I really hope the Covy talk in English in Halo 5 I don’t mind the fact that their speaking alien words but I also enjoyed hearing what they were saying more then less the funny ones inside the game it created humor…
I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.
I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
>
> I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
> > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> >
> > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
>
> Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
^^Human and covy both…^^
> > > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> > >
> > > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> >
> > Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
>
> You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
Well, among themselves they would speak their respective languages I imagine, but against humans they totally could speak human languages, after all Avu Med 'Telcam spoke several human languages. Maybe if you ambush some Covenant and they don’t notice you, they could cling to their native language, but in a fight they taunt you in human.
In halo 4 Spatan Ops Jul spoke human Words to Dr. Glassman when he was building a device Jul needed to contact the Librarian…
> > > > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> > > >
> > > > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> > >
> > > Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
> >
> > You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
>
> Well, among themselves they would speak their respective languages I imagine, but against humans they totally could speak human languages, after all Avu Med 'Telcam spoke several human languages. Maybe if you ambush some Covenant and they don’t notice you, they could cling to their native language, but in a fight they taunt you in human.
Would they though? I wonder if American soldiers who knew German taunted Germans in their native language in World War II.
Just a thought.
> > > > > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> > > > >
> > > > > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> > > >
> > > > Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
> > >
> > > You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
> >
> > Well, among themselves they would speak their respective languages I imagine, but against humans they totally could speak human languages, after all Avu Med 'Telcam spoke several human languages. Maybe if you ambush some Covenant and they don’t notice you, they could cling to their native language, but in a fight they taunt you in human.
>
> Would they though? I wonder if American soldiers who knew German taunted Germans in their native language in World War II.
>
> Just a thought.
This isn’t human vs human…
The covy are a intelgent alliance fighting humanity they spoke human Language before they could again…
> > > > > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> > > > >
> > > > > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> > > >
> > > > Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
> > >
> > > You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
> >
> > Well, among themselves they would speak their respective languages I imagine, but against humans they totally could speak human languages, after all Avu Med 'Telcam spoke several human languages. Maybe if you ambush some Covenant and they don’t notice you, they could cling to their native language, but in a fight they taunt you in human.
>
> Would they though? I wonder if American soldiers who knew German taunted Germans in their native language in World War II.
>
> Just a thought.
Well, there is the story of Guy Gabaldon, a Mexican-American solider who famously captured 1500 Japanese soldiers by himself by convincing them to surrender by speaking Japanese he learned in LA.
> > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> >
> > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
>
> Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
Of course, I’m just saying it’s clearly strictly there for ease of story-telling. (If I were from Spain, or Central or South America, in a place where they did speak Spanish, I’d say the same thing)
As you said, in certain cases, it would be passable. Separatist leaders and ambassadors could have more knowledge of English. But normal soldiers most likely wouldn’t be educated on any Human tongues. The only way you could make something like that reasonable is through the use of instant audio translation devices give to the Elites to speak Human languages and vice versa when they needed to.
Also, Welsch, Jul only spoke certain words to Glassman, such as “Glassman” and “Librarian” which is much more realistic in that you could overhear and mimic those words relatively easily.
This is a LONG way away from being able to fluently speak a language developed by a different species, most likely with a completely different vocal anatomy.
> > > > > > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> > > > >
> > > > > Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
> > > >
> > > > You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
> > >
> > > Well, among themselves they would speak their respective languages I imagine, but against humans they totally could speak human languages, after all Avu Med 'Telcam spoke several human languages. Maybe if you ambush some Covenant and they don’t notice you, they could cling to their native language, but in a fight they taunt you in human.
> >
> > Would they though? I wonder if American soldiers who knew German taunted Germans in their native language in World War II.
> >
> > Just a thought.
>
> Well, there is the story of Guy Gabaldon, a Mexican-American solider who famously captured 1500 Japanese soldiers by himself by convincing them to surrender by speaking Japanese he learned in LA.
That is an incredible story.
> This is a LONG way away from being able to fluently speak a language developed by a different species, most likely with a completely different vocal anatomy.
Well, the Elites managed to do it just fine, they just have difficulty with f sounds, like saying the name Phillips as Phyllis.
We have to realize that every single Covenant unit and most UNSC units have language translators built into their gear.
