Futhork

Futhork was a style of traditional, handwritten calligraphy used by the Human people of the planet Naboo. This informal writing system had been developed in response to the Futhark—the first Naboo alphabet, which derived from the Royal Script of Grizmallt. While Futhark was the official form, the reliance of all of its letters on ovals made it hard to read. This difficulty led to the creation of the more practical Futhork, during the Inter-Sith Wars period. The Futhork alphabet contained twenty-six characters, which were usually read from left to right. In that written form, words were distinguished by spaces.

In the height of the New Republic, the use of the Futhork alphabet was already three and a half millennia old and was as traditional as the more formal Futhark, displacing it in every day and handwritten usage; the former was reduced in only formal and military context. Ancient legends were written in this informal script, including the tale of Veré and Set, two eternal lovers. In the last decades of the Galactic Republic, the art of writing in Futhork was still taught at school, and the six-year-old Ryoo Naberrie, niece of the famous Senator Padmé Amidala, was known to dislike this subject. At that time, even the farmers could write in both Aurebesh—the most universal written form of the Basic language—and Futhork fluently.

The Associate Professor of Xenolinguistics Milanda Vorgan mentioned the Futhork in her paper "The Written Word: A Brief Introduction to the Writing Systems of Galactic Basic." In this work, Vorgan suggested that the Naboo had perhaps been loathe to adopt other writing systems in an effort to barrier themselves from the greater galactic community. However, she illustrated that they did use more widely embraced systems such as Aurebesh in the computer displays of their starships.

The wealthy citizens of Naboo sometimes wore embroidered clothes ornated with Futhork calligraphy. In the same vein, some engineers of the Theed Hangar like Simon Jabesq would label their duty helmet with their name in Futhork letters.

Text and facts from the “Futhork/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.