With the Covenant being a collection of seven different species, obviously each species as it’s own language but every time we gain insight into the Covenant, be it Halo 2 or in the books, they’re all speaking english, for our convenience. They’re not actually speaking english, are they? Did the Covenant have a specific language that they all spoke, like Sangheili? Or did most members of the Covenant just have their own personal translation device?
I’ve never seen this addressed anywhere before.
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> With the Covenant being a collection of seven different species, obviously each species as it’s own language but every time we gain insight into the Covenant, be it Halo 2 or in the books, they’re all speaking english, for our convenience. They’re not actually speaking english, are they? Did the Covenant have a specific language that they all spoke, like Sangheili? Or did most members of the Covenant just have their own personal translation device?
>
> I’ve never seen this addressed anywhere before.
I don’t believe there ever was a lingua franca within the Covenant. They always spoke each others’ languages to one another. In the Kilo Five trilogy there are several instances of unggoy speaking Sangheli to one another as well as to their sangheli commanders. These were of course unggoy that lived on Sanghelios. There were also Jiralhanae that served 'Telcam during the war that spoke Sangheli. I assume that it may have had a lot to do with whom you were serving directly under in the Covenant.
I think in the books it is just for the reader. Like you have an translation device.
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> The Sangheili language (well, a dialect thereof) served as the Covenant’s lingua franca.
Huh. Out of all the places I thought to look for this info, it never occurred to me that Waypoint might have the answer. Thank you!