

Examples of Aurebesh throughout the galaxy[edit | edit source]

Aurebesh appears at lower right of the pilot's jacket

During the Clone Wars, the back of clone trooper Ponds' helmet had the phrase "Some guys have all the luck" written in Aurebesh.^[3]

Clone medic Kix had the phrase "A good droid is a dead one" tattooed on the side of his head,^[4] although the tattoo was eventually covered up when he grew his hair out late in the war.^[5] Trooper Sketch had his initial, Senth, tattooed on his forehead.^[6]

Thirty-four years after the Battle of Yavin, Aurebesh was written upside-down on a life vest worn by Poe Dameron, a member of an X-wing starfighter squadron bearing markings similar to those of the Alliance and reading "Pull to Inflate."^[7]

Letters and numerals[edit | edit source]

Letter

Name
Meaning

Letter

Name
Meaning

Letter

Name
Meaning

Letter

Name
Meaning

Letter

Name
Meaning

Letter

Name
Meaning

Letter

Name
Meaning

Aurek
A

Besh
B

Cresh
C

Cherek
CH

Dorn
D

Esk
E

Enth
Æ

Onith
EO

Forn
F

Grek
G

Herf
H

Isk
I

Jenth
J

Krill
K

Krenth
KH

Leth
L

Mern
M

Nern
N

Nen
NG

Osk
O

Orenth
OO

Peth
P

Qek
Q

Resh
R

Senth
S

Sen
SH

Trill
T

Thesh
TH

Usk
U

Vev
V

Wesk
W

Xesh
X

Yirt
Y

Zerek
Z

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

"The Aurebesh is a lot like Boba Fett—it is a facet of the Star Wars phenomenon that had its origin as a cinematic aside, but which has come to be widely embraced, far out of proportion to its humble origins."

―Stephen Crane^[src]

Stephen Crane's original sample sheet of the first incarnation of the Aurebesh

An Aurebesh-like script first appeared in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the last installment in the original trilogy of Star Wars. It could be seen on the monitor readouts on the second Death Star at the beginning of the movie, when Darth Vader's shuttle is scanned while approaching the battle station. Erik Schroeder's decoding of the technical readouts further suggest that this readout is illegible, consisting of lines of character repeats.^[8] However, it was Stephen Crane of West End Games who gave each character a name and a corresponding Roman letter or letter combination. At the time, West End Games's flagship product was the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. While he was writing the Star Wars Miniatures Battles Companion in 1993, Crane decided to develop an alphabet for gamers to use. Upon receiving Lucasfilm's approval, Crane came up with the "Aurebesh," a 34-letter alphabet. It was later expanded to include punctuation marks in Imperial Entanglements, a 1996 supplement to Miniatures Battles.^[9]

Stephen Crane's alphabet was subsequently adopted in many Star Wars works, and even made its way into the movies. In 1999, a variant appeared in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, on a readout screen of Anakin Skywalker's Naboo fighter. As Skywalker heads toward the battle, the screen reads: "Anakin turn the ship around and go back home right away."^[10] Since the 2004 DVD release of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, the words on the tractor beam control on the Death Star are now in the Aurebesh.^[11]

Since April, 2014, most stories in which Aurebesh appeared are part of Star Wars Legends, previously known as the Expanded Universe, and are therefore not canon.^[12] However, as revealed in a "Ghost Crew Identification Card" available on the official site of Disney XD, the West End Games mapping of Aurebesh had been kept following the redefinition of canon, although the eight letters representing English digraphs were absent.^[13] However, the letters representing digraphs were later included in the 2015 children's book Star Wars Rebels: Battle Plans from Darth Vader and two of them appear in the canon comic Chewbacca 1, while one of them is printed on Ketsu Onyo's helmet in the Star Wars Rebels episodes "Blood Sisters" and "The Forgotten Droid." Coca-Cola products are sold in special in-universe Aurebesh designs at the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction.^[14]

Aurebesh letters and punctuation, from the Legends game accessory *Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised*

Aurebesh punctuation, originally created for the Legends game accessory Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised, is also used in Star Wars canon, and can be seen in several episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.