Aurebesh was a writing system comprising 34 letters used to transcribe Galactic Basic Standard, the most spoken language in the galaxy.^[2] In the Outer Rim Territories, Aurebesh was sometimes used alongside Outer Rim Basic, another alphabet.^[3]

Examples of Aurebesh throughout the galaxy[]

In general[]

Aurebesh was often used inside macrobinoculars, in the Republic Era,^[4] the Imperial Era^[5] and the New Republic Era.^[6]

The credit symbol ( ) resembled an Aurebesh letter resh with two vertical strokes at the top.^[7]

Republic Era[]

Aurebesh text could be seen on the screens of various types of technology, including screens in the cockpits of N-1 starfighters,^[8] and the Separatist facility known as Skytop Station.^[9]

During the Clone Wars, some clone troopers customized their armor with Aurebesh phrases. The back of clone trooper Ponds' helmet had the phrase "SOME GUYS HAVE ALL THE LUCK" written in Aurebesh.^[10] Others got Aurebesh tattoos. Clone medic Kix had the phrase "A GOOD DROID IS A DEAD ONE" tattooed on the side of his head,^[11] although the tattoo was eventually covered up when he grew his hair out late in the war,^[12] while trooper Sketch had his initial, Senth, tattooed on his forehead.^[13] In the same vein, some Low Altitude Assault Transports were personalized with Aurebesh, such as the Spaceward Ho!^[14] and Lucky Lekku, both of which bore their names,^[15] and the Crumb Bomber, which bore the phrase "LAUGH THIS OFF".^[15] The patrol transports used on Coruscant were emblazoned with the word "POLICE".^[16]

Establishments throughout the galaxy used Aurebesh signs to identify themselves, such as the The Hole and Purple Werm.^[17] The Droid Spa on Coruscant used one such sign to show the services it provided. The sign read "OIL CHANGES, RUST REMOVAL", "MEMORY FLUSHING, POLISHING MOTIVATOR REPAIR, DE-FLUTTERING, RESTRAINING BOLT APPLICATION AND REMOVAL, GENERAL MAINTENANCE OVERHAULS, JUNK REMOVAL".^[18] Several posters with Aurebesh text hung in the Trueping's bar during the Clone Wars, including one for "DJ RANGTHANG", and one for for Sy Snootles (also seen in the bar room) that read "THE SY SNOOTLES SHOW" • "IN PERSON" • "SY SNOOTLES" • "SOMEWHERE ON CORUSCANT" • "FRI – SAT 12 – 4" • "SOLD OUT".^[19]

Technical readouts used by the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars were also written in Aurebesh.^[20]

Wanted posters in the Jedi Archives on Coruscant were written in Aurebesh text.^[21] Similarly, bounties in Aurebesh were posted on the walls of Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, including information such as "NIM MINDBEND" – "WANTED": "DEAD" for "KIDNAPPING, THEFT AND MURDER" – "REWARD: 120,000"; OMAR TOGGS – "WANTED": "DEAD" or "ALIVE" for "RACKETEERING AND EXTORTION" – "REWARD: 75,000"; "ZUG TASSIK" – "WANTED": "DEAD" or "ALIVE" for "MASS MURDER" – "REWARD: 800,000"; "SAVAGE OPRESS" – "WANTED" for "FLEEING THE SCENE OF A CRIME" – "REWARD: 550,000".^[22]

The electro-proton bomb that was attached to Goji and Rod's bomber and dropped during the Battle of Malastare had a warning printed on the nose cone that read "CAUTION ION DETONATOR". The body of the bomb had "CODE SWITCH DESIGNATOR" • "POSITION 1" • "POSITION 2" • "POSITION 3" • "POSITION 4" printed on it, and on one of the tail fins, the words "THIS IS FOR YOU DOOKU" were handwritten.^[23]

Loubo, the owner of Plop Dribble's, had a tattoo on his right arm of a double-heart that read "MOM" in Aurebesh.^[24]

