What language(s) were Yoda's speech patterns based on?

Question

I have noticed that a lot of the languages in Star Wars are based on languages in the real world, such as Chalmuk forming the basis of the Ewok language.

Do you know what language Yoda's way of speaking was based on? To me it seems a bit Shakespearean.

I used to have a theory that Yoda was based off of Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid (wise old slightly crazy guy who doesn't speak proper English teaching a kid how to defend himself). But then I found out that Empire Strikes Back came out before Karate Kid. — DaaaahWhoosh, Apr 26 '17 at 21:25
Yoda's speech reminded me of the way the Volta-men talk in the comic books. Not really the same, I guess, because those wrinkly green alien Nazis go subject-object-verb instead of object-subject-verb. — user14111, Apr 27 '17 at 04:21
Can't resist the urge to edit this question... Based on languages in the real world, a lot of the languages in Star Wars, I have noticed.... — sampathsris, Apr 27 '17 at 05:51
I heard it was Japanese. In Japanese, the verb comes at the end of the sentence. As well, Yoda sounds like a common Japanese surname (Noda, Goda, Hada). I heard there are many "Japanese" things about Star Wars, like Jedis being called Jedi because George had difficulties pronouncing the Japanese word "Jidai" which means era. The force being based on "Chi" energy, and them fighting with swords and Japanese looking robes. — , Apr 28 '17 at 11:55
I'd suggest that Yoda's sentence structure is very similar to Germanic languages (including old English). — Phill Healey, Apr 28 '17 at 14:29
German uses this word ordering, but only in subordinate clauses. For example: "I drive a car, which red is", or "I leave the party, because I myself alone feel". In main clauses, it sounds crazy for native speakers (just as for Joda-speak for native English). Although these sentences can't ever start with the object. — Gray Sheep, Apr 28 '17 at 16:56
For extended discussion, comments are not. Moved to chat, this conversation has been. — Rand al'Thor, Apr 29 '17 at 12:14
Note that OSV is the English word order for a large class of questions, namely ones where the object is a "who/what/which/...". The title of this question even comes close to being an example of one, had it not been written in passive voice. So in a sense, Yoda is speaking "question-like English". — R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE, Apr 30 '17 at 04:29

score 189 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 07 '17 at 05:59

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In an article addressed, this subject was.

“Surprisingly, there are a very few languages—it seems to be in single digits—that use OSV [Object Subject Verb] as their basic or normal order,” Pullum told me. “As far as I know, they occur only in the area of Amazonia in Brazil: they are South American Indian languages. One well-described case is a language called Nadëb.”

Looking at it linguistically, we can see that Yodish is a form of OSV - the word order is Object-Subject-Verb. This differs from typical English grammar, as most English sentences follow the "Subject-Verb-Object" order; for example

"I love cookies".

versus the Yodish/OSV:

"Cookies, I love"

However, see into George Lucas' mind, we can not. Yodish, though to other languages similar is, based off it is not.

“This is a clever device for making him seem very alien,” said Geoff Pullum, a professor of linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. “You have to do some work to realize that his, ‘Much to learn, you still have,’ means ‘You still have much to learn.’”

So, another language based off, it perhaps was not. Instead, only from George Lucas' mind conceived, it was.

edited Oct 07 '17 at 05:59

Obsidia

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answered Apr 26 '17 at 21:12

