By: Tanishka D

I love Star Wars. Those movies taught me hope, courage, and the way to make a comeback like Palpatine. ( gotta do it somehow!) One Star Wars project that leans heavily into those themes is Andor. I vividly remember watching the Ghorman massacre arc of the show which came out on the day of my birthday a year ago, which is not a  very optimistic way to celebrate a birthday. But hey, when new star wars drops, I gotta be there. This article is very much rooted in my deep appreciation for the show and particulalry how the writers have used accents to portray the role a character plays in the story as well as how it helps the story as a whole. 

Where is Andor? Who is Andor? Why is Andor?

Andor is a 2 season televsion series that aired from 2022-2025 and is a prequel to the 2016 movie Rogue one: A Star Wars story. The show centeres around Cassian Andor, who is played by Diego Luna, on his quest to find his sister which leads him to joining the rebellion against the tyrannical galactic empire.  The show immerses the audience in the dynamic between the empire and rebellion by its usage of techniques such as cinematography, costuming and most importantly( at least for us) accents to enrich the lore of the star wars universe and portray the effects of the empires actions on everyday life in the Galaxy far far away.  

Accents of the Rebellion 

The accents of the charaters on the rebellion side of the conflict are varied. One instance of this can be Andor himself, Diego Luna, who speaks in his natural Mexican accent. This was not only a milestone in representatation but was essential in construction of Cassian's identity. His distinct accent is used to portray   the differences in Cassian's way of thinking when he first joins the rebellion and cements his position as a figurehead by the end of the show. This variation in accents can be used to portrary the lack of coordination between all factions of the rebellion as evidenced in the first arc of Andor season 2.  Furthermore, Members of the rebellion who are from the outer rim speak in more americanized accents as opposed to characters such as Vel and Mon Mothma who are from the core world of corusant.  

Empire of the accents 

I tried to do a pun here on the band name "Empire of the Sun" but don't think I stuck the landing here. The imperial accents in star wars have always been British. To quote Denise Gough, who played ISB Supervisor Dedra Meero," Everything sounds a bit more evil when you do it in a very, very strong english accent." Whilst that is absolutley true, there are historical and cultural reasons as to why this phenomenon is observed in most western productions. 

One expalantion could be the fact that since the star wars brand is American, the production studios use British accents to symbolise the 'other' and allow the predominantly American audience to relate to the rebellion more than the empire. Furthermore, The precpetion of British and particulary english accents as Evil is rooted in colonialism, fitting as it parrlel what the empire does on Gorhman during the second season. 

One English accent that is continually used by villans throughout Star wars Media is what linguists call the recieved pronouciation accent or RP. This accent is associated with upper classes in the united kingdom and is percieved as being spoken by educated and intelligent individuals. However, this perception adds to speakers being percievd as they have are less kind and trustworthy than speakers of other accents- making the accent perfect for villans to speak in. But, there are some outliers to this phenomenon. For example, Ben Mendelsohn, who plays Orson Krennic speaks in his natural australian accent in Andor and Rogue one. 

Viva les conlangs! 

A conlang or constructed language is a language that is specifically created to serve a particular purpose. Unlike most widely spoken languages such as English or French, These langauges do not emerge from human interactions. Writers utilize the help of linguists to construct conlangs for thier worlds in order to make the story beliable and immersive. 

Numerous conlangs exist throughout star wars, however none have been as memorable as the Ghor language that was created for the second season of Andor. This language was created by Marina Tyndall, a dialect coach on the show. In an interwiew with esquire magazine, Tyndall mantions how the language shares 85 percent of it's phonology ( study of sounds produced during speech) with the french language. In the same interwiew, Tyndall also metiones that the Conlang is modelled after french as The struggels of the Ghormans during imperial Rule closely mirror those of French people in the second world war. 

French Actors, such as Thierry Godard, who plays lezine and Richard Sammel , who plays Rylanz were employed to accurately portray the accents in the show. Furthermore, the song "we are the ghor", which is sung in resistance to the empire during a protest at palmo plaza, adds an extra layer of realisim to the language and probably made audiences at home get a little teary eyed (literally me). 

Conclusion 

It can be said that the usage of accents as well as constructed languages make the fictional worlds form a galaxy far, far, away more immersive and helps to create a more immersive and enjoyable viewing experience for the audience. If you enjoyed this star  wars article, do leave a suggestion in the suggestion box to suggest more interesting pieces of media I can cover on this website. 

Image credits: 

1)https://www.starwars.com/stills-gallery-andor-season-2 

Sources and further reading: 

1)https://www.thecut.com/2017/01/why-so-many-movie-villains-have-british-accents.html 

2)https://daily.jstor.org/very-british-villains-and-other-anglo-saxon-attitudes-to-accents/ 

3)https://www.britannica.com/topic/Received-Pronunciation 

4)https://fanfare.pub/5-curious-things-about-accents-in-star-wars-1fe3eea31909 

5)https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a65104189/andor-ghorman-language-explained/ 

6) https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ghorman_Massacre#The_Ghorman_Massacre  

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