At Hondo Ohnaka's camp on Florrum, a huge piece of superstructure read "HONDO'S SALVAGE" – "PRICES SLASHED" stenciled on it in Aurebesh.^[25] Meanwhile, around the time of the Bombing of the Jedi Temple hangar, protesters carried Aurebesh signs that read "THE JEDI ARE CORRUPT" and "STOP CLONING VIOLENCE!".^[26]

Imperial Era[]

Aurebesh wanted posters saw use into the Imperial Era. One such poster for Kanan Jarrus read:^[27]

WANTED:
JARRUS, KANAN

SPECIES: HUMAN
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 1.9 M
HAIR: BROWN
EYES: GREEN
LANGUAGE: BASIC
WEAPONS: BLASTER
LIGHTSABER
OCCUPATION: UNKNOWN
LAST KNOWN LOCATION:
OUTER RIM TERRITORIES,
LOTHAL SYSTEM

WANTED FOR:
THEFT OF IMPERIAL SUPPLIES
RESISTING ARREST
ASSAULTING OFFICERS
PILOTING WITHOUT LICENSE

During the Imperial Period, an Imperial officer used a monitor that listed the names of a number of prisoners in Aurebesh. The list of names included LADY M'Arshngton and Cay Ploon Kett.^[28] The Empire also used Aurebesh on its propaganda posters, one of which bore the slogan "PROTECTING LOTHAL" – "PROTECTING YOU".^[29] Aurebesh text was also included in the TIE/D Defender Elite blueprints stolen by the Spectres.^[30]

Jyn Erso's kyber crystal necklace was engraved with the words "TRUST IN THE^[31] FORCE"; these words were also the final ones Jyn's mother said to her.^[5]

New Republic Era[]

Ren, the leader of the Knights of Ren, concealed his face behind a mask, which was featureless aside from a number of red markings, which contained hidden Aurebesh letters spelling the title "REN".^[32]

Thirty-four years after the Battle of Yavin, the life vests worn by Poe Dameron and other Resistance pilots read "PULL TO INFLATE", written upside-down so as to be readable to the wearer.^[33]

Letters and numerals[]

Letter	Name Meaning	Letter	Name Meaning	Letter	Name Meaning	Letter	Name Meaning	Letter	Name Meaning	Letter	Name Meaning
	Aurek A		Besh B		Cresh C		Cherek CH		Dorn D		Esk E
	Enth Æ		Onith EO		Forn F		Grek G		Herf H		Isk I
	Jenth J		Krill K		Krenth KH		Leth L		Mern M		Nern N
	Nen NG		Osk O		Orenth OO		Peth P		Qek Q		Resh R
	Senth S		Sen SH		Trill T		Thesh TH		Usk U		Vev V
	Wesk W		Xesh X		Yirt Y		Zerek Z		Credits
	1		2		3		4		5
	6		7		8		9		0

Behind the scenes[]

An Aurebesh-like script first appeared in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the last installment in the original trilogy of Star Wars. It could be seen on the monitor readouts on the second Death Star at the beginning of the movie, when Darth Vader's shuttle is scanned while approaching the battle station. Erik Schroeder's decoding of the technical readouts further suggest that this readout is illegible, consisting of lines of character repeats.^[35]

In 1993, while writing the Star Wars Miniatures Battles Companion for West End Games' Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Stephen Crane decided to develop an alphabet for gamers to use. Upon receiving Lucasfilm's approval, Crane came up with the "Aurebesh", a 34-letter alphabet, by redrawing many symbols from Return of the Jedi and assigning them each to a letter or pair of letters from the Latin Alphabet. He later added punctuation marks in Imperial Entanglements, a 1996 supplement for the Star Wars Miniatures Battles game. The Imperial Credit symbol (not designed by Crane) was created for the Monopoly Star Wars board game.^[34]

The name "Aurebesh" is derived from the first two letters of the Aurebesh alphabet, Aurek and Besh.^[34] This is similar to the real-world word "alphabet", which comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet—alpha and beta.^[36]