Mikasa

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Upvote this answer, I must. With flavor it drips. – corsiKa Apr 27 '17 at 06:12
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"You have to do some work" Um, what? Every child I know understands Yoda easily, except that he mumbles worse than Rapunzel. – MissMonicaE Apr 27 '17 at 12:06
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@MissMonicaE Doing "some work" doesn't rule out the possibility that that work is done easily. – JBentley Apr 27 '17 at 12:35
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Speak English this way you can. Incorrect grammar it is not. Through French, parts of Romance languages English has. OSV in Latin appears. – Michael Apr 27 '17 at 14:12
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I always thought it was someone with a very casual grasp of Japanese transliteration forming a construction using "desu* "Kore wa pen desu" might be broken down in possibly the least correct transliteration as "A pen, this is." Once that formation is used, the rest just follows. – Yorik Apr 27 '17 at 17:08
I agree with @Yorik. I've slowly been learning Japanese, and this OSV structure (or a structure that is similar) is used in nearly every sentence I've come across. – Ben Sandeen Apr 27 '17 at 20:21
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Nevermind, as per this answer, https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/158207/79041, Japanese is SOV, sorry – Ben Sandeen Apr 27 '17 at 20:24
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@BenSandeen well, you can still agree with me :) I think it is wrong to try and shoehorn this into an actual linguistic structure: this is Lucas and Frank Oz, not Tolkein. – Yorik Apr 27 '17 at 20:37
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@Yorik fantastic point. Lucas himself got better at writing Yoda's speech patterns as time went on, but it's clear that he didn't base it around any specific linguistic structure, and it was more of a subconscious format. There are also a few inconsistencies in Yoda's speech patterns. – Mikasa Apr 27 '17 at 20:50
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Note: The 1964 BBC documentary series The Great War has a clip (in the episode Surely We Have Perished) that always makes me think of Yoda. It happens at about 22:15 into this video: https://youtu.be/ePh6lOaEnk8?t=22m15s – Wad Cheber Apr 28 '17 at 01:04
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@Michael Interestingly, it looks like embedded clauses in Yodish are VO, like you've written. – Azor Ahai -him- Apr 28 '17 at 07:05
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It's also worth noting that we don't see Yoda speaking Yodish (whatever that is), we see him speaking Basic as a second language with a Yodish substrate. So we can only make guesses at his native syntax. – hobbs Apr 28 '17 at 21:50
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@Azor-Ahai A happy coincidence, this was. Based on grammatical knowledge it was not. Only mimicry, it was. :) – Michael Apr 29 '17 at 19:53
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@hobbs I meant Yodish to refer to his dialect not his L1 but good point. – Azor Ahai -him- Apr 29 '17 at 20:31
@JanusBahsJacquet have you got any references for OSV being more common in Germanic languages than in Latin? In (Modern) English it's all but nonexistent, and subordinate clauses in German and Dutch have SOV order, not OSV. Danish, Swedish, Norwegian etc. all have rather strict English-like SVO order even in subordinate clauses. Not sure about minority languages like Frisian or Gutnish but I'd be shocked if there were enough instances of OSV order in those languages to qualify as "many Germanic languages". – errantlinguist Apr 30 '17 at 22:52
@errantlinguist You're right. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking. OSV is the default in relative clauses where the relativiser is the object, but that's true in Latin and Romance languages as well. I must have been thinking about adverb–verb inversion in subordinate clauses and possibly been on LSD at the same time… – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 30 '17 at 23:03
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@JanusBahsJacquet it's good that you are knowledgeable enough to catch your own error, with or without LSD ;) (I suppose you need to be on something to work through all of this conflicting syntax theory, anyway...) – errantlinguist Apr 30 '17 at 23:05
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Maybe not alien OSV makes Yoda sound, but perhaps detached or cloistered - monk-like. – Anthony X May 01 '17 at 02:54
@Anthony X Yoda was based on a particular Buddhist monk – Mikasa May 01 '17 at 09:26
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@MissMonicaE "Do some work" implies that there's non-trivial processing going on to "solve" each of Yoda's sentences, not that it's difficult to work out the rule for doing so. – Jon Kiparsky Oct 07 '17 at 06:28

score 59 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

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There is some evidence to suggest that Yoda's speech is based on, well, English.

In this The Week article (I suggest reading the whole thing, the argument seems pretty convincing to me), Yoda's speech is compared to that which might be found in Shakespeare:

Round about the cauldron go; in the poison entrails throw.

Else the Puck a liar call.

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered.

I like him not.

The article also offers some examples of what Yoda might sound like if his speech actually was based on other languages:

Is planet lost at Master Obi-Wan. (Gaelic)

I not you will-teach more today. (French)

I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)

As you can see, even using languages similar to English might come out too confusing for the average moviegoing audience. On the other hand, using archaic English associated with Shakespeare and the King James Bible is accessible enough to be understandable, while alien enough to set Yoda apart.

