Even the most casual Star Wars fan knows the answer to, “Who shot first: Han or Greedo?” It’s Han, and don’t let anyone — even George Lucas — tell you otherwise. But if you really want to get Star Wars fans in a tizzy, bring a group of them to a bar ask, “Do you pronounce it A-T-A-T or @-@?” It may end up bloodier than Mos Eisley Cantina.
The Star Wars Twitter account choose violence by posing that question this weekend:
How do you pronounce AT-AT?
— Star Wars (@starwars) July 8, 2022
Hm, OK, that’s not super helpful, although the first AT-AT — which stands for All Terrain Armored Transport, as seen above — ran away with the contest with 71 percent of the vote (Joe Biden should hire first AT-AT to run his re-election campaign).
Luckily, Mark Hamill showed up in the replies and settled the debate once and for all.
I think it’s “@-@”, even though I always called them “walkers”
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) July 10, 2022
There you have it: it’s @-@, although Hamill did note, “FYI: When we would ask George: “Is it Chew-bah-ka or Chew-back-a?” / “Is it Lay-a or Lee-a?” / “Is it Hahn or Han (as in hand)?”- he would just shrug & didn’t really care. He told us it would be pronounced in various ways in different parts of the galaxy.” So, even though @-@ is correct and has always been correct, you can pronounce it however you want. Want to call them Wattos-Wattos? Go ahead. Unlike Luke, there’s no one all-powerful Force controlling you.
(Via the Huffington Post)