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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

WORT INTENSIFIES

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 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..."

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

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

The Harbinger speaking English is definitely a weird one

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.

Well in Atriox’s case, he’s like “This is me, I’m going to kill you.” He’d want Chief to understand him

This raises a question concerning Halo Wars, where we see the Arbiter speaking directly to humans in English. Perhaps auto-translators have existed for a while, unless that specific Arbiter learned English.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the opening cutscene of the level Regret in Halo 2. The hologram of The Prophet of Regret is singing an alien language to the melody of the original Halo theme, Cortana snaps her fingers, and the hologram doesn't just start speaking English, it also speaks with the kind of tone we would expect of someone saying the things he was saying.

I'm sure live translation of human languages must've been standard in UNSC comm systems to allow for seamless understandability among all personnel, so having an added option for alien languages doesn't sound too farfetched.

A translator like that would be super useful within the UNSC, a battle group that primarily speaks English could easily work with one that speaks Spanish or Chinese

It would be cool if they added a setting in future halo games where you can switch between the enemies speaking English or their own language

I remember someone in a comments section half joke about mjolnir having a universal translator, so I was really looking forward to tge translation part

And then the grunts in CE are actually speaking English, which checks out because grunts are really good at learning new languages.

They speak English because the intent was to humanize the Covenant in Halo 2. Saved you all 18 minutes and 32 seconds.

my theory is that chief's (seeing as we're almost always playing as him) mjolnir mark 6 helmet can translate alien speak and for the arbiter it's translated for us by the devs but canonically still alien speak and i think locke can speak alien

When I was twelve and playing CE on the original Xbox somehow my brain decided that the Elite language was called Eliteian and I wanted to learn it like people can learn Klingon lol

Did you forget about the Halo Wars Timeline? Edict of the Office of the High Prophet of Tolerance Unlock Condition: Collect Black Box in Mission 11. Hear now that 500 teams are to be formed to study the language of the Unclean. Each team to consist of the most clever and most educated Unggoy and Sangheili. These teams to speak only the Unclean language among themselves. The Unclean language to be taught to all military strike teams, that the foe shall be vulnerable.

This has added more interesting points that were never fully thought upon. I mostly believed that later on some of the Covenant learned our language due to the long duration of the war and more could have picked it up after the war. The grunts for example are lore known for having a fondness for humanity's TV shows (possible soap operas), much like how many other people learned some Japanese from anime earlier on as in the early 80's & 90's from questionable subbed and dubbing. Gotta say this makes season 2 of Infinite sound more interesting, would be better if they would give more cannon lore in a future novel/series.

Cortana when inside the unnaturally formed cave in Halo CE: "They're actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels. We should show them who they're dealing with. Master Chief, I'm going to use your suits trans-comm system to monitor their chatter." Apparently this is the reason covenant didn't speak English in CE, with the exception of the not so important grunts. And I suppose Cortana was using the translator on the covenant battle net even in the first mission to forward tactical information to Keyes and his crew on the bridge of the Autumn. Odd that she has to barrow the translator, they can't just both use it simultaneously. With H2 in his brand new state of the art Mk 6 however, they can both use it simultaneously.

You know how big of a tactical advantage jumping into a planets atmosphere and bypassing it’s defences is? It’s HUGE! Just fly in drop a nova bomb and get the hell out of there before anyone notices

I've had that head canon for quite a while. It just makes sense

I recall learning once that it’s canon that grunts are naturally good at decoding speech and replicating it. They’re the only ones who likely picked up on English for common use, as they’re used as a means of decoding human messages for Covie intel.

The reason why they speak English, is that we can hear the jokes they say. Especially the grunts, what they say is comedy gold!!!

(Typed up before watching): The Fall of Reach mentions there’s translation software the Spartans have, but it’s imperfect. Based on how it gets more precise over time. In Reach they don’t have much yet, except some for the grunts (who they’ve met the most), which carries over to CE. But by 2 where we get the new armor and Cortana’s data: it’s more accurate. However, during 4, they’re encountering covenant splinters they haven’t seen in a while or ever, so it’s not as clear. Halo 5 though, they get official translations. As for The Banished… I could see Atriox being the kind of being who would learn the languages of those under him, and we know he has humans. But yeah, the alien what’s her name has no excuse. (Edit: addition): I always assumed we were playing with “Red October” rules for Halo 2. They’re speaking Russian, and you’re hearing Russian, but the medium itself, the fourth wall of you will, is translating to English.

great video, one technicallity that bothering my inner geek, the covie AI wasnt on the Truth and Reconciliation, it was on the Ascendant Justice (yes im a nitpicker i know xD)