Not only that, but connecting Yoda to things like Shakespeare and the King James Bible goes a long way to make him seem more ancient and wise. In another answer on this site, I used this to explain why Darth Sidious talked the same way in Revenge of the Sith; Yoda's sentence structure reminds audiences (perhaps unconsciously) of school and church, which works to solidify Yoda's role as a religious teacher.

That said, it seems like another source of Yoda's unique speech is overenthusiasm. In the original trilogy, Yoda speaks normally almost as often as he doesn't:

"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."

"If you end your training now — if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did — you will become an agent of evil"

"There is another Skywalker"

"That is why you fail"

However, it was the abnormalities of his speech that stood out more than the normality. Talking like Yoda turned into the equivalent of talking like a pirate or talking like Shakespeare: you take the things you know sound strange ('yarr matey', adding 'est' to the ends of verbs, etc), and use them as often as possible so everyone can tell what you're doing. Know, you will, when talking like Yoda I am, and the voice I don't even have to do. It seems like this explains most of the cringe-worthy later examples of Yoda's speech: it's based on Yoda's original speech, which is based on antiquated English that most people don't understand how to use.

edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

Community

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answered Apr 27 '17 at 01:18

DaaaahWhoosh

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Oh, I guess I didn't find a place in my argument for this, but I wanted to link to the TVTropes page for Magical Asian and Magical Native American, they seem like parallel tropes to Yoda, but using different versions of English that have also become parodies of themselves. – DaaaahWhoosh Apr 27 '17 at 01:24
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I think Yoda also uses normal word order throughout the lyrics of his famous "Seagulls! (Stop it now)" song ... – Hagen von Eitzen Apr 27 '17 at 07:31
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So Yoda uses a hieratic or sacral language when he wants to impart that (possibly religious) heritage, but otherwise speaks normally. – Andrew Leach Apr 27 '17 at 08:07
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Alas, poor Anakin... I knew him well, Luke – Machavity Apr 27 '17 at 12:13
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In Empire, in particular, Yoda uses the "weird" word ordering mostly before he reveals his identity, while he uses mostly normal word ordering afterward (note that all of your "normal" examples are post-reveal, for example). This observation suggests that at some point in the character's development his odd usage was meant to be a ruse to make him seem goofy and harmless, and that this was abandoned or forgotten in writing the later films. – Nobody Apr 27 '17 at 12:19
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"I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)" As a native German, i have no idea what this sentence should be based off. What is that supposed to even mean? I can not imagine a single word-by-word translated german sentence that fits this? – Polygnome Apr 27 '17 at 13:57
@Polygnome genau – Deutsch Pirate Apr 27 '17 at 16:06
@Polygnome seems like the original quote in English is "My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained", rephrased in English it might be "I will keep my own counsel on who is to be trained". I am not a German (IANAG?) so I can't verify the accuracy of what is effectively a double or triple translation, but the French example seemed about right to me. – DaaaahWhoosh Apr 27 '17 at 16:15
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@DaaaahWhoosh In German, this would be "Ich werde meinen eigenen Rat, wen zu trainieren, befolgen". Word-by-word this gets you "I will my own counsel, whom to train, keep". Which imho is at least somewhat understandable in english :D – Polygnome Apr 27 '17 at 16:20
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"I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)" => Ich werde meinen eigenes Urteil über die, die trainiert werden, behalten. – Sumyrda - remember Monica Apr 27 '17 at 18:01
I thought the line was, "That is why you failed." – jpmc26 Apr 28 '17 at 02:52
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@jpmc26 Could just check the clip on YT to see, but I think it was "fail" (present tense) because it wasn't just referring to failing to lift the X-Wing. – zstewart Apr 28 '17 at 13:58
The quote was definitely "fail", which also refers to future tense: you could fail in the future – Mikasa Apr 28 '17 at 23:29
One note on Elizabethan English: Shakespeare and the King James version of the Bible are both Elizabethan English, but they are different. Shakespeare had and toyed with a massive vocabulary that no one can compete with; the King James Version is not the Bible in Basic English, but religious people who continue use the King James Version today understand the language pretty well even if they are not otherwise bookworms. – Christos Hayward Apr 29 '17 at 22:47
But there is another interesting distinction: the King James Version is a rendering of Hebrew + Aramaic + Greek. We get phrases like "coals of fire" (Proverbs 25:22) where a more modern translation has "burning coals" (Now Indispensible Ver--New International Version) or "red-hot coals" (New Jerusalem Bible). The usual rule in today's English of adjectives before nouns is linguistically unusual, and the translations changed English. (Note that some people who aren't particularly trying to be Churchy seem to approach this: D&D seems to prefer to talk about "bags of holding.") – Christos Hayward Apr 29 '17 at 22:56
Funny how “Is planet lost at Master Obi-Wan” is gibberish when read as English but makes perfect sense as “Tá [an?] pláinéad caillte ag an Mhaistir Obi-Wan”. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 30 '17 at 23:11