Stephen Crane's alphabet was subsequently adopted in many Star Wars works, and even made its way into the movies. In 1999, a variant style of Aurebesh appeared in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, on a readout screen of Anakin Skywalker's Naboo fighter. As Skywalker heads toward the battle, the screen reads: "Anakin turn the ship around and go back home right away."^[8] The words on the tractor beam control on the Death Star, originally written in the Latin Alphabet, were changed to Aurebesh for the 2004 DVD release of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and all subsequent releases of the film.^[37]

In April, 2014, most stories in which Aurebesh previously appeared were designated "Star Wars Legends" (formerly known as the Expanded Universe) and no longer considered canon.^[38] This included all sources that defined the correspondence between the Aurebesh and the Latin Alphabet. However, subsequent canon material has upheld the original West End Games mapping of Aurebesh. These included a "Ghost Crew Identification Card" available on the Disney XD website,^[39] and the 2015 children's book Star Wars Rebels: Battle Plans from Darth Vader.^[40]

Coca-Cola products are sold in special in-universe Aurebesh designs at the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction.^[41]

Foreign language inserts[]

Some Aurebesh texts contain excerpts from other real-world languages:

German[]

In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Liberty on Ryloth", an all-Aurebesh Republic monitor includes the text "UND UBERHAUPT",^[42] German for "and anyway".

Italian[]

In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "The Academy", when Soniee and her fellow students break into the Government warehouse, her datapad says "ENTRARE" in Aurebesh,^[43] which is Italian for "enter".^[44]

Spanish[]

In the Star Wars: Visions episode "T0-B1", the big monitor in Professor Mitaka's laboratory is filled with Aurebesh text. Most of it is written in Spanish; for example, there is "PERMANENCIA DESARROLLO DATOS",^[45] Spanish for "continuation development data"; and "ATMOSFERA MINERALES",^[45] meaning "atmosphere minerals". When T0-B1 continues the professor's work, he fills the monitors with notes. Most of them are a transcription of^[45] excerpts from the lyrics of the 2018 song "Malamente" by the Spanish singer Rosalía,^[46] but with some spelling errors.^[45] For example, one excerpt from the original song reads "Ese cristalito roto yo sentí cómo crujía / Antes de caerse al suelo ya sabía que se rompía",^[46] but the show's version reads "Ese cris talito roto yo sen cmo crujía antes d ecaerse al suelo y asaba que se rompía".^[45]

Norwegian[]

One of the lab tech's readouts in The Mandalorian episode "Chapter 22: Guns for Hire" contains two paragraphs written in Norwegian. The first one reads:^[47]

Transcription	English translation[48]
DEN NORSKE SKOGKATTEN ER ET PERFEKT HUSDYR FOR EN MIDDELS AKTIV FAMILIE. HVIS DU GIR DEN ET INNEN DORS* [sic] KLATRETRE OG MYE KJAERLIGHET KAN DERE HA EN GOD VENN I MANGE AAR.	The Norwegian Forest cat is a perfect pet animal for a moderately active family. If you give it an in door [sic] climbing tree and lots of love, you can have a good friend for many years.

^*Note that "innendors" (spelled "innendørs" in Norwegian), the Norwegian word for "indoor", has incorrectly been split into two words.

The second paragraph consists of^[47] lyrics from the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja vi elsker dette landet" ("Yes, we love this country"):^[49]

Transcription, with typos	Correct lyrics[50]	English translation[49]
JA VI ELSKER DETTE LANDET SOM DET STIGER FREM FURET VAER BIT [sic] OVER VANNET MED DET [sic] TUSEN HJEM ELSKER, ELSKER DET A [sic] TENKER PAA VAR FAR OG MOR	Ja, vi elsker dette landet, som det stiger frem, furet, værbitt over vannet, med de tusen hjem, elsker, elsker det og tenker på vår far og mor	Yes we love this country, as it rises forth, rugged, weathered over the water, with the thousand homes, love it, love it and think of our father and mother