1) With regards to the Covenant: I believe somewhere it says they surveyed harvest quietly for a year, including studying and learning the English language which was undoubtedly recorded in some form by the forerunners and ancient humanity which leads me to 2) Forerunners, ancient humanity, and possibly the endless?: all around during the period before or j after the halo array was fired during which its highly likely ancient humanity spoke some form of English, which is how the forerunners speak it and whether through humanity or forerunners the endless learned it 3) Why do they speak English in H2, H3, and ODST? - because Truth is directly addressing and scorning humanity in his speeches, and the arbiter as an ally needed to speak english to communicate with humanity

This is a perfect example of why you always watch a video all the way through lol during the first part of the video I kept thinking "there's no way he didn't do any research on this did he?" And of course the second half of the video is a concise and well thought out explanation breaking down the use of language throughout the entire series. Well done and great video overall Side note: I've always thought Halo has done a good job of juggling the "omniscient Everyone speak English for context sake" with the "mixture of native dialects", subtly reminding you that there is "real-world translating" going on between the different factions

Your telling me Cortana could have snapped her fingers at the start of Halo 2? She decided to wait until Delta Halo to showoff her skills? On the flip side my 20 year old memory telling me. She gave the rough draft to the other AIs when we return to Earth. Then the other AIs do there thing and give it to the UNSC. While Cortana keeps working on it until she could show off to John.

Your entire theory on everything you just explained actually sounds exactly what I came to, so really hasn't added or subtracted from the gaming experience of it. However having someone else say it really does help explain it to others.

I could've swore in Halo 2 cortana said something about translating as a prophet was speaking

This is really great, but maybe has one tiny problem: In the beginning of Halo 2, Regrets fleet comes out of slipspace outside the range of orbital cannons and then tries to disable them with boarding actions to get through. This is essentially normal Covenant procedure, but happening after the takeover of the Ascendant Justice. Why didn't they just jump through into Earth's atmosphere if they could do that at the time? Is it because the UNSC could turn the guns around and still fire on the ships like we see in Halo Reach, so they would have to get rid of those regardless?

A personal theory of mine for the Prophet of Truth's voice change from Halo 2 to Halo 3 is his Halo 2 voice is his sing-songy Prophet language and his Tarrence Stamp voice is him deliberately speaking English when he's speaking to humans directly.

Yeah its real simple. Armor has a translator that translates it for the characters, and when there aren't humans around to hear them speak, it's the game that translates it for the player. Its like the scene in red October when the camera zooms in on sean connery speaking Russian and then suddenly he's speaking English. He's still speaking Russian its just that the movie presents it in English so we don't have to read subtitles. That is until they meet with the Americans at which point they're back to speaking russian.

If they didn’t speak English it wove kinda hard to show the alien side of things. Now with reach there was no real named characters that speak in the story that you would need to understand them. The other games have aliens that speak to explain the alien side of things. Idk that’s just what I think.

Not to mention that while i believe all unsc speak English (kinda as a "common language") not all humans speak English Many civilian interactions use translators built into comms as standard practice

First Strike really explains a good portion about why we hear Covies speak in our native language and why they are using slipspace jumps in atmosphere, though the latter issue was because Cortana was incredibly bloated from all the information absorbed on Installation 04 and was not able to effectively combat the Covenant AI and prevent the information leak. The way language has been handled in Halo so far is satisfactory since it makes sense, we use translator apps capable of real time translations today so it wouldn't be that big of a leap to think that humanity is doing it five centuries later.

"the jackals spoke like this: *plasma pistol sounds*"

I like the idea that the entire covenant war machine learned English to taunt us

I think its reasonable that the covenant also had translation software of their own, as it stands to reason it would be needed just for their own collective. As each species had different dialects. No equivalent of a galactic basic for the covenant to use with each other. Also stands there could have been a way they got cortana's translations to enhance their own, for battlefield purposes.

is no one gonna talk about what happened on screen at 6:50 🤨

I think you are overthinking this. You hear the covenant speaking english in Halo 2 because it is a cutscene of the covenant perspective. Like, this isn't hard people, they aren't actually speaking english. Oh, and in Halo 3, that message was specifically from truth to the humans, you would think he would translate it.

glad to see you’re back! hope you’re doing well bud

When Captain Keyes was captured on the Truth and Reconciliation,he heard the guards talking about this ring world. They called in Halo, and said that whoever controlled it controlled the fate of the universe.

