So, as you may or may not know, the release of the recent Halo 4 Terminal Prologue has stirred up the community quite a bit. I won’t deny that, at first, I thought I was hearing Japanese, though this is obviously no the case.
Curious, I decided to try and find a collect of Elite lines from Halo Reach to compare, and see how my faith was rewarded. The story goes, that Bungie produced that at the request of the people working on the “Deliver Hope” trailer. So now, compare that to the Sangheili in the Halo 4 terminal video.
I personally prefer the Halo Reach speech, as it sounds a lot more alien. Still, thumbs up to 343 for allowing the Sangheili to speak in their native tounge. Perhaps we have evidence of different dialects?
Think it is different dialects. Thursday War does mention different skin tones and accents for the Sangheili. I think the language sounds awesome and I am glad Jul is leading The Storm. Gives us a known enemy and also purpose to this New Covenant.
You have the same link twice Toa, might want to fix that
As for the speech: it did sound very Japanese in terms of intonation, sounds and wording. But I don’t mind it really. I mean, the entire Elite concept is heavily rooted in medieval Japanese society so to have them speak in a similar way is fine with me to be honest.
And differences between speech: I guess you get that when you start to focus on their own language more. That’s what the Terminal is hinting at: Elites speaking their own language from now on (unless speaking to humans). So that logically means their language needs to be fleshed out more than before.
Slap a canonical explanation like different accents on it and you’re done.
The only reason it sounds Japanese to me ironically, is the use of English terms. Just makes it all sound goofy and “Engrish”. If they had left the English terms out of there I probably wouldn’t even have noticed the difference in dialect.
I liked this much better. And the hunched over posture makes the Sangheili seem like a race of Igors than proud, noble warriors. Overall I’m happy to see Sangheili getting press in general, but this is bad press. Igor with a crappy anime voiceover sums up the Sangheili in Halo 4 unfortunately.
I was a little off put by it too. Not because I thought it was bad, but because I thought it was too “Human” sounding.
In Glasslands it was described as Humans loosing a whole level of speech because we lack the 4 mandibles, it just seemed like it was a little too similar to Japanese to be alien, It didn’t help that they used Forerunner and Requiem, I would have liked it if they had an Elite word for Requiem and Forerunner, just to make it sound more alien.
> So, as you may or may not know, the release of the recent Halo 4 Terminal Prologue has stirred up the community quite a bit. I won’t deny that, at first, I thought I was hearing Japanese, though this is obviously no the case.
I’m no cunning linguist, but I thought perhaps it was Japanese we were hearing. For instance, there are some English words in there. But the tell tale sign for me was the word “no”, which is pronounced the same in Japenese and English. I guess I’m just missing a discussion elsewhere on this forum… are we positive it isn’t Japanese we’re hearing?
I’m totally on board with the language matching the samurai ethos of the Sanghelli, though. B.A!
I’m 85% sure it isn’t Japanese, I’m nowhere near being fluent but I have been studying for a little over a year and a half, it doesn’t sound like Japanese to me, some of it may be influenced by it though.
It sounds like a mixture of made up words and real words, it’s a different Sangheili language or a different dialect, no real reason to fight it or study it.
> You have the same link twice Toa, might want to fix that
>
> As for the speech: it did sound very Japanese in terms of intonation, sounds and wording. But I don’t mind it really. I mean, the entire Elite concept is heavily rooted in medieval Japanese society so to have them speak in a similar way is fine with me to be honest.
> And differences between speech: I guess you get that when you start to focus on their own language more. That’s what the Terminal is hinting at: Elites speaking their own language from now on (unless speaking to humans). So that logically means their language needs to be fleshed out more than before.
> Slap a canonical explanation like different accents on it and you’re done.
Thanks for pointing that out. I did that at something like 3:00 am my time. It’s fixed now.
The thing that threw me off with the new terminal, at least initially, was that Bungie had created full languages for the Sangheili, jiralhanae, and Unngoy for Halo Reach, even making an “English to Alien” translator program for the sake of production.
