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Since Tatooine is in Hutt space, and in The Phantom Menace we see basically everyone on the street on Tatooine defaulting to Huttese as their primary language, wouldn't the Lars family (and thus Luke Skywalker, having been raised by Owen and Beru Lars) speak Huttese as their first language as opposed to the Galactic Basic we see them speaking in A New Hope?

They've been there for at least two generations, since we know Lars' father Cliegg was also a moisture farmer there, as was his mother Aika - plenty of time to adopt Huttese as their first language, even if they were immigrants prior to that.

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    Everyone Jar Jar interacts with while he's fumbling around in the streets speaks to him in Huttese (the food vendor, Sebulba), it seems that they assume that's the best bet for what people will understand in these parts. Admittedly a small sample, but in my experience when you walk through a market and people address you in a given language assuming you understand it, that's the primary language for that area. Maybe there's something else about Jar Jar that makes them assume he speaks Huttese though.
    – airshanemode
    Jul 13, 2019 at 17:35
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    Huttese is a "trading language". Jar Jar is walking through a market
    – Valorum
    Jul 13, 2019 at 17:36
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    @Valorum it looks like others default to Huttese as well - Sebulba to Jar Jar, Sebulba to Anakin, Watto to Anakin and his mother, one head of the two-headed announcer at the pod races, some chatter between racers during the podrace, etc, but yes, your point regarding Huttese being a trading language used in the urban centers (such as they are) but with humans at least preferring Basic when among themselves seems reasonable, and is borne out when we see Anakin speaking to his mother alone before the races in Basic.
    – airshanemode
    Jul 14, 2019 at 4:53
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    What's the source for Owen's mother being named Aiki?
    – Milo P
    Jul 14, 2019 at 5:28
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    @MiloP I got it from Wookieepedia (starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Aika_Lars), which in turn gives it's source as Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded. (Re-reading it now it's Aika, not Aiki, I'll update the question to reflect that correction).
    – airshanemode
    Jul 14, 2019 at 5:36

2 Answers 2

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For the record, although the Hutts dominate on the planet Tatooine, it isn't officially part of their territories, sitting within the region of space known as the Arkanis Outer Rim Territory and nominally part of the Republic, complete with its own (shared) Senator. The Hutts themselves are a powerful force on the planet, but most humans there seem comfortable speaking their normal language, Galactic Basic Standard, amongst themselves and periodically slipping into Huttese when they reluctantly have to deal with the Hutts or their hangers-on.

It's also worthy of note that while Anakin (living in the thriving metropolis that is Mos Espa) is basically multilingual, speaking Jawanese and Huttese, Cliegg and his son, living outside the town and mainly dealing with other humans, appear to rely almost exclusively on translator droids when dealing with other trading languages such as Bocce.

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Owen and Beru were descended from a long line of "human immigrants" to Tatooine who were a source of "cheap labor", but who unfortunately "refused to assimilate" to the dominant culture of the planet. These humans formed massive "species enclaves" there. Many of the Tatooine natives who spoke Huttese felt like "foreigners on their own planet", because so many humans only spoke "basic" rather than learning Huttese.

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    Are these citable quotations, or scare quotes, or an homage to the Zagat guide?
    – Ryan Veeder
    Jul 15, 2019 at 1:27
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    It would be great to get a source on any of this.
    – airshanemode
    Jul 15, 2019 at 4:07

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