Translating the Set Picture Ruins *Spoilers*

[Corporal Hicks]

Has anyone tried translating the hieroglyphs yet?

[whiterabbit]

Has anyone tried translating the hieroglyphs yet?

Is that even possible? Maybe to word it better; was the hieroglyphs apart of the linguistics? I know the language is translatable if you have a phd in Proto-Indo-European langauge. But I mean f**k; I can barely handle English. 

edit: Well shit it is a legitimate language and some guys in India did translate it pretty well. Enough that it shocked Anil Biltoo, the creator of the hieroglyphs. They never said what it was but the rumor is that it's biblical quotes and nothing more.

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm pretty sure they did an alphabet.

Yeah, they did a few alphabets. These are from our concept art gallery.




These 2 look like earlier concepts but this last one looks like the finished one they went with in the film.





Looks like all the pillars have the same hieroglyphs on them. I'll give it a go when I can.

[whiterabbit]

Yea they do. Makes sense, same god, same language oh wait that doesn't even work on Earth. 

However the question begs asking, if there is an alphabet; then where is the translation? Come on, I know someone here must have done it by now.

[Corporal Hicks]

I think some folk did try to back when Prometheus was coming out. It's probably buried in the Prometheus board somewhere.

After determining that the exact same heiroglyphs appear on all 3 walls we've seen, I used http://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/200516_06.jpg and http://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/200516_09.jpg to piece together...

VITEAMORTESON

OU(I?)NOSTESOFILI

No idea what that could mean though? 

Googling "Viteamorteson" gave the suggestion "vita mortis" which is latin for "life and death". A wink at the comic maybe?  The second line brought up no suggestions.

[Ultramorph]

NOSTESOFILI

Similar to "Nostri filii" Latin for "our children."

[Enoch]

Vite a morte sono, uno steso fili.?

Life from death will arise, and children spread.


Three words are certain: LIFE, DEATH, (maybe: our children) CHILDREN...
other letters are seemingly random... I m confused anyway.

[Deadmeat]

What, you guys expected it to rhyme? Let's get rid of that trope where you translate some passage from an ancient bygone language and it somehow perfectly rhymes in English.

I think it's pretty obvious, actually. Since we know Engineers colonized other planets, essentially creating life on them through the sacrifice of one of their own (as seen in the intro of Prometheus), given context and just accepting the fact that Engineer grammar and language structure is different from our language, then it's easy to understand the gist of it. I mean, unless an expert in Latin was in charge of writing that text, we can just accept that life, death, children are the main themes and there aren't any other details worth looking into. Let's take the context of what we know of Engineers so far, and it's honestly nothing new - Engineers will die, new life (their "children") will arise.

I mean, I know I'm pointing out the obvious now anyways, just wondering why no one else said this before.

[LarsVader]

Has anyone tried translating the hieroglyphs yet?

Yes.

[Mike]

While there could be some references from that poem,I honestly doubt that those characters will be mentioned which is maybe,so let's not too much rush to conclusion. When movie will be out, we will see what kind of imagery is and what is not from poem. I am not fan of that poem (inspired by a Bible,although for me is like a mythological story in poem) and some of characters are,such as L.,in my opinion,mythological. Surely I am not the only one on that opinion,there are others for sure. For what Enoch said,I don't care about it (let me guess,it is nihilistic philosophy what is told,bit stupid and meaningless) and don't want to take it seriously,you are like some uninteresting junkie zombie believer and addicted on that believe. Everything what is said about those themes are just for Alien franchise(especially from Prometheus to fourth Alien prequel,the last two hopefully be made in future),so not should everyone take it so seriously,it is just movie franchise, not necessarily reality, if someone believes or not. It is similar in other films,such as Matrix or some other ones. As for cause of war, we will see if it is correct or not.

[CainsSon]

What, you guys expected it to rhyme? Let's get rid of that trope where you translate some passage from an ancient bygone language and it somehow perfectly rhymes in English.

I think it's pretty obvious, actually. Since we know Engineers colonized other planets, essentially creating life on them through the sacrifice of one of their own (as seen in the intro of Prometheus), given context and just accepting the fact that Engineer grammar and language structure is different from our language, then it's easy to understand the gist of it. I mean, unless an expert in Latin was in charge of writing that text, we can just accept that life, death, children are the main themes and there aren't any other details worth looking into. Let's take the context of what we know of Engineers so far, and it's honestly nothing new - Engineers will die, new life (their "children") will arise.

I mean, I know I'm pointing out the obvious now anyways, just wondering why no one else said this before.

So... Children must kill their parents so life can arise and spread from their death. The Engineers are trying to kill their god/parent/creators, and they want to wipe US out before we do the same. This is what DAVID understood in Prometheus - that our creations will have to destroy us to evolve and spread. I'm kinda expecting that he will 'experiment' with this concept on humanity, the way the Engineers wanted to.

I hope we don't have to sit through some terrible, Bond-villain exposition of him explaining all this at the end. Just show us how this relates to the Xenos, explicitly.

[Corporal Hicks]

What, you guys expected it to rhyme? Let's get rid of that trope where you translate some passage from an ancient bygone language and it somehow perfectly rhymes in English.

Who even said that, bro? 