> > So, as you may or may not know, the release of the recent Halo 4 Terminal Prologue has stirred up the community quite a bit. I won’t deny that, at first, I thought I was hearing Japanese, though this is obviously no the case.
>
> I’m no cunning linguist, but I thought perhaps it was Japanese we were hearing. For instance, there are some English words in there. But the tell tale sign for me was the word “no”, which is pronounced the same in Japenese and English. I guess I’m just missing a discussion elsewhere on this forum… are we positive it isn’t Japanese we’re hearing?
>
> I’m totally on board with the language matching the samurai ethos of the Sanghelli, though. B.A!
It sounds so damn much like Japanese! with the “naonoma” “ishi ishi” thing going on.
Then again, there is the lack of the letter ‘P’ anywhere in the diologue.
The couple of english words just ruins it for me. Its got to be all or nothing.
> > > So, as you may or may not know, the release of the recent Halo 4 Terminal Prologue has stirred up the community quite a bit. I won’t deny that, at first, I thought I was hearing Japanese, though this is obviously no the case.
> >
> > I’m no cunning linguist, but I thought perhaps it was Japanese we were hearing. For instance, there are some English words in there. But the tell tale sign for me was the word “no”, which is pronounced the same in Japenese and English. I guess I’m just missing a discussion elsewhere on this forum… are we positive it isn’t Japanese we’re hearing?
> >
> > I’m totally on board with the language matching the samurai ethos of the Sanghelli, though. B.A!
>
> It sounds so damn much like Japanese! with the “naonoma” “ishi ishi” thing going on.
> Then again, there is the lack of the letter ‘P’ anywhere in the diologue.
> The couple of english words just ruins it for me. Its got to be all or nothing.
>
> BTW
I live in Japan. It is not nor does it sound like actual Japanese.
It honestly sounds more like some star wars language. Like Huttese or something.
I have now gone back and watched it a few times, and I think the thing that really throws it off is the use of English words for Requiem and Forerunner. I think that’s what breaks the flow of the speech and makes it seem a bit forced. The English was a bit too perfect for it to seem like it was spoken by an alien. ( especially an alien that hates humans )
> I have now gone back and watched it a few times, and I think the thing that really throws it off is the use of English words for Requiem and Forerunner. I think that’s what breaks the flow of the speech and makes it seem a bit forced. The English was a bit too perfect for it to seem like it was spoken by an alien. ( especially an alien that hates humans )
Its possible that the words “Requiem” and “Forerunner” are translated to those words in every language, hence the apparent use of English words when really that’s just how it is.
> > > > So, as you may or may not know, the release of the recent Halo 4 Terminal Prologue has stirred up the community quite a bit. I won’t deny that, at first, I thought I was hearing Japanese, though this is obviously no the case.
> > >
> > > I’m no cunning linguist, but I thought perhaps it was Japanese we were hearing. For instance, there are some English words in there. But the tell tale sign for me was the word “no”, which is pronounced the same in Japenese and English. I guess I’m just missing a discussion elsewhere on this forum… are we positive it isn’t Japanese we’re hearing?
> > >
> > > I’m totally on board with the language matching the samurai ethos of the Sanghelli, though. B.A!
> >
> > It sounds so damn much like Japanese! with the “naonoma” “ishi ishi” thing going on.
> > Then again, there is the lack of the letter ‘P’ anywhere in the diologue.
> > The couple of english words just ruins it for me. Its got to be all or nothing.
> >
> > BTW
>
> I live in Japan. It is not nor does it sound like actual Japanese.
>
> It honestly sounds more like some star wars language. Like Huttese or something.
The Reach dialogue sounds more like Huttese, to be honest.
> I live in Japan. It is not nor does it sound like actual Japanese.
>
> It honestly sounds more like some star wars language. Like Huttese or something.
To the untrained ear, someone vaguely familiar with Japanese, ie. - me.
It does sound alot like Japanese.
I accept that it’s not.
Doesn’t stop it sounding like Japanese to me though.