The UNSC has had translators since at least 2535 in the lore, but likely earlier: > *The Covenant used these stocky aliens as cannon fodder. They stood a meter tall and wore armored environment suits that replicated the atmosphere of their frozen homeworld. They reminded the Chief of biped dogs, not only in appearance, but because their speech-even with the new translation software- was an odd combination of high-pitched squeaks, guttural barks, and growls.* Fall of Reach: Prologue. The Fall of Reach was released in 2001, about a month before CE, so any changes to gameplay are just that, gameplay, the lore is explicit that the UNSC does possess translation software and have for decades by the time of the first three games.

Loved this one mate! keep up the good work!

Imagine thinking these aliens actually speak English in the lore and not that it’s a game so the creators just used English to make it easier for kids….

1st one here! Great videos as Always m’dude! Keep up with the great and awesome work you create for the work to see. As always, stay strong my fellow spartan!

oh this is gonna be good! edit: this was good! Language is one of my favorite topics when it comes to real life and fiction. I love the explanations for how they bridge the gaps in communication. Though what I'd like to know is how people like the Arbiter, Atriox, and Eschaurum went about learning the english language. That would be cool to find out!

Well actually the part where you mentioned that a covenant member being able to understand something but it coming out in third party disembodied observer (i.e. the player) is an old writing work-around that has been around for a long time

I'll be real i thought this was commonly understood. Because during halo 2 yes you can now understand most of the different species of the covenant except for profits. Right at the beginning sgt Johnson and Cortana are talking about a broadcast picked up from one of the profits and cortana translates it real time. Then later in the game it switches to the instant translation and the assumption there is that since you don't actually hear them as often the profits language took a bit of extra time to figure out and so she finishes making a profit translation software during the events of halo 2

I always thought "Well they adjusted and translated the other languages by now" and for atriox, he's an intellectual so intimidating his enemies in their language makes sense But for the endless.....yeeahh I dunno man

Actually the covenant AI from the book first strike never sent the cortana's calculations to the covenant fleet. From what I remember it had just enough time to alert the fleet before cortana disseminated it. The covenant never used their jump drives to jump into atmospheres after the events of the book took place. Regret jumped out of the atmosphere once in and attempt to escape. They likely either figured it out then or took the risk with the best calculations they could.

Ive always chalked it up to translators and in the book hunter in the dark have realtime translators

I think it was stated in the Halo 1 manual that the Covenant has an 'outer language' spoken by species lower in the hierarchy, as well as for mundane recordings and communication with outsiders - humanity has already translated this, and it's what the grunts are speaking. But there's also an 'inner language' that is considered sacred, which is far less common as it's only spoken by Prophets and Elites among each other, and humanity hasn't managed to translate that.

im glad you didnt just say "because the forerunners programmed every race to speak the primary human language" because iv heard that one waaaaay too many times

I always just assumed that the taunts in battle were a few insulting phrases that the covenant had learned to repeat, even though they didn't speak English

Where's the interview with Pablo Schrieber about the Halo finale? I was really looking forward to that!

There was a bit of lore added in Halo Wars 1 that the Prophets decreed that 500 teams of the most intelligent covenant individuals were to learn the human language and only speak it from then onwards. They were then instructed to teach all warriors to deny humans the advantage of being able to talk to each other without the covenant troops knowing what was said. Its in the black box on mission 11, which was set before Reach. It also takes time to learn a new language, and different fleets may be at different stages of learning. The separatist forces of Halo 4 may have reverted back to their prior languages as a form of purist, to undo what the Prophets did to the civenant

But what about the grunts in CE? Is that translation or did they learn english to taunt us? Fun way to overanalyzing what is basically an artistic choice. Thanks for making the video!

I don't remember what book it is but in one of the books it is mentioned in a conversation between a elite And one of the prophets that at least the government leadership was expected to learn the human language For at least you know tactical reasons like you intelligence gathering and that elite had chastised the prophet for not learning to understand the human language

I thought this was common knowledge.c Hell in the Halo 2 silver case edition, the little book inside the case explains why "humans" can understand them

Well, there was a scene in Halo 2, gong after Regret, there is a cutscene where Regret's hologram is talking in his native singsong language, and Cortana translates it in real time for you.

I dont rememeber which book it was but i remember hearing that the grunts are actually incredibly smart and could learn up to around 2 or 3 different human languages alone and prided themselves in thay fact, so in halo 1 or any halo games that why youll hear grunts speak english

I think it's mainly because of them wanting the audience to understand. Halo 2's story required us to be able to understand the Covenant. Same with Halo 3. In Reach, they reverted back to their own language because it was a prequel to CE. 4, because the Jul M'damas Covenant was a new enemy, as well as 343i's new direction for the franchise. Halo 5 required us to be able to understand the arbiter, and they wanted to course correct a bit from Halo 4. Infinite because we need to be able to understand the Banished.