Let's take the context of what we know of Engineers so far, and it's honestly nothing new - Engineers will die, new life (their "children") will arise.

That's definitely what is implied and was intended on the page in the opening scene of Prometheus. However, with the growing rumours that the Engineers are nothing but another creation like humanity, I can't help but wonder if it could be something to do with the real creators - Space Jockeys or whatever it might end up being.

NOSTESOFILI

Similar to "Nostri filii" Latin for "our children."

For prosperities sake, here's one of the articles (not sure if its the article, I haven't looked back over the archives or old posts in the Prommy board yet) that was talking about the linguistics in Prometheus:

I'm sure there are many of you out there who, like me, have a million different questions after seeing Ridley Scott's Prometheus. And some great analysis and theory has been mulled over with a fine tooth comb, see Brad Brevet's great article at Rope of Silicone. But only so much analysis can be performed before you hit a stumbling block, and require a little more in-depth research. I am of course referring to the mysterious monologue that android David speaks to the alien 'Engineer' in the final scenes of the film, which left many in the dark. How exactly do you begin to translate alien-speak? The clue lies in an earlier scene where David learns about linguistics, while the rest of the crew are in stasis.

In the scene David is learning the building blocks of language and we see him taking a lesson in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) Linguistics, where a holographic professor, takes him through the ABC's and recites Schleicher's Fable. An artificial text composed in the reconstructed PIE, in 1868, to demonstrate the language's use.

hjewɪs jasmə hwælnə nahəst akʷunsəz dadʳkta (Translated as: a sheep that had no wool saw horses) – Excerpt from Schleicher's Fable – The Sheep and the Horses


The 'Professor' in the clip is in fact the real-life linguistics consultant used for the film and taught Michael Fassbender (David) the dialogue. I managed to track down the consultant, a Dr. Anil Biltoo of the SOAS Language Centre in London, to see if he could shed some light on the mysterious final scene. He was most helpful and provided the following:

The line that David speaks to the Engineer (which is from a longer sequence that didn't make the final edit) is as follows:

/ida hmanəm aɪ kja namṛtuh zdɛ:taha/.../ghʷɪvah-pjorn-ɪttham sas da:tṛ kredah/

A serviceable translation into English is:

'This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life'.

Thanks Doc!

So basically David just asked what his master, Peter Weyland, requested. As the good doctor pointed out, there is a longer sequence which Ridley Scott filmed, but ultimately cut.

We're all going to have to wait for the Director's cut to see if the conversation between the Engineer and David – and there was indeed originally a conversation, not merely an utterance from David – yields any fruit.- Dr. Anil Biltoo

So were going to have to wait for the Directors cut to hear what the 'Engineer's reply was to David's request. Of course Dr. Biltoo is keeping quiet about the details regarding the cut scenes – I'm sure there are plenty contractual reasons he cannot spill the beans. But once we have the DVD release and isolate that audio, it wont be long before some hot shot linguist translates it, and perhaps we'll know the answer to Shaw's question – "Why did they change their minds about us?"

Dr. Biltoo also revealed that Fassbender spent 17 hours reciting Schleicher's Fable, committing it to memory, only to have Ridley Scott use the first line in the film. – What I find far more impressive is that he sat through all 3hrs 45min of Lawrence of Arabia – on multiple occasions – I always knew the Fassmember was a dedicated actor – but wow!

For further insights, have a look at this discussion board over at the linguistic forum called Language Log, here. There are some great isolated audio clips of dialogue from the film.

It then links to this: http://web.archive.org/web/20140405094332/http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4008

[oduodu]

Are you guys sayin that the engineers created us and now we want then dead so that we can spread through the galaxy like they did ? So perhaps man hijacked a jugg transferred their consciousness into engineer bodies and then went to lv 223 to kill the remainder of the engineers ? Mankind  is the then the engineer faction that killed of all the other engineers or was there a "firefight" between the 2 factions ?

[Deadmeat]

Are you guys sayin that the engineers created us and now we want then dead so that we can spread through the galaxy like they did ?

That is actually kinda self-contradictory. They're referring to the Xenomorphs being the "children" of the Engineers. But I do get your point!

This actually brings up an interesting thought: since we're technically the "children" of the Engineers, just like the Xenomorphs, and yet only the Xenomorphs are implied to be the ones seeking out the destruction of their creators, maybe the inscription in the ruins is incomplete? If there would be a continuation to it (and this is only a hypothesis), I'd reckon it'd mention something about there being multiple children, maybe two, and one would create, the other - destroy. Again, I'm simply basing this on the fact that we know both we and the Xenomorphs are the "children" of the Engineers and one is (more or less ) a "creator", the other - a "destroyer."

Since we don't know who created the Engineers - who knows? Maybe we'll be surprised with another, more dangerous civilization, the symbolic "opposite" of the "creators" - Engineers. The Destroyers? I don't know, man, just brainstorming at this point

What, you guys expected it to rhyme? Let's get rid of that trope where you translate some passage from an ancient bygone language and it somehow perfectly rhymes in English.

Who even said that, bro? 

Now don't tell me you've never seen that in movies.

[oduodu]

Well if the xenos are children of the engineers then they must be the black sheep in the family !