Finally, "ALLIANSEN", which is Norwegian for "the alliance",^[48] is written vertically in a different readout.^[47]

Punctuation[]

Aurebesh punctuation, originally created for the Legends game accessory Imperial Entanglements,^[34] is also used in Star Wars canon. For example, an apostrophe appears on the marquee outside Ziro's Palace in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars,^[51] and an Aurebesh exclamation point can be seen in the inscription on the Republic gunship Spaceward Ho! in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes "Storm Over Ryloth"^[52] and "Landing at Point Rain",^[53] and the animated film;^[51] and in a Star Tours advertisement for Glee Anselm in "Lightsaber Lost",^[21] a sign for the Abafar Junior Dejarik Club in "Missing in Action",^[54] and on the poster The Sport's Greatest Rivalry in "The Rise of Clovis".^[55] In the Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode "The Crossing", a scan by Tech's visor results in a reading containing Aurebesh parentheses and slashes.^[56]

However, regular English punctuation, which does not match the one created by Stephen Crane, can also be seen in several episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (such as full stops on the display on Cad Bane's security chip bomb in "Holocron Heist",^[57] the hologram projector in Lott Dod's library in "Senate Spy",^[58] Admiral Yularen's intelligence report in "Cat and Mouse",^[59] Ahsoka Tano's board in "The Academy",^[60] and the case files for Sifo-Dyas and his aide in "The Lost One"^[61]) and Star Wars Rebels (such as full stops in an advertisement at Nixus Hub 218 in "Brothers of the Broken Horn",^[62] the dismantler droid's scopes in Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow,^[63] a set of blueprints aboard Tiber Saxon's Star Destroyer in Star Wars Rebels: Heroes of Mandalore,^[64] and a billboard in a cargo hold in "In the Name of the Rebellion",^[65]; while an English colon appears in the blueprint for the TIE/D Defender Elite in "Crawler Commandeers"^[66]), as well as the tractor beam control on the Death Star in the 2004 DVD release of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and all subsequent releases of the film.^[37]

Three stylized English exclamation points appear on the console of Freya Fenris's racing starfighter, the Red Ace, in the Star Wars Resistance episode "The Voxx Vortex 5000".^[67] In addition, when Kanan Jarrus breaks into Fenn Rau's Fang fighter in the Star Wars Rebels episode "The Protector of Concord Dawn," the monitor shows an Aurebesh exclamation point on top of an English one,^[68] and the aforementioned scan in Star Wars: The Bad Batch contains regular English colons and an English hyphen, even though the parentheses and slashes are all Aurebesh.^[56]

The ampersand (&) does not appear in any Star Wars mappings of Aurebesh; however, a fan-made ampersand, originally created for a fan-made font called Aurabesh,^[69] appears in the Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode "Faster," where one of the advertisements at the Safa Toma Speedway says "T&J REPAIR."^[70] The ad also appears in Suria space station in the episode "Bad Territory."^[71] The Aurabesh font was originally developed by Mike E. Webb in 1996 and can be downloaded online.^[69] In the video game Star Wars: Hunters, the letter Enth () is used to represent an ampersand.^[72]

In the episode "Bad Territory," mirror-inverted text reading "[obscured]0% OFF" appears on the wall behind Fennec Shand in Tanda's Cantina.^[71] The percent sign (%) does not appear in any Star Wars mappings of Aurebesh either, but appears in the fan-made Aurabesh font.^[69]

Alternate numerical system[]

Stephen Crane never created numbers for the Aurebesh alphabet, because the Death Star monitors in Return of the Jedi show regular Arabic numerals.^[34] However, an unrelated numerical system made up of dots and lines first appeared in the West End Games sourcebook Platt's Starport Guide, which features a graphic called "Current transponder code profile", with the numerals along both axes of a graph. Unlike later appearances, numerals for 0 through 16 are represented.^[74] The graph was reused for the West End Games publication Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised,^[75] and the West End Games sourcebook Stock Ships.^[76][73]

These numerals were digitized in a fan-made font known as New Aurabesh, which was created by Peter Schuster in 1998.^[77] and can be downloaded online.^[78] While the original West End Games sources represented numerals 0 through 16,^[74] later appearances of the numerals follow Schuster's designation, being limited to numerals 0 through 9.

