Hittade svaret i Alan Dean Foster-romaniseringen (alla citat formuläres om inget annat anges).
Inte alla förstår BB-8. Finn gör inte . Så, det är rimligt att Rey - som är mekaniskt begåvad scavenger - lärde sig Binär UPDATE : TFA Visual Dictionary Data innehåller uttryckligen ett stycke som Rey hade kontakt med off-worlders och lärde sig binär från dem ).
“Okay, look—we have to know the location of the Resistance base. You
heard Rey. She thinks she can get us there—but you have to tell us
where it is.” The droid emitted a flurry of rapid, soft beeps. An
impatient Finn waved them off.
“I don’t speak that, but I think I got the gist. You just accused me
of not being with the Resistance, didn’t you?”
Denna teori är bekräftad, eftersom Chewie kan prata med BB-8:
Striding effortlessly alongside, Chewbacca groaned assent. Behind
Finn, BB-8 beeped a question to which the Wookiee readily replied.
Droid and Wookiee then entered into a rapid-fire conversation, the
sound of which made Finn’s head hurt.
Självklart var Poe - som var en pilot med BB-8 som sin astromech, en bra kandidat att förstå honom. Japp.
“I wasn’t dead, just momentarily out of it,” the pilot explained.
“Came around long enough to see that you had got out. Pulled out of
the dive just long enough to set down—hard. Impact threw me clear.
Woke up at night; no you, no ship, no nothing. Went looking—in the
wrong direction. Got picked up by some itinerant trader.” He grinned.
“Tell you all about it sometime.” A plaintive beep caused him to
turn and look down. “Beebee-Ate says that you saved him.”
Men vi vet att nästan ingen förstår R2-D2: Luke gör knappt (han behöver X-Wing-översättning i kanon); Leia förstår inte heller R2-D2 i TFA (och inte heller verkar Poe som översätter för BB-8 men inte R2-D2, som behöver C-3POs översättning)
An excited Leia moved closer. Of all the organics in the room, no one
had a more personal relationship to the little droid than she did.
“What’s he saying?” she asked.
The protocol droid explained. “If the information you are seeking was in the Imperial archives, he believes he may have cataloged that
data. He’s scanning through it now.”
Rey stared at the diminutive droid. “Artoo has the rest of the map?”
“He’s certainly implying the possibility!” C-3PO told her. “I’ve never
heard him beep with this much energy before.”
Emitting a long, sustained whistle, R2-D2 projected a full
three-dimensional image of a huge navigational star chart. No one in
the room could fail to notice that it was missing a substantial
fragment. In response to the hovering image, BB-8 began beeping
excitedly. “Yeah, buddy, hold on,” Poe told him. “I have it.”
Det här förklarar inte allt hur .
Vi vet emellertid från novellering att BB-8 talade DIFFERENT droidspråk - kanske var en variant mer begriplig för organics?
In the dark, dusty storeroom he rolled over to the R2 unit and beeped
a greeting, the transmission sequence too rapid and too exhaustive for
any human to follow. It didn’t matter. There was no response from the
immobile R2 unit.
BB-8 tried again, utilizing a different droid language. When that also failed, he moved forward and gave the other mechanical a forceful
nudge. Like everything else, that too failed to generate a response.
Vi vet också att hans primära språk är relaterat till standard binär men är en mer utvecklad generation av den, vilket kan gå långt för att förklara varför många förstår det.
27th generation droid-speak code, a compressed variant of the most common astromech language (source: TFA Visual Dictionary, or SFF.SE)