Is the Engineers' language in Prometheus similar to any human language?
Is the Engineers' language in Prometheus similar to any human language? Was this language developed further in any website or promotional material?
Best Answer
The language was developed by SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London:
Dr. Anil Biltoo, one of the linguists who worked on the language, explains:
...the influence behind this language is Proto-Indo-European (PIE), a hypothesized spoken language that pre-dates (and is the ancestor of) ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Hittite and Greek.
It is not, however, an attempt to be academically rigorous and to reconstruct the language according to the most persuasive arguments from scholars working in this field.
The language of the engineers in Prometheus is not 'pure PIE' (whatever that's supposed to be, given that all reconstructions are hypothetical).
Any dialogue intended to be learned by actors has to be capable of being pronounced, which does not appear to be a quality discernible in reconstructions proposed thus far.
If the dialogue in Prometheus appears to contain words that have an immediate resonance with languages known to the viewer, that is all to the good since it is intended (The use of Proto-Afroasiatic would likely have yielded no such result).
The emphasis was less on authenticity with respect to what is generally agreed upon vis-a-vis PIE phonology and roots, and more on ease of articulation, sonorousness and the suggestion of a possible connection of 'Engineer' with terrestrial speech.
- This website takes a closer look at the language.
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What language do they speak in Prometheus?
EnglishIrishWhat language did the engineer speak?
According to The Bioscopist the language was actually Proto-Indo-European (PIE), which Michael Fassbender learned from Dr. Anil Biltoo, the language consultant on the film, of the SOAS Language Centre in London. He explains that there was a longer piece of dialogue edited out of the final cut of Prometheus.What does David tell the engineer in Prometheus?
He told the Engineer what Weyland wanted him to say: [A]ccording to Dr. Anil Biltoo, the film's official translator and linguistics consultant, David did as he was asked, translating his words as follows: "This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life."The Engineers (CELESTIAL CREATORS) Prometheus + Alien Covenant Explored
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