'Star Wars' proves treasure trove for philosophers

Why does everyone in that distant future era speak mid-Western American English? I mean, usually languages evolve over time.

why does everyone in that distant future era speak mid-Western American English? I mean, usually languages evolve over time.

Distant future? It was a long time ago.

Philosophers debate whether human-like droids, such as R2-D2, are conscious or self-aware

Some of us debate the same thing about philosophers.

@gokai Well in that case the Star Wars movies could have been shoot in "Basic Gallactic" but in that case the viewers (us Earthlings of this Galaxy) should learn Basic Galactic before watching the movies...so I think the decision was made to shoot the movie in English that is some how more known in this planet.

By the way do you know how "Basic Galactic" sounds like? It is a language spoken a "Long long time ago in a Galaxy Far, far away..." so I think it must be difficult to know.

and there's also more to it than the "good and evil" dichotomy. ;)

English only originated maybe a 500 years ago from old Frisian. So if this is in a galaxy long long ago and far far away, how did they know English? This portrail is not very realistic no matter how much CG you use.

@gokai

Think this way... we used translators for the main language of that universe.

Further more it is a movie... like a book... if you begin with that kind of criticism we are going to end up with a lot of movies being spoken in a tons of different languages.

gokai wo maneku: "This portrail is not very realistic no matter how much CG you use."

Here's a more important question: why be nit-picky about science fiction? I hope you don't spend your days picking about animated movies without forgetting they are CARTOONS to begin with. Another question: who's to say they did not speak mid-Western English back then? I mean, it's another galaxy far, far away, right? Maybe ours took longer to evolve. Another question: Would you go watch a movie you could not understand a single word of because it would be more 'realistic' that way? And don't say they could have subtitles, because that technology is our current technology, not theirs!

In short: who cares? In the Star Wars universe there are plenty of made up languages spoken. The practical reasons for using English, all fantasy and sci-fi aside, are pretty obvious.

Go watch it and enjoy!

I always find philosophical discussions of Star Wars to be pretty tedious. Its a movie mainly about laser explosions in space. A great movie about laser explosions in space, mind you, but as with most great movies about laser explosions in space it doesn`t need dissecting for whatever blah blah blah the person doing the dissecting wants to tie it to.

Why does everyone in that distant future era speak mid-Western American English?

They don't. Many of the beings in Star Wars seem physically incapable of human language. And many of the characters are speaking British English.

Why is English the principle language used though? Because spoiled people don't like subtitles. Just pretend its actually mostly an alien common language, a few other languages mixed in, but most characters are multi-lingual (so understand each other) and YOU have a near universal translator in your ear.

If I were going to voice a complaint, it would be more about the scenes that are unlikely and ridiculously contrived and irrational and basically impossible even within the confines of the invented universe and even through use of the force. Anakin taking his pad racer from a nose dive back to stable ground hugging flight comes to mind. And also the skidding through the Trade Federation droid control ship and blowing it up pretty much accidentally. The last three movies were a serious groan fest.

Why does everyone in that distant future era speak mid-Western American English?

Uh... Why does everyone in a Japanese movie set in the time of Nobunaga speak modern Japanese?

Greedo didn't speak mid-Western American English, Jabba the Hutt didn't speak mid-Western American English, neither did most of the other alien creatures - Chewbacca included. The humans spoke English because it's extremely annoying for actors to do an entire movie in a made-up language. It's also annoying for viewers to spend the entire movie reading sub-titles and not WATCHING the movie.