Comprehend Speech
- "When you travel the galaxy with Qui-Gon Jinn, you tend to learn a few things."
- ―Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comprehend Speech was a Force ability that enables a Jedi to understand the spoken language of any sentient he/she was interacting with, though it does not necessarily allow him/her to speak it, merely understand the general meaning. It is possibly an extension of the Telepathy power, as Revan was described as "ripping the Rakatan language from their minds," comprehending their tongue only moments after meeting them. Obi-Wan Kenobi also demonstrated this ability on Nelvaan, having been able to understand and translate the speech of a Nelvaanian shaman Orvos, though some of the nuances of the speech evaded him. This power proved ineffective at comprehending the language of extremely xenophobic cultures, as evidenced by Revan's inability to understand the Sand People dialect. It can be guessed that cultures that actively refuse contact with other cultures, such as not caring whether a particular individual can communicate with them or not, can negate this ability. Use of the ability was aided if the sentient itself was Force-sensitive to some degree, as demonstrated when Luke Skywalker encountered the Qom Jha on Nirauan and found he understood their language without making an attempt to interpret it.
This power was known to the Witches of Dathomir as the Spell of Interpretation.
Mace Windu used this ability to understand Kar Vastor's guttural language.[2]
Known users
Appearances
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Clone Wars – "Chapter 23"- The Courtship of Princess Leia (First appearance)
- Vision of the Future
- Vision of the Future unabridged audiobook
Sources
- Star Wars Roleplaying Game
- The Jedi Academy Sourcebook (as translation)
- Tales of the Jedi Companion (as translation)
- Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised (as translation)
- Cracken's Threat Dossier
- Star Wars Fandex Deluxe Edition