Star Wars: 15 Things The Movies Stole From The Expanded Universe

3. Aurebesh Was Meaningless Gobbledygook Until The Roleplaying Game

Language in Star Wars is an odd beast. There's various alien tongues of different levels of development - Chewie's roars are pretty much all based on inflection, while Huttese has a pretty comprehensive phrase guide - but despite a rabid fan following none have been expanded to become as in-depth (or obsessed over) as much as Klingon or Elvish.

Maybe it's because it doesn't have as dense enough script; most of the characters speak Basic (English by another name) and the written language is simply a signification of our own. Although that there's an alphabet at all is only thanks to the EU.

In the original movies, the Aurebesh language was meaningless gobbledygook - random symbols to make things all a bit more sci-fi - and sat alongside standard English as well. But The Roleplaying Game in 1987 (one of the biggest expansions of the universe) changed that, coming with a direct signification of Aurebesh symbols to English counterparts.

So, for the Special Editions and later the prequels, Lucas decided to bring in this element, replacing the original English with Aurebesh and ensuring any future appearances of the symbols were now coherent phrases.