Although most canon appearances of Aurebesh use Arabic numbers, the alternative West End Games numerals have also appeared in Star Wars media: 7189, a wall mural in the Capital City of Lothal, uses these numerals and first appears in the Star Wars Rebels short "Entanglement".^[79] The 2015 reference book Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary contains pictures of the rank insignia of the First Order, with alternate Aurebesh numbers appearing in the insignias for sergeant ("Ro 8") and squad leader ("Hal 4").^[2] The "Hal 4" insignia can be seen on Lank Paze in the 2017 movie Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, while the "Ro 8" insignia can be seen on Armitage Hux's First Order monitor in the same film. In another scene in the film, the databank of the Libertine, which DJ gains access to after he steals the Star Yacht in Canto Bight, uses these numerals to list prices in the owner's catalog of starfighters for sale.^[80]

The 2017 reference book Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia presents an Aurebesh font which includes two examples of Aurebesh numbers; 3 and 7, both of which use West End Games' alternate font.^[81] During the raid on Kessel in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story, Qi'ra says, "They're in subsector four, coming up on gate X-3-7-1-K." The film then switches to a shot of Han Solo and Chewbacca coming out a door with a sign at the top, saying "D7 X371K", using the alternate numerals.^[82] In The Mandalorian, the numbers numerals can be seen on the console aboard the Razor Crest, and first appear in "Chapter 2: The Child". As first seen in The Book of Boba Fett episode "Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian," the numbers 51 and 11 appear on a red monitor on the console of Din Djarin's N-1 starfighter, and on a small blue monitor on the opposite side of the console, which lists every number from 1 to 9. Curiously, the latter is upside-down.^[83] In The Mandalorian episode "Chapter 19: The Convert," the monitor on the control panel of a Six-O-Two Mitigator used by the New Republic Amnesty Program, lists every alternative numeral from 1 to 9, representing different voltage levels.^[84]

The numerals can also be seen on monitors in Daiyu spaceport in the Obi-Wan Kenobi episode "Part II"^[85] and on the blueprints of Fortress Inquisitorius in "Part IV."^[86] The numbers also appear on in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. For example, the monitor in Riyo Chuchi's repulsorpod in the Imperial Senate in the Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode "Truth and Consequences," although regular Aurebesh digits also appear on the screen.^[87] In the episode "The Crossing," Clone Force 99 member Tech wears a special visor that can be used to scan his surroundings. When used in Cid's mine, the scan results in "IPSIUM DETECTED", followed by a list of alternate numerals.^[56]

Dishabesh and Domabesh[]

For the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, two alternate Aurebesh fonts were created by the art department and were given the production names Dishabesh^[89] and Domabesh.^[88][89] The fonts were developed at the behest of director Gareth Edwards, who didn't want a Star Wars universe with just one form of text and mostly one font. Dishabesh was re-used for Enfys Nest's battle helmet in the film Solo: A Star Wars Story.^[89] Domabesh can be seen in Jedha City, on a Rebel MP's uniform, and Red Twelve's flight helmet, in Rogue One.^[5] In 2021, when asked on Twitter, Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo referred to the script as "Domabesh,"^[88] but it still has not been identified in any canon source. According to Hidalgo, Domabesh is thought to be an archaic script, not as ancient as Ur-Kittât, but older than Aurebesh.^[90]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

Non-canon sources[]

• Ultimate LEGO Star Wars
• LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book
• LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: New Edition
• LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation | Official Trailer | Disney+ on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (Posted on StarWars.com)
• 5 Things We Love About the LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation Trailer on StarWars.com (backup link)
• LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation: A Vacation Adventure Clip on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (Posted on StarWars.com)

Notes and references[]

External links[]

• The Aurebesh Wiki