The Lie that is Halo - And the Covenant Language - 00 Rants

I'm pretty sure there is a scene where Regret is speaking in his tongue and then you have Cortana rewinding and playing it back in English. Great little view of it in "real time"

I've always chalked it up to the fact that Humanity could translate their language, but at the same time, The Covenant did send a transmission in English stating their genocidal intentions.

I’m pretty sure most of the time, the language is just being translated for our benefit as an audience, at least when their are no human characters around. Some are able to speak English and it’s clearly them talking without translators, such as Jul Mdama during Spartan Ops, or grunts all the time. Finally, and this is most of the time humans and aliens are interacting, is that translators are being used. We can see this in Halo 2 when Cortana snaps her fingers and translates Regret’s singsong language into English.

It's interesting to note also that in Fall of Reach, John is shown a transmission from the Covenant. “Your destruction is the will of the Gods . . . and we are their instrument.” Admiral Stanforth tells him, “They broadcast this to us in our language. We believe they used some kind of translation system to prepare the message . . . but it means they’ve been studying us for some time.” Just an extra little point to throw into the mix.

I feel that the Elites have tried to learn the language as a way of them being able to understand an enemy that they have always wondered why hasn't been accepted into the Covenant, in the deeper lore the Elites questioned why humanity wasn't allowed in by the prophets. In the halo 2 terminal where the Arbiter attacks that barracks but allows the marines to arm up and give them a chance to fight and die honorably it shows that they have respect for humanity. And i feel that for some elites such as the shipmaster and the Arbiter learning a human language isn't too far out of the question

15:16 If I remember correctly, Unggoy are very quick learners and were occasionally employed as translators so it wouldnt be too far out to think that the majority of them have a decent grasp of english. Jackals (albeit maybe only rarely) could also understandably use a broken form of english due to the amount of them that regularly trade with humans.

Pretty much where my thoughts have always been. For the cutscenes, it's been 'translated' for us the viewer's convenience, but the Arbiter's trial was spoken in the Covenant's communal language/translated between them already. For us directly listening in, it's been the AI or integrated systems translating the languages for us. As a couple have mentioned before, the scene in Halo 2 where Cortana snaps her fingers and is actively translating Regret's 'sermon' broadcast is a perfect example.

I thought the immediate English in halo 2 was to flip the script suddenly, showing the reasoning behind these alien beings' war, while in Reach and Halo 4 they're meant to seem alien and vile, so they speak in scary and unknown languages

Now I want to see the cutscenes of halo Google translated straight into incomprehensibility

in canon mjolnir black, the mark 6 prototype, was the first mjolnir suite to include a full covenant translator. so in halo 2 the tech is perfected and handed out semi-widely for obvious tactical advantage. cortana had to enable prophet translation in a cutscene. in halo 4, we see a remnant of the covenant, mostly lead by non-homeworld sangheili (minus jul mdama as its leader), which could present the translator with an uncatalogized covenant dialect. In halo 5 this language is added to the translator, helped by the arbiter. Infinite kept that. grunts were probably easier to translate, so it was a prototype feature in the mark 5 after the mk 5 b. the prophet in halo 3 likely translated his speech into english for effective insult. johnson and miranda likely have in ear comlinks with translators. guilty spark analyzed the autumns data to learn human language. the didact in halo 4 was likely understandable because cortana picked up forerunner in halo CE. the banished likely use standard covenant language, so they are easy to translate. the harbinger likely rigged up a translator from her language to the banished set, which includes human language, through common forerunner script knowledge.

Keep in mind... Ungoy reach maturity at an astonishing rate. As referenced in the book, Legacy of Onyx, Ungoy children's minds learn like sponges to make up for a relatively short adolescent period in their life cycle. Could it be that the grunts in CE have just rapidly learned English for operational purposes? They are often communications officers, and front line grunts may be able to translate foreground recon missions. If you take this into account, it could be a vector to tie up the plot thread of why they were the only species to speak English in CE. If front line grunts can rapidly learn English, then they would be a relatively effective tool for shouting intimidating things at human soldiers. Just saying. It makes sense.

Food nipple is definitely an artifact of google translate if I ever seen one. Cortana has a sense of humor, too

I think in a lot of cases, it's just for convenience on our part to understand them, and in other times they are actually speaking English so humans could understand them. The Prophets themselves learned English so that when they declared war on Humanity, their message would be understood. And if I recall, Unggoy are fast learners and were often used for translation.

The Banished actually speak english because they have humans in their ranks. Voridus mentions that he learned it for this reason in the book Divine Wind.

The Harbinger speaking English is definitely a weird one

The point you made at 16:40 about how there's no translation needed when the covenant talked to each other, for example, when you play arbiter in halo 2. I wanted to add a point where that makes sense because in halo 2 the elites would talk all proper and "Shakespeare" like to each other. But then in halo 3, they speak more broken English when your playing as chief. It is cause they are speaking their understood language. its just translated to English for us, the player, because... why not its just a game. :P (added note, I see your played hand with this video, and raise the dialog line where you can hear from sleeping grunts in Halo Reach say and I quote: "Funny, but I dream in English..."

In “The Fall of Reach” when first contact is made the Covenant send a message in English explaining their intentions. Right after it’s said that they’ve been studying/watching humanity so it’s plausible that they learned the language or simply translated it.

I always wondered about this, I just figured that in-game it was a translater and the cutscenes were just for us as players to understand (written before the video was finished

Original Halo Wars explains in their black box time line Covenant starts picking up human language Grunts are able to learn languages easily and would teach the rest of the Covenant races Not saying you’re wrong of course but there is that small detail

WORT INTENSIFIES