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 07 '17 at 06:02

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To add to Mikasa Pinata's excellent answer...

Whilst OSV (object-subject-verb) order is not the standard form for most languages, that does not mean it is not an "available option". In English it sounds distinctly alien whilst still being intelligible (hence Lucas's use of the form), but in other languages, it is a perfectly valid construction. A prerequisite for this is generally that the language grammar must allow the subject and object to be distinguished independently of their position in the sentence.

German is the example I know best. In German, position early in the sentence gives emphasis, and subject/object is distinguished by the various forms of the definite or indefinite article (der/die/das, ein/eine/ein, etc.).

So in English, "the dog bites the man" only has one possible interpretation. In German, "der Hund beisst den Mann" is a direct translation. However "den Hund beisst der Mann" means "the man bites the dog", with an emphasis on the dog, simply by changing which is "der" (definite article, male, subject) and which is "den" (definite article, male, object). In English, an equivalent construction requires the passive tense ("the dog was bitten by the man") because that's the only way the language allows the subject/object order to be changed. German can do this as a basic feature of the language - but at the cost of a complex set of rules about definite and indefinite articles.

The same construction is also possible in Latin, where the endings of nouns change depending on whether they are subject or object. Again though, this comes at the cost of complex rules about exactly how those endings work.

edited Oct 07 '17 at 06:02

Obsidia

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answered Apr 27 '17 at 12:28

