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In Star Wars, the Aurebesh is the alphabet used to write Basic. It's essentially a substitution cypher for English, but, as originally created for the West End Games RPG, it also had some single letters that stood in for English digraphs. For example, Thresh stands for "th" as in both "this" and "theater" (but not "knighthood"); Krenth stands for "kh".

The character Orenth stands for "oo", and it's here my question lies. I'm not sure if it's for only the "oo" sound as in "too", "stool", and "pool", or if it's for any sound that "oo" makes, as in "door", "blood", or "floor".

The examples I recall seeing when I've seen examples at all fall into the "too" category, although now that I go searching for examples again I can't find any.

The word "door" has always been spelled Dorn-Osk-Osk-Resh on the doors on the Star Tours ride at Disneyland, although that could just be from ignorance and/or laziness.

When "oo" is two separate sounds, as in "cooperate", or "zoology", I'd definitely use double Osk instead.

Additionally, according to the Aurebesh entry on Wookieepedia, current canon sources are inconsistent as to whether any of the digraph characters are used at all. And, Answers to the related question, In Star Wars, which is more common, thresh or trill herf?, say that most canon sources that are not gibberish don't use the digraphs. I actually like them, though, so if they aren't totally thrown out, I'd prefer to use them when making my own materials.

Is Orenth used only for "oo" as in "too", for any use of "oo" as a single sound, or not used any more because it's been relegated to Legends status?

Aurebesh Letters and Punctuation

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    You're not asking a complete question because you mention the examples door, floor, and blood. Those are exceptions (door and floor rhyme with or, and blood rhymes with bud). But oo also makes the short-oo sound like in foot, book, took, etc, which really have no other unambiguous spelling.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 16:05
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    Incidentally, it seems obvious to me that there will probably be no official guidance. But if you believe you should use a digraph for the two th sounds and not for kighthood or zooology, then obviously you should use orenth for any case where oo represents any single vowel sound.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 16:07
  • @ThePopMachine Thanks. I knew I was missing some examples. Using it for any "oo" digraph is the direction I'm leaning, but I wanted to see if there was anything more official. If the answer is "there is nothing official, but it makes the most sense, so go for it," I'll consider it to be an appropriate answer. I do have one other lead that I may be able to follow up.
    – Dranon
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 16:14

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Since the table shows that Orenth is for "oo" and doesn't specify sounds, the answer to the related question says that Thresh is used for any "th" as a single sound, and based on ThePopMachine's comment, if the digraph replacement characters are used, Orenth should be used for any "oo" as a single vowel.

And I now also have email confirmation from Stephen Crane, creator of Aurebesh:

The intention was to use the Orenth for any "oo" sound, just as the "oo" in English can represent different sounds. As many of the digital fonts don't have the extended character set, it is also acceptable to use a double Osk to represent any of the "oo" sounds.

However, much as it pains me, I think that the digraph replacement characters are no longer canon. They don't show up on the official Ghost Crew ID Card (PDF), and Bodhi Rook's ID card in Rogue One showed what looked like Resh-Osk-Osk-Krill. (Maybe there was an Imperial spelling reform, but I doubt it.)

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  • +1 on this. I came back to give this exact answer because I noticed it what Rook's ID card was shown on-screen in Rogue One. But you beat me to it.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 17:29
  • @ThePopMachine Thanks. I was going to do that in another day or two anyway, but now's as good a time as any. If anyone else has a better answer, feel free to add it.
    – Dranon
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 17:49
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Maybe proper names don't use digraphs, and since the th in knighthood does not function as an English "th" (i.e the t is for knight, and the h is for hood) that word wouldn't use it either.

Keep in mind, the following is my opinion, and as much as I would have liked to, I have not found any digraph rules for aurebesh.

NAMES (Doesn't use digraphs)

  • Hoth = Herf-Osk-Trill-Herf (As seen in SW:TOR)

  • Bantha = Besh-Aurek-Nern-Trill-Herf-Aurek (Debatable)

  • Smith = Senth-Mern-Isk-Trill-Herf

  • Rook = Resh-Osk-Osk-Krill (As seen In SW:RO)

WORDS (Uses digraphs)

  • Math = Morn-Osk-Thesh

  • Strength = Senth-Trill-Resh-Esk-Nen-Thesh

  • Thunder = Thesh-Usk-Nern-Dorn-Esk-Resh

  • Book = Besh-Orenth-Krill

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  • This is about digraphs in general and doesn't really answer the question which is about Orenth specifically.
    – amflare
    Commented Sep 8, 2017 at 15:50

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