I thought the books said the Covenant first contacted humans with it specifically spoking in english with a call for war against Harvest. It could also be though that Cortana is translating everything in real time as she does translate Regret in Halo 2.

I was wondering about how I can understand the language when there are no humans around, although, you clarified it in the last moment, I could say, the player is wearing the helmet and it gets translated for us, on the fly. Remember, in Halo 2, Chief and Cortana encountered many holograms of Regret, ‘singing’. Then Cortana clicks on the translator

Just wanted to remind you about the scene in H3 ODST where the covenant ship slipspace jumps in the city on the last mission.

The Grunts native language is a series of barks , grunts and squeaks . That are unintelligible to other species. But they also learnt the Elites language and multi human languages because they where incharge of listening to human communication. So the Grunts have a logical excuse for learning human languages.

I was sure this was even said on Halo 2's manual. And I think cutscenes can be excluded, since the exposition is meant to be understood by everyone.

The answer is simple. The british empire was much more successful in the halo universe, not only did they colonize the entire galaxy and make them speak english, they also went back in time, colonized the forerunners and all the other things from back then, and then made them speak english too. You gotta hand it to the limeys, they were not fucking around

What about in Halo wars where there is a black box that says the prophets ordered the covenant to learn English to better exploit the humans? But I like the way you explained this, never thought much about this and now I will forever remember it

In most sci-fi media when aliens are talking amongst themselves it's implied that though we are hearing in English its just being translated for the audience.

There was lore back in 2008era that any layman would know that they learned english due to reverence and assuming the humans spoke forerunner, and/or easier for deciphering human comms since grunts were smart linguisticly

I believe this since i was 12. That is around my first touch on Halo CE and years later the other games. Never had i heard of people arguing about this on a big level.

Your knowledge is fantastic. For me we just need to play and have fun sometimes. If we over think it , it tends to consume you.

This all does work together. Big fan of the story and have most of the books. However, in the 1st Halo Wars game you hear the covenant speaking English to humans near perfectly. And the AI from the 1st halo wars was able to translate both covenant and forerunner radio comms. This game takes place roughly 20 years before the events of the 1st halo game.

The English speaking Grunts could possibly be explained by pointing out that Grunts are the Covenant race that humans most often encountered, so their language may have been translated earlier than the other Covenant races prior to the events of Halo Reach and CE.

Grunts mature and enter military service at a young age. It could be possible that their language skills are still developing, so those with a moderate exposure to humans pick up on human languages faster than other covenant species.

I adore this video with an inexplicable passion hahaha. Great work good sir !

Some stuff isn't translated into the Spanish mex translation of the game, leaving some enemy dialogs as the original tongue (Or as some say, gibberish/random noise). There for a friend of mine that was really into the lore, came up with a theory that did pretty much say as much as much as what is mention on the video, mainly the part about Cortana translating the covenant speech, but he had a different reason for why not translating some other stuff, his explanation basically comes to, Cortana no longer prioritizing the translation module of the mark6 in favor of prioritizing the shielding and biofome injector management, as well as just translating stuff for herself and only showing chief what she deems relevant from taping into the covenant battlenetwork and their transmissions.

I always just hand waved it as a translation and they weren’t actually speaking English. It was just there for gameplay and storytelling.

A thought here as well, all of the species of the covenant would have originally had their own individual languages. At some point, they would have either all have had to learn all of those languages, or they would have had to create or settle upon a common language. Given that in the lore, the second seeding of humanity is much younger than it is outside of the games, and given that we know that ancient humans did not speak English, it almost makes me wonder if English was originally the language of the forerunners, and that humans only took to speaking it after being re-seeded. Where we would have learned it, I don’t know, but it’s interesting to think that the other species of the covenant, along with humans, learned to speak English from the forerunners in various ways. Just a random thought.

I give this video 4/5 WORTS !!!

The official Covenant language is Sangheili. The only reason why we hear English (or any human tongue) is because it is translated in cutscenes. When the UNSC got transmissions from the Covenant they were translated by on board AI and vice versa. And the reason why we hear them speak English in game is because Mk VI/VII Mjolnir and has a real time translator.

All covenant special operations were commanded to learn the "uncleans" language, and speak it amongst themselves to fluency. And the covenants primary language is sangheili, all non foreunner runes are sangheili runes