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Since the franchise is not afraid to sometimes have other languages spoken instead of absolutely everyone speaking English, it's reasonable to assume that the Basic they're speaking does indeed sound exactly as we hear it, accents and all.
There are plenty of films where the language is translated to English for the audience, and then a third language is spoken by characters to show that the characters using the primary language wouldn't understand them.
I think basic would sound different from english, and then when we see characters speak in a different language it's to show that they are multi lingual and can speak in a way that other characters wouldn't be able to understand.
True, but since the Aurabesh seen in the background is just a different alphabet used to write English, it's a given that Basic is English.
Again, plenty of films/TV just use substitution ciphers for alien languages that are definitely not english in canon. Stargate Atlantis has Ancient text that can be deciphered into english letters, but that's just an easter egg for the fans.
If the story is translating the spoken language for the benefit of the audience, there's no reason text can't have the same justification.
Is the ancient language ever spoken in Stargate Atlantis? I haven't seen it. It reeeeeally stretches credulity to say that Basic isn't English when we've heard them say "spaceport" and can see a sign that says "spaceport" letter for letter while using a different alphabet. If everything's being translated for our benefit, wouldn't the signs be in the Latin alphabet as well?
But of course, you can use any interpretation you like. It seems like Lucas went out of his way to make it hard to claim that a language that actually sounds different than English is being used, though.
In Stargate "Ancient" is an old latin style language (the Ancients are connected to early human civilisation) and is spoken like a variant of actual Latin when it is shown to be not understood by characters that are present. When the scene is strictly Ancients in the past the actors speak english for the benefit of the audience. I think it's worth pointing out that in Stargate, most modern aliens speak actual english for no justifiable reason.
They were in the original release of Star Wars (1977). Lucas changed them to an alien alphabet, I assume to help show that basic isn't just english, but allowing nerds like us to translate them for fun. I actually think the concept of basic didn't exist when he made the first film and, like the many other changes to the series, was retroactively applied as the non-english universal language for that galaxy.
You're correct, Aurabesh and Basic were concepts added later. Futurama did the same thing with hidden message ciphers, but the big difference is it's not supposed to be the main language that everyone is speaking. The MST3K mantra definitely applies here!
I should really just relax
la-la-la