Recent George soundbite where he says why Yoda talks that way.
"He was basically the philosopher of the movie, so he was talking about all the things. I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen, especially 12 year olds.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/yoda-speak-george-lucas-explains-1235326334/
However, just a few years earlier Frank Oz said it was his own idea based on one line in the script:
“It’s funny you ask about that because I was just looking at the original script of The Empire Strikes Back the other day and there was a bit of that odd syntax in it, but also it had Yoda speaking very colloquially. So I said to George ‘Can I do the whole thing like this?’ And he said: ‘Sure!’ It just felt so right.”
Yeah, it was Frank Oz who came up with the idea of Yoda speaking in the manner he does throughout the film - based off that line from in the script. Frank then suggested to George that he do the whole role of Yoda like that - and George agreed.
George is, once again, being disingenuous (or an ‘unreliable narrator’ again… you’re shocked, right?! 😉).
There’s a good 2018 interview with Frank Oz on the subject, here:-
Frank Oz on the Challenges of Bringing Yoda to Life (Part 1) - circa 6 minutes and 45 seconds in (though the whole thing is well worth a watch - and Part 2 of the video), as well.
Plus this 40 second clip of Frank Oz explanation: www.tiktok.com/@starlordziggy/video/7459962004242140462
Edit (found it): At 30m 35s into this 2013 interview with Frank Oz: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BN-l4r2eIA (the whole interview is very much worth a watch discussing many aspects of Fran Oz’ life and work):-
Frank Oz: "He [George] wants me to bring alive the character that he and Larry Kasdan wrote - that’s what he wants. He wants something that transcends what’s on the paper. He doesn’t want a voice. He doesn’t know what he wants at that point because it has never been done, first of all.
Interviewer: Who invents the Yoda language? Who invented the language?
Fran Oz: Larry and George wrote the language, but they didn’t see it through all the way, and I asked George if I could really hone in on the language and he said ‘yeah’… so I made it very specific… and carried their idea throughout. But this voice thing is very… it’s a red herring, not for you, for everybody, because by the way, George Lucas didn’t want my voice in the beginning. I gave him a tape. He said ‘no, thank you’. (interview continues on)
^ That’s not to take anything away from the likes of Kasdan, George, Kershner, Peter Suschitzky, Stuart Freeborn and his team, Jim Henson’s input, the Yoda puppeteering team, and also Mark Hamill (whose performance helps sell Yoda, greatly).
And I think it is mentioned in Alan Arnold’s superb 1980 book 'Once upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of the Empire Strikes Back’ - though I’m not 100% on that, I’ll look it up later (I don’t have it to hand). It was in JW Rinzler’s ‘The Making Of Empire Strikes Back’ book (which references Alan Arnolds’ book &tapes a lot), on Page 244:-
I think where some people may get confused is they saw George’s quote from the same above book by JW Rinzler (on Page 44)…
… where George says he “started Yoda’s backwards” and then take it as verbatim; when if fact there is much more to it… as Frank Oz himself has consistently stated in numerous sources over the years (with a few example given above and below).
As an aside…
Yodaspeak: A Study In Yoda’s Speaking Patterns and Their Frequency in the Star Wars Movies - 2011 thread
Yoda-Speak: A Study of Yoda’s Speaking Patterns and Their Frequencies - some guy’s Secret History of Star Wars article
Frank Oz Recalls Origin of Yoda’s Speaking Style For Empire Strikes Back - 2021 ScreenRant article
Frank Oz talks about life as Yoda - 2005 Gamesville article
Frank Oz - George Lucas rejected his voice for Yoda - 30 second video clip of a 2013 Frank Oz interview.
Star Wars’ Dave Filoni Explains Why Yoda & Yaddle Talk Differently - 2022 ScreenRant article (with Dave Filoni quotes):-
“Does she speak backwards? I’m like, ‘No, I don’t think so. I think that’s a Yoda thing’. Frank Oz told me once that Yoda speaks that way specifically in honor of his own master. That was what he had thought about it.”