Yodaspeak

Definitions

A form of speaking in which word order is altered to sound bizarre or unnatural.

informal, uncountable

Examples

“Yoda’s speech is probably a mix⟳ between his race’s native language and Standard, as he likely as not learned Standard later in life and used its vocabulary in syntactical patterns from his native language. Is Standard as old as Yoda? If so, then perhaps, as Sarah suggests, ‘Yodaspeak’ is an early form⟳ of Standard that changed at a different rate than galactically, as it was kept within an isolated area, Dagobah—as is the case of Appalachian English.”

“The Star Wars mythology was immediately absorbed into gaming's collective consciousness. Its images and icons became gaming's images and icons. Imperial Walkers, intergalactic empires, light⟳ sabers, Yoda-speak, the Force⟳, and ther other conventions of George Lucas' epic storyline became prime components in the kit-bashing process⟳ that created electronic science fiction games.”

“Yoda in the 'Star Wars' epic has a habit of putting the object in front of the clause, like⟳ this: / Nine hundred years have⟳ I seen. / Translate⟳ the following sentences into Yoda-speak, and underline the objects.”

“Also on the underage sex trip⟳ is a dead-on expose of the sexual molestation of young Jedi Knights by their masters, complete⟳ with a press⟳ conference from Skywalker Ranch featuring Yoda's denial, in perfect Yodaspeak: "No have⟳ sex with boys, Yoda did not. Tired Yoda is. Resign he will."”

“Subject-verb-object is, syntactically, the typical English word order⟳. That is why the speech of Yoda, the Jedi Master in the Star Wars films, seems so strange. "Strong am I with the Force⟳" and "Your father he is" both have⟳ an object-subject-verb order⟳ that is very unusual for English. Yodaspeak (OSV word order⟳), in fact, is an unusual construction in all but a few rare languages[…].”

“[…] Yoda-speak often involves moving phrases to the start⟳ of the clause (fronting). […] How does the fronting in Yoda-speak compare⟳ with fronting in standard English? Is it more or less constrained than English?”

CEFR level