Huttese, a language, served as the primary means of communication for the Hutts, a slug-like species whose homeworld was Nal Hutta. It was also a common tongue on planets under Hutt control, such as Tatooine. Even on worlds where the Hutts did not hold power, like Lothal, their language was a widely used trade language. Despite being fairly common, stormtroopers, the soldiers serving the Galactic Empire, generally did not know Huttese, with most only capable of speaking Galactic Basic Standard. On Plazir-15, holographic barricade tape at a crime scene displayed "CAUTION" in Aurebesh and "CHESS KO" (meaning "careful" in Huttese) in Outer Rim Basic, which indicates the language was also used there.
While Huttese was a distinctive language, it shared structural resemblances with both Aqualish and Rodian, meaning that familiarity with one would simplify learning the others. Maize Raynshi considered Huttese an excellent language for expressing expletives.
Ben Burtt, a sound designer at Lucasfilm, mentioned in the DVD commentary for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and in the interactive CD-ROM Star Wars: Behind the Magic, that he drew inspiration for Huttese from Quechua. Quechua is a family of indigenous languages spoken by the Quechua peoples, who mainly reside in the Andes and highlands of South America.
George Lucas tasked Burtt with creating a voice for the Rodian character Greedo in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Initially, the idea was for Greedo to have an electronic, insect-like voice, but this was later changed to a more humanoid language. After exploring various languages, Burtt was drawn to Quechua because of its amusing repetitions and musical qualities. Since the language was at risk of extinction, Burtt struggled to locate a native speaker for sound samples. Instead, he enlisted the help of linguist Larry Ward, a graduate student from UC Berkeley. Utilizing Ward's expertise, they analyzed the language and collaboratively invented some "fake Quechua" words and phrases.
During the recording of Huttese lines for Greedo, Burtt and Ward synchronized the sounds with Greedo's mouth movements in the footage. However, for Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the process was reversed. Burtt had to write Huttese lines before filming began, enabling the puppeteers controlling Jabba's mouth to synchronize their movements with the sounds. Some of the new vocabulary, including bo shuda and boska, was created by Lucas himself. For "Lapti Nek", singer Annie Abrogast, with assistance from Burtt, composed the "Huttese" lyrics.
When working on Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, Burtt completed the Huttese dialogues first. He "translated" the lines, recorded their intended pronunciation and intonation, and then distributed these recordings to the voice actors as a reference.