Talk:Covenant Languages

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What is the Kig-Yar saying in the picture on the page? I could just look it up myself but I am not the most patient person in the world. —This unsigned comment was made by Esq Vratum (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~

"Z . ... E J Y ... X E ? ? ? ? D ? ? ?"

— Kig-Yar

The question marks denote symbols that aren't actually in the known alphabet. It looks like the writers just made it up. -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek ^{Honour Light Your Way!} 10:13, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

They probably did, even so the Pheonetic translation of the covenant symbles doesn't tell you what it means, just what it sounds like. English uses the same letters as Spainish but "Si" and "See" mean differnt things in each language. ~ UserWiki:Galacticdominator|~ ]]~ ~ 19:33, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

I tried matching the characters to the later cipher, but no luck. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 09:01, April 30, 2010 (UTC)

English

Are the Jiralhanae speaking English when torturing Ackerson? Interrogation seems to warrant actual fluency with the language. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 21:14, October 29, 2009 (UTC)

I would say no. Ackerson's neural interface would have some capability in translating the Covenant language to English, similar to how the Covenant are able to understand our language system.--Lol@Phailure 21:17, October 29, 2009 (UTC)

With the exception of the upgraded Spartan II Nueral interfaces. Nueral interfaces have been limited to Name, Rank, Serial numbers and textual information, no audio. BTW Ascention, you started our little revert war and the barely censored language was unnecessary ~ UserWiki:Galacticdominator|~ ]]~ ~ 03:17, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

Spartan-II neural interfaces and other translation equipment were uploaded with data gathered by Cortana after the Master Chief and other survivors from Halo/Reach returned to Earth. Blue Team carries ONI datapads with the translation software uploaded, and Kurt is able to audibly translate Voro Nar 'Mantakree's final words. I would expect Ackerson, with his hands on so many special projects and with so many resources, would have little difficulty acquiring and installing this software for his own use. On the other hand, the Covenant have been able to learn and speak a number of human languages, if only to utter vain threats and promises of retribution. The Unggoy have been trained to listen for UNSC communications, and the Sangheili have demonstrated their knowledge of the language multiple times. -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek 03:37, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

*sigh* Ok, Sorry Ascention, I probably could have explained my reasoning better than I did. Sorry Smoke, I shouldn't have escaladed the conflict to the point where you had to intervene. You can unlock the page if you want, I won't edit it. ~ UserWiki:Galacticdominator|~ ]]~ ~ 03:29, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

Apology accepted.--Lol@Phailure 01:51, November 1, 2009 (UTC)

I always thought that the Covenant (specifically Grunts, Elites, Brutes, and Prophets) actually spoke English as the Covenant's lengua franca. I thought that it was due to the influence of humanity upon the Covenant via our large empire and transmission of radio waves containing English through Covenant space. In the Bestiarum, the section about the Grunts seemed to imply that they actually spoke English due to having had the duty to listen to innumerable human broadcasts. My thought was that the Covenant initially wanted humanity to join the Covenant, perhaps knowing an inkling of its connection to the Forerunners. Thus, the Prophet of Tolerance, as a Covenant Heirarch, commissioned hundreds of teams of Grunts and Elites to learn the humans' language, as is canonically known. (Also, Tolerance may have hoped that having a neutral language would help soothen the relations between the Elites and Prophets.) However, after learning from Mendicant Bias that the Covenant's centuries-old translation of a Forerunner symbol should have been 'Reclaimer' instead of 'Reclamation', the Hierarchs Truth, Mercy, and Regret came to the conclusion that full knowledge of the humans' connection to the Forerunners would tear the Covenant apart, and so they instead opted to destroy humanity. However, by this time English was already well established as the modern Covenant language.

Anyway, I may be entirely wrong about this, so please correct my interpretation if it is indeed incorrect. I just found it odd that the speech of Elites, Prophets, Brutes, and Grunts would be translated in-game when no humans were present (and that their mouth movements would correspond with their words), but that that of Jackals, Hunters, and Drones would not be, and that these same characters could speak English to the humans. Subtitles would seem more appropriate if they weren't speaking English (though it did give Bungie an excuse to use voice-actors). Covenant members are even shown to speak English in the obvious absence of translation software (such as when Admiral Cole interrogated an Elite who responded in English in the comic Halo Wars: Genesis). The whole story of the Prophet of Tolerance's order for the Covenant to learn human language seems like Bungie's explanation of how they eventually learned to speak it. This is not to say that there still couldn't be instances in the Halo universe when the aforementioned Covenant species were in fact speaking a different language than English and translation software had to be used. - User:Wesbspidrman 17 Jan 2010 (UTC)

The case of human languages' prominence in Grunts is actually canon - as for the Sangheili and Jiralhanae, though, its a case of learning the language of your enemy, as well as translations from the true "Covenant" for storytelling purposes or via UNSC translation programs. -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek 08:51, January 23, 2010 (UTC)