Chewbacca's growls and howls he uses to communicate are famous to Star Wars fans and non-fans alike, but did you know there actually is a defined language for these seemingly indistinguishable grunts?
Yes, it's true--it's called Shyriiwook, and is actually one of three languages spoken by Wookiees across the galaxy. It's actually a quite complex language. According to Wookieepedia, Shyriiwook has over a 150 ways to say the word "wood." Naturally, Joonas Suotamo, who plays Chewbacca in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story, learned some Shyriiwook for the film, but Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo) had to pick up some of the vocabulary as well. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ehrenreich recounted some of his experience in learning the Wookiee language for the movie:
While the actors do have to put some effort into mastering Shyriiwook, the editors of the movie actually overlay animal noises on top of the actor's voice (in this case, Joonas Suotamo) to achieve the classic Chewbacca sounds for the final product. If you're interested in learning the language of the Wookiees, the Wookieepedia article I linked to above actually has some basic sentences you can get started with, including "How do you take your coffee?"
So if you ever come across a Kashyyyk(ian?) coffee shop, you can thank yours truly.
Star Wars Takeover Month is all May long! Be sure to check out the Star Wars 3D Lamp Giveaway on my Facebook page, and stay tuned to my blog and social media for more Solo: An Escape Story and talk about the film!
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