How to Speak Gunganese.
Heyo-dalee! Welcome to the Gungan page! Here you will find:
- An introduction and history of Gungan
- A dictionary of Gungan terms
- A Lessons section
- Transcriptions of all Gungan dialogue known to humankind
- Alphabet and font gallery
- Related links
- Source section
All new material added as of the latest update will be highlighted in red for your convenience.
The Gift of Gab,
Gunganese 101:
An Introduction
The Gungan language is first heard in Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. It also appears in Episodes II and III. It is basically Standard Basic with a variety of cultural speech alterations which form a disticnt dialect often referred to as Gungan Basic. For example 'meesa' which brings to mind the Basic word 'me' means 'I' or 'me' in Gungan. Therefore it is a Standard Basic word altered by Gungan culture.
There was much fallout once Episode I was released as many fans disliked Jar Jar Binks's childish antics. There was more fallout from African-Americans who considered Jar Jar and the Gungans to be insulting caricatures of their African-American culture like a modern day 'Steppin Fetchit'. This is an odd stretch since Ahmed Best who portrays Jar Jar is African-American himself. Nevertheless, Jar Jar continues to this day to drive people that claim to be die hard fans, crazy. However, there are just as many supporters and admirers of Jar Jar as there are those in opposition and according to the Star Wars Insider #109, Jar Jar is actually becoming more popular even to those that vowed to never like him ten years ago with the help of shows like Robot Chicken. (For the record, I have always liked Jar Jar and the Gungans :D ).
History
Gungans live on the planet Naboo, deep below the water whereas the human Naboo live on land. Although in the past, the Naboo might have considered the Gungans to be backward, they actually have a quite advanced civilzation. In order to exist underwater, Gungans built a large network of bubble structures that encase their homes, businesses, and seats of worship and government in a dry air environment using energy shield technology. The capital city is called Otoh Gunga. The leader of the Gungans is called a 'Boss', such as Boss Nass. Although Gungans are peaceful, they are brave and ready to defend themselves if ecessary with their large military. Similar to the Wookiees of Kashyyk, Gungans also prefer organic/biological tehnochology. Gungans refer to themselves as 'Gung' much the way a human would refer to himself as 'man' (6).
Wookieepedia states the following evolutionary note:
"Lengthy muscular tongues and large blunt teeth allowed them to eat lesser amphibians, while a layer of tough skin on the head allowed for burrowing. As a result of the duck-billed mouth and strange vocal cord structure, all Gungans had a slight lisp in their speech; for example, while in Galactic Basic a Human would say "We are going to do it," the same phrase coming out of a Gungan's mouth would sound something like "Wesa goin to be doines it"."
I disagree with this statement as I believe the differences in language and grammar are based on cultural differences rather than physical ones. That is not to say that Gungan speech does not refelct the anatomy of their mouths, teeth, and vocal chords, but there is not any noticeable or particular lisp when hearing Gungans speak that is not directly related to their cultural lingo.
Gungans did not always speak their peculiar dialect of Standard Basic, but spoke Old Gungan. Many Old Gungan words still exist in modern day Gunganese such as 'bodooka' (energy ball) and 'heyblibber' (luxury yacht) (7). Old Gungan with Old Corellian translations was recently excavated by xenoarcheaologists called the Gung Slabs (7). These inscriptions have given scholars a larger picture of the evolution of the Gungan language.
Grammar
As stated in the introduction, Gungan is Basic with cultural alterations. The grammar is very informal and might be considered slang to the outside observer. However, the Gungans have a sophisticated culture and any alterations adapted to the Basic language by their race are based on their culture rather than everchanging trendy whims.
Cultural differences are changes such as replacing the gerund '-ing' with '-en'. Jar Jar binks states, "Meesa haten crunchen'" which if using Standard Basic grammar would be 'I hate crunching'.
Gungan-Basic Dictionary:
Unless otherwise stated, these terms are from Ben Burtt's book.
Berry (bair ree) ? 1. Very.
Bodooka (boh doo kah) n. 1. Energy ball.
Bo-ganya (boh gan yah) n. 1. Dome shaped force field.
Boopjak (boop jak) n. 1. A big mistake.
Crunchen (krunch en) n.,v. 1. Fighting. (1)
Da (dah) ? 1. The.
Heyo-dalee (hay yo dail lee) ?. 1. Hello.
Logreena (loe gree nah) n. 1. Forest.
Meesa (mee sah) ?. 1. I. 2. Me. (1)
My (my) ?. 1. I am. (1)
Nosa (noe sah) ?. 1. No.
Okeyday (oh kee day) ? 1. Okay. 2. OK.
Tongue-grabben (tung grab enn) v. 1. Eating.
Yesa (yess ah) ?. 1. Yes.
Yousa (yoo sah) ?. 1. You. 2. Your.
Basic-Gungan Dictionary:
Dome shaped force field (dohm shaypd foorse feeld) n. 1. Bo-ganya.
Eating (ee ting) v. 1. Tongue-grabben.
Energy Ball (en ur jee ball) n. 1. Bodooka.
Fighting (fy ting) n.,v. 1. Crunchen.
Forest (for est) n. 1. Logreena.
Hello (hell lo) ?. 1. Heyo-dalee.
I (eye) ?. 1. Meesa.
I am (I em) ?. 1. My.
Mistake (mis stake) n. 1. Boopjak.
No (noe) ?. 1. Nosa.
Okay (oh kay) ? 1. Okeyday.
The (thuh) ? 1. Da.
Very (vair ree) ? 1. Berry.
Yes (yess) ?. 1. Yesa.
You (yoo) ?. 1. Yousa.
