Shimiese is a language that was used by the Pacithhip Ketwol when he was in conversation with the Lamproid Dice Ibegon. Ibegon, in turn, communicated using Lamproid. This interaction occurred at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, situated within the Mos Eisley spaceport on the planet of Tatooine, during the year 0 BBY.
The first instance of Shimiese being heard was in the 1977 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. However, in its initial release, the sound effect was intended to represent the growl of the Shistavanen character, Lak Sivrak. During the 1997 Special Edition re-release of the film, Sivrak was digitally removed and replaced by Ketwol, but the sound effect remained unchanged.
The language used in the film was subsequently identified as Shimiese in the 2019 video titled "Every Language in Star Wars Movies," which was a component of the Star Wars By the Numbers series produced by StarWarsKids.com. Within the context of Star Wars Legends, Shimiese was established as the native language of the Pacithhip species in the 2003 Star Wars Roleplaying Game supplement Ultimate Alien Anthology, published by Wizards of the Coast. Nevertheless, it was never associated with the language heard in A New Hope within that continuity.