Graham

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I remember in German A level, the Austrian teacher mentioned "The Man Bites The Dog" alongside "'The cat survived, but I swerved to hit the dog' I am putting the cat first because everyone likes cats, the cats are more important, see?" She reminded me of Yoda herself. – Mikasa Apr 27 '17 at 15:32
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Note that in your German examples, the orderings are SVO and OVS, respectively. OSV sounds indeed ungrammatical in German, as well, hence Yoda talks weirdly in the German dubbing, too. – O. R. Mapper Apr 27 '17 at 15:34
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@O.R.Mapper Interesting, I've never listened to a German Krieg Die Sterne dub; how do they make his speech patterns sound unusual there? There's also the challenge of making it seem like a deliberate error, rather than just incompetent German. – Mikasa Apr 27 '17 at 15:49
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@MikasaPinata: For the example sentence you provided, Yoda would say in German: "Der Hund den Mann beißt." or "Den Mann der Hund beißt.", both of which are invalid orderings in German grammar. I think it doesn't sound like an incompetent translation because it's exactly one character who consistently speaks that way. Another reason may be that while dubbed lines can end up nonsensical in contents, I have never come across an example where a line dubbed German was downright ungrammatical. Given that German voices in dubbed shows typically speak free of any accents (even when the ... – O. R. Mapper Apr 27 '17 at 16:01
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... original actors would have a foreign-sounding accents in the original English version, for instance), I suppose most native German viewers will instinctively categorize the voice as that of another native speaker, and thereby assume any weird grammar must be intentional, or else they would not deliver the line in a straight way. – O. R. Mapper Apr 27 '17 at 16:02
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@O.R.Mapper When I first seen Starwars, that was also my view. It is evident Yoda is an alien too, so we know his language was deliberate :) – Deutsch Pirate Apr 27 '17 at 16:09
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@O.R.Mapper Voice actors for dubs are usually not cast with the same budget and care that producers would spend on the main language performers. Not that they are bad, necessarily. Also, there is a smaller pool of those that can do their job well. So, less range for selecting ones with accents, or that can do accents. Additionally, they already have quite a lot of demands placed on them — what with matching the rhythm and tempo of someone speaking a different language. Anyways … – can-ned_food Apr 28 '17 at 06:16
@O.R.Mapper Thanks for that correction. You're right, of course - I'd focussed on noun order and missed the placement of the verb. – Graham Apr 28 '17 at 11:17
@can-ned_food: "less range for selecting ones with accents, or that can do accents" - you make it sound like having the accent is desirable, but I actually meant it the other way round. For instance, anecdotally, an American friend of mine told me they found themselves distracted from the plot in Cloud Atlas due to actress Doona Bae's thick Korean accent. I watched the German dubbed version and did not have my experience of the movie diminished by that aspect, as the respective characters spoke flawless German. – O. R. Mapper Apr 28 '17 at 22:27
@O.R.Mapper Disregard, then: I thought you meant when the character is meant to have an accent, and does in the original audio, but not in the dub — leading to confusion as to their identity or characterization. Vis–à–vis Yoda's distinctive vocal character as done by Frank Oz. – can-ned_food Apr 29 '17 at 02:19

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 07 '17 at 06:03

In all my languages studies, I found that: Yoda talks like nihongo/Japanese, as he puts the "to be" verb at the end of the phrase- for example; "baka Steve des" (romanji representation/japanese) means "stupid, Steve is"

But it is also similar to Arabic: In English, we would say "the table is tall", but in Arabic, you would simply say, "tall" in Arabic, whilst pointing to the subject.

Yoda's language is a mix of all the languages on Earth. I think it was due to looking at different languages' SYNTAX then confusion over pronunciation. For example: Coptic ancient language (Egyptian) in English "stephane", in Coptic "stphn".

Best of all, the primary languages roots first and important words of "acta, water, mama" - Do you see Latin? Greek? These are really old forms of languages which remain common/have survived?

:) have a good day and confusion crisis

Can you provide sources for your answer? Papers that suggest this arrangement for these languages, etc. — Edlothiad, Apr 29 '17 at 13:34

score -1 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 16 '19 at 23:01

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Hungarian: https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/08/09/hungarian-i-am-not/ and https://ppmhungary.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/out-of-this-world-hungarian-is/ - "word on the street in Hungary is that Yoda actually uses Hungarian syntax translated into English."

edited Apr 16 '19 at 23:01

Stormblessed

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answered Apr 28 '17 at 14:19

Glen Pierce

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Actually reading that first article, he shows that this is not a case of English-Hungarian-English translation. The second article only propagates the rumor and doesn't attempt to prove it either way – FreeMan Apr 28 '17 at 14:51
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I don't really know either way, but many Hungarians are pretty sure this is true. Sure, there are some places where Lucas may have decided to break with the language's rules, but I don't think that invalidates the entire theory. – Glen Pierce Apr 28 '17 at 14:54
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Unless there is evidence that Lucas knew anything about Hungarian grammar, I would dismiss this as a pure coincidence. – Wildcard Apr 29 '17 at 02:14
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What's the image supposed to show? That Yoda does not use Hungarian word order? After all, the first sentence would rather read "Much to learn you still have." Likewise, the third sentence would sound more Yoda-like if it said "A stone the envoy is following." Yoda's word order and Hungarian word order both being unlike English word order is not sufficient for Yoda's word order and Hungarian word order to be equal. – O. R. Mapper Apr 30 '17 at 11:46

What language(s) were Yoda's speech patterns based on?

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