What is Boushh Saying in Return of the Jedi? (Ubese 101)

Ubese is a language of mystery and repetition, but is there an actual logic behind it? Let's find out!

------------------------------------------------------
CREDITS:

Håkon Nilsen
TK2 Films
Joseph Jonathan Marcus
"Bad Wolf Solutions"
Dominick LaLicata
Sam Williamson
Daniel Day

[TheShockwave]

One could also say that this is "Leia as Boushh" speaking Ubese, and she is most definitely not a native speaker, but has to pretend to be. She could be operating with a limited vocabulary and only saying what she has to to keep her concealed identity a secret, limiting interactions to short, relatively easy sentences.

[ThreeProphets]

When it comes to "douccha", it's important to note that Boba almost shot her just a few seconds ago. In Legends, Leia had an expansive knowledge of galactic politics and factions, so she knows that by threatening a Mandalorian, she's made a miscalculation... because Boba won't hesitate to go for the kill shot. If we're sticking with the pronoun compounds, I might theorize that "dou" is "us" or "we". So she's asking Boba, "We cool?", because she doesn't want to die. Boba confirms by nodding his head slowly

[Ladondorf]

You could also interpret "Yuhto" as meaning 50, 000, and the repetition of the same word meaning that this amount is non negotiable. Thus, "50, 000, no less."

[anzaca]

5:52 And of course, C-3PO understands how Ubese works, and is thus adding the context into his translation for the sake of clarity, so that Jabba fully understand what Boushh is saying.

[cassandraxiv]

Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time.

Or:
_Bu, choshh dasto bouto, dastoccha_

[BrekkaJones]

Me: *speaks gibberish for a movie*
Henrey: *makes sense of it and subsequently creates a language*
Also me: Thank

[kg]

Given boushh's voice and the fact that he may have a completely foreign set of vocal parts, it's also entirely possible that his people have an entirely separate "flavor" to their language based on the frequency or amount of reverb in their vowels. It would also make sense why C3P0 would have to translate it for them. Only members of their species, or linguistics droids would likely be able to pick up on all those sub-harmonic queues.

[Pope]

"gyatoh" could mean "you give."
"iatoh" is "I give/bring."
"Ei iatoh, " could then mean, "or/instead/else I give, " and indicate Boushe is giving Jabba a option of which he'd like.
Which means it's not hostage-taking, which Jabba hates, but negotiation, which Jabba loves.

[andorfedra]

As amazingly overly simple as it sounds, it may be that Ubese is a Laconic language, using combinations of simple sounds to create a variety of expressions of concepts using the simplest modes possible. I love the in-depth Analysis.

[VascoBrown]

This breakdown was really well done. Please don't hesitate to make more in-depth videos like this in the future. They really are enjoyable.

[boblowes]

We probably also shouldn't rule out that body language could be an important part of Ubese - a particular tilt of the head, the way you stand - that might convey a lot of information to other Ubese speakers. Or then there's other non-verbal forms of communication. In A Certain Point of View (the 40th anniversary short story collection) it is mentioned that Jawas communicate as much through scent as anything else - it could be that Ubese relies upon pheromones to convey subtle inflections.

[Reduxalicious]

"How on earth does she say the same word twice and it mean something different"
Mandarin: Please allow us to introduce ourselves

[H.J.Fleischmann]

I want a full Ubese dictionary and language.

[AustralianGrizzly]

To bring this up again. I noticed that in Battlefront 2, Leia had a Skin as her Boushh disguise. It also came with Emotes which had both voice and translations.
Any chance of looking back at this with the newer lines added to the works?

[knightofalleble]

Regarding the repeated "I come" in "iatei, iatei, " couldn't that also be because Ubese doesn't have a personal "we" pronoun? As in, saying "I come, I come" would just be their way of saying "we come"?

[TheDarthChief]

Too bad he made this before Battlefront 2 added tons of new Ubese lines with Leia's Boushh skin.

[RichardAspdenOfficial]

For the reply to "Why should I pay?" the Ubese could be "Well, you get this?"

And the line to Boba could mean "What do you think?"

[LJLvids]

I choose this to be my new headcanon on the subject (not that I really tought about Ubese that often before). Also, dude you deserve WAY bigger of an audience with the amount of work that goes into these. I try and share your videos as often as I can but that's still not enough.

[greycastro]

As a lover of both Star Wars and linguistics, I had a fantastic time with this one.

[theSultanofSquares]

As much as this could easily be all of us just wanting what was basically nonsense words to be a real language, I do REALLY appreciate the analysis. I especially like that you recognize that as a translator C3PO could easily read in implied meaning in the voice and verb forms of the statements. Translation isn't just literally translating word for word, he has to inform Jaba of what the effective meanings are, not just the literal ones.