Speaking Ubese
u-baza. a, uto-tsha. o, go-tei.

A Foreword

Ubese is a language spoken by the Ubese in the Star Wars universe. This guide is a non-canon attempt to reconstruct the language based on the limited phrases spoken in Return of the Jedi (see above), in order to expand it into a writable and speakable language.

This reconstruction was inspired by this video by EC Henry, though it differs slightly in its transliteration and approach to the language.

The Ubese font used throughtout this guide is Ubese Boushh.

The guide, alphabet, and font are open-source and free to use by anyone forever, but please shoot an email to AurekFonts@gmail.com and let me know.

Also feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or suggestions!

From here on in, this guide will be presented as an in-universe basic language guide.

Index
jata. a, go-tei.

Phonology
tashes

Ubese phonology is limited to 6 vowels and 8 consonants, plus one consonant cluster. Most humans and near humans should be able to repoduce most if not all of these sounds accurately.

Ubese is commonly spoken with extreme vocal-fry, an inflection which may be harder for some learners to reproduce. If this is the case, do not fret, as most speakers of Ubese will still be able to understand you clearly. If you are still concerned about authenticity, you may invest in a vocoder with Ubese compatibility.

Vowels

a - a as in father

e - e as in bet

i - i as in wing

o - o as in solo

u - u as in crude

' - ' (neutral vowel) as in about

Dipthongs

ei - a as in space

ia - ia as in fiat

Consonants

b - b as in boost

d - d as in data

t - t as in tauntaun

z - z as in zap

s - s as in saber

sh - sh as in shoot

g - g as in gonk

y - y as in yell

Consonant Clusters

tsh - tsh as in chance

gy - gy

Phonotactics

Syllables in Ubese follow the pattern (C) V (V) (C).

(Note that a consonant cluster is treated as a single consonant and a dipthong is treated as a single vowel).

(Note that syllables are most commonly vowel-final.)

Stress

Given the limited phonemes in Ubese, pay special attention to placing the correct stress on syllables, as this is used to convey meaning and distinguish between words. For instance, while ya-TEI (yaTEI) means "I agree," YAtei (YAtei) means "dismember me."

Orthography
utes. a, yusha.

Ubese is written phonetically left-to-right. Each letter strictly represents one sound.

Words are separated by spaces.

Punctuation

. - follows the end of a sentence

Example: dutsha.

, - follows the topic of a sentence

Example: ei, yoto

- - precedes a non-initial stressed syllable

Example: ia-tei

Transliteration

There are several common systems for transliterating Ubese. This guide will use the High Galactic Standard.

Capitalization designates a stressed syllable.

Sentence terminal punctuation will be represented by "." (full stop, or period).

The topic marker is represented by "," (comma).

Examples:

Ubese: a, ju-Tshos. a, Ut's.
HGS: a, juTshos. a, Ut's.

Ubese: u-Ba. a, ia-Teis.
HGS: uBa. a, iaTeis.

Grammar
utes-za. a, uto-tcha.

Ubese has 2 parts of speech: Verbs and topic-markers. Together these are used to form simple and compound phrases.

Verbs

In their simplest form, Ubese verbs consist of a root and a personal-numeric inflection. For example, the verb Utei (Utei) takes the root Ut- (Ut-), meaning "to speak," and gives it the inflection -ei (-ei), meaning first-person-singular. Taken together, Utei (Utei) means "I speak."

The stress on inflection markers is determined by the preceding syllable's stress. If the previous syllable was stressed, the next syllable will be unstressed and vice-versa. Some inflection markers have stressed and unstressed forms.

There are 4 personal-numeric inflections in Ubese.

Third-person inflections also inflect for animacy. (Note: Sentient beings, Droids, plants, and animals are considered animate.)

There are 4 personal-numeric-animatic inflections in Ubese:

Transitive & Intransitive Verbs

Ubese uses both transitive and intransitive verbs.

In the case of intransitive verbs, the personal inflection indicates the subject of the verb. For example, Utes (Utes) means "we speak."

Transitive verbs, on the other hand, treat the personal inflection as the object of the verb. For instance, Tashes (Tashes) means "we are heard."

Unfortunately, there is no easy rule for distinguishing between transitive and intransitive verbs besides memorisation.

Simple Sentences

The simplest sentence structure in Ubese is a single verb, inflected for person and number. Here are some examples:

Sho. (Sho.) - "You hunt."

ia-Tat. (iaTat.) - "Those things are here."

Additional Inflections

Ubese utilizes additional suffixes for inflections of negative polarity, politeness, optative modality, and adjectivity. These are appended after the personal-numeric-animatic inflection markers.

Topic Markers

Topic markers are pronoun-like indicators of the topic of the sentence. The topic is the focus of discussion, regardless of what the subject of the verb is.

For instance, the phrase ei, u-To. (ei, uTo.) means "(me), you teach," where o (o) "you" is the subject, but the focus of the conversation (the topic) is ei (ei) "I / me."

The topic tends to take on the quality of being the subject if the verb is transitive or the object if the verb is intransitive. However, this is not always the case.

The topic markers in Ubese corespond to the personal-numeric-animatic inflection markers discussed ealier. They are:

Topic-Marked Sentences

When a sentence includes a topic marker, it is always the first word in the sentence.

u, Shei. (u, Shei.) "I hunt her." - lit. "(her) I hunt."

a, shaTo. (a, sha-To.) "You shoot at that." - lit. "(it) You shoot."

Compound Phrases

Because Ubese lacks typical nouns, it may be necessary to further define the implied subject of a sentence. In speech context can be provided with gestures; in writing, with illustrations. When these are unavailable or insufficient, compound phrases should be used.

Compound phrases take the form of two sentences, the first providing context for the latter. For example, to say "Tell me what you see," in Ubese, on might say ju-Tshos. a, Ut's. (juTshos. a, Ut's.) "You see. (that) You say."

Another example would be: Ga. ta-Dis. a, ash-Tis (Ga. taDis. a, ashTis) "It floats. They swim. (it) They are within." Or loosely translated: "My hovercraft is full of eels."

It is not recommended or conventional to use more than two context-providing sentences. It is also discouraged to use two context-providing sentences when their inflections agree, as this may lead to confusion.

List of Verbs
Utes. a, Yusha. at, go-Tei.