To suggest that an organization consisting of several INCREDIBLY different races with their own languages/forms of communication wouldn’t have translators to ensure cohesive communication is sort of silly.
I mean, it’s just as strange for every human to be speaking English as well. when the nations of the world united did they phase out every other language? People can’t be upset with the highly advanced aliens speaking English while at the same time just accept that English is the language of choice in every human colony ever.
So I would say at most in cut scenes involving no other humans, the aliens could be speaking their native languages with subtitles provided.
Other than that, it makes no sense for them to just not use language translator software and just warbble and chirp at humans. It explicitly hinders their goal in Spartan OPs.
Perhaps if they switch in and out. Like use English to insult the Chief, and their own language when speaking to each other.
> > This is a LONG way away from being able to fluently speak a language developed by a different species, most likely with a completely different vocal anatomy.
>
> Well, the Elites managed to do it just fine, they just have difficulty with f sounds, like saying the name Phillips as Phyllis.
This is not what I was saying. Clearly some Elites can speak English, but how often would they? It would be fine when appropriate, but it would be much better with nice touches, like some Elites speaking in broken English, or showing a Human speaking Sangheli with an Elite (demonstrating it goes both ways)
> > > > I disagree, just because It breaks the immersion a bit for me, honestly. The grunts were funny, <mark>but I remember seeing Halo 2 cutscene footage for the first time and being SO pissed that not only were they suddenly speaking a Human language, but of course, it’s English.</mark>
> > > >
> > > > I think it would be much better if the humor remain in the for of grunt body animations if anything. And the Elites should be well expressed through their animations in cutscenes to make up for the lack of audio information being received by your brain.
> > >
> > > Well, if you had a Spanish copy of the game it would be spoken in Spanish and so on across the world.
> >
> > You’re big on Halo Fiction and Canon, should the covenant speak human languages or Covenant languages?
>
> Well, among themselves they would speak their respective languages I imagine, but against humans they totally could speak human languages, after all Avu Med 'Telcam spoke several human languages. Maybe if you ambush some Covenant and they don’t notice you, they could cling to their native language, but in a fight they taunt you in human.
I was always under the impression Cortana translated it for Chief, given that she could do it with the prophets in Halo 2 (think the opening regret cutscene).
I suppose that was both just a random assumption and doesn’t explain why the ODST’s could understand them (none-the-less the Reach Spartans) but that’s always the conclusion I subconsciously came to. Even if that doesn’t hold, it doesn’t seem too far fetched that humans had developed a translator for the combat systems.
Then again I’m just giving ideas at this point. I haven’t read into the Halo Lore since Ghosts of Onyx.
I used to prefer the Covenant speaking their own languages, but after playing ODST recently and hearing the Covenant speak in English, I found them much more engaging and overall, much more adaptable and the ability to strategically engage them was much higher.
When it comes to fighting off an enemy, hearing them say “Throw a grenade!” is much more helpful than hearing them say “GLABLAHIBBHAJABABA!!!”
Also, them giving taunts to the player in English certainly helps the psychological impact.
I’d love to have English / human language speaking Covies again. I miss Grunts yelling “Feets don’t fail me now!” when running away. 
Oh, and of course, Elites yelling things like “DEMON FLARE!” and “HOLY FLARE!” and “The demon is dead! BY MY HAND! AH-HA-HA!”
I liked the human speaking covenant more. It created a certain feel to the game and more humor too. I always loved to hear grunts panic.
The idea that soldiers or spartans have translation programs in their armor would help them a lot on the field. Supporting the idea of English speaking.
I wonder what kind of difference that would make between covenant and promethean enemies, when covenant enemies would be more familiar if speaking English and the prometheans communicating with machine noices. Maybe it would make the prometheans feel a bit more mysterious than they are now since the covies speak alien too.
And of course it is a good idea if the covenant would speak their own languages in cutscenes that don’t involve humans.
I’d like to have the translation software back. I understand having the Covenant speak in their own language gives that more alien feel to it, but it just bothers me that it switched from 4 games of human speaking Covies to alien speaking ones. Bungie said we were able to understand them before hand for we had translation software that gradually got better. In Halo 4 you can say they were speaking a different dialect…like how we have Russian, German, Spanish and so forth.