Your (yore) ?. 1. Yousa.
- An introduction and history of Gungan
- A dictionary of Gungan terms
- A Lessons section
- Transcriptions of all Gungan dialogue known to humankind
- Alphabet and font gallery
- Related links
- Source section
All new material added as of the latest update will be highlighted in red for your convenience.
The Gift of Gab,
Gunganese 101:
An Introduction
The Gungan language is first heard in Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. It also appears in Episodes II and III. It is basically Standard Basic with a variety of cultural speech alterations which form a disticnt dialect often referred to as Gungan Basic. For example 'meesa' which brings to mind the Basic word 'me' means 'I' or 'me' in Gungan. Therefore it is a Standard Basic word altered by Gungan culture.
There was much fallout once Episode I was released as many fans disliked Jar Jar Binks's childish antics. There was more fallout from African-Americans who considered Jar Jar and the Gungans to be insulting caricatures of their African-American culture like a modern day 'Steppin Fetchit'. This is an odd stretch since Ahmed Best who portrays Jar Jar is African-American himself. Nevertheless, Jar Jar continues to this day to drive people that claim to be die hard fans, crazy. However, there are just as many supporters and admirers of Jar Jar as there are those in opposition and according to the Star Wars Insider #109, Jar Jar is actually becoming more popular even to those that vowed to never like him ten years ago with the help of shows like Robot Chicken. (For the record, I have always liked Jar Jar and the Gungans :D ).
History
Gungans live on the planet Naboo, deep below the water whereas the human Naboo live on land. Although in the past, the Naboo might have considered the Gungans to be backward, they actually have a quite advanced civilzation. In order to exist underwater, Gungans built a large network of bubble structures that encase their homes, businesses, and seats of worship and government in a dry air environment using energy shield technology. The capital city is called Otoh Gunga. The leader of the Gungans is called a 'Boss', such as Boss Nass. Although Gungans are peaceful, they are brave and ready to defend themselves if ecessary with their large military. Similar to the Wookiees of Kashyyk, Gungans also prefer organic/biological tehnochology. Gungans refer to themselves as 'Gung' much the way a human would refer to himself as 'man' (6).
Wookieepedia states the following evolutionary note:
"Lengthy muscular tongues and large blunt teeth allowed them to eat lesser amphibians, while a layer of tough skin on the head allowed for burrowing. As a result of the duck-billed mouth and strange vocal cord structure, all Gungans had a slight lisp in their speech; for example, while in Galactic Basic a Human would say "We are going to do it," the same phrase coming out of a Gungan's mouth would sound something like "Wesa goin to be doines it"."
I disagree with this statement as I believe the differences in language and grammar are based on cultural differences rather than physical ones. That is not to say that Gungan speech does not refelct the anatomy of their mouths, teeth, and vocal chords, but there is not any noticeable or particular lisp when hearing Gungans speak that is not directly related to their cultural lingo.
Gungans did not always speak their peculiar dialect of Standard Basic, but spoke Old Gungan. Many Old Gungan words still exist in modern day Gunganese such as 'bodooka' (energy ball) and 'heyblibber' (luxury yacht) (7). Old Gungan with Old Corellian translations was recently excavated by xenoarcheaologists called the Gung Slabs (7). These inscriptions have given scholars a larger picture of the evolution of the Gungan language.
Grammar
As stated in the introduction, Gungan is Basic with cultural alterations. The grammar is very informal and might be considered slang to the outside observer. However, the Gungans have a sophisticated culture and any alterations adapted to the Basic language by their race are based on their culture rather than everchanging trendy whims.
Cultural differences are changes such as replacing the gerund '-ing' with '-en'. Jar Jar binks states, "Meesa haten crunchen'" which if using Standard Basic grammar would be 'I hate crunching'.
Gungan-Basic Dictionary:
Unless otherwise stated, these terms are from Ben Burtt's book.
Berry (bair ree) ? 1. Very.
Bodooka (boh doo kah) n. 1. Energy ball.
Bo-ganya (boh gan yah) n. 1. Dome shaped force field.
Boopjak (boop jak) n. 1. A big mistake.
Crunchen (krunch en) n.,v. 1. Fighting. (1)
Da (dah) ? 1. The.
Heyo-dalee (hay yo dail lee) ?. 1. Hello.
Logreena (loe gree nah) n. 1. Forest.
Meesa (mee sah) ?. 1. I. 2. Me. (1)
My (my) ?. 1. I am. (1)
Nosa (noe sah) ?. 1. No.
Okeyday (oh kee day) ? 1. Okay. 2. OK.
Tongue-grabben (tung grab enn) v. 1. Eating.
Yesa (yess ah) ?. 1. Yes.
Yousa (yoo sah) ?. 1. You. 2. Your.
Basic-Gungan Dictionary:
Dome shaped force field (dohm shaypd foorse feeld) n. 1. Bo-ganya.
Eating (ee ting) v. 1. Tongue-grabben.
Energy Ball (en ur jee ball) n. 1. Bodooka.
Fighting (fy ting) n.,v. 1. Crunchen.
Forest (for est) n. 1. Logreena.
Hello (hell lo) ?. 1. Heyo-dalee.
I (eye) ?. 1. Meesa.
I am (I em) ?. 1. My.
Mistake (mis stake) n. 1. Boopjak.
No (noe) ?. 1. Nosa.
Okay (oh kay) ? 1. Okeyday.
The (thuh) ? 1. Da.
Very (vair ree) ? 1. Berry.
Yes (yess) ?. 1. Yesa.
You (yoo) ?. 1. Yousa.
Your (yore) ?. 1. Yousa.