Do The Engineers Understand English?

Resurgence

So I was rewatching the deleted scenes of Prometheus and when I got to this scene, I started wondering; could the engineers understand the meaning of english words but not be able to speak it properly, as there has been cases of this in humans who even though they don't know how to speak it understand what people are saying, now I know some of you are going to argue that there is no way that this is possible, or that it is curiosity, but in the scene the engineer is reading it if it was something he didn't understand he would have simply dropped it and even if he were curious he would have skimmed through flipping pages, but he didn't he seemed to read it for about 10 seconds before he heard Dr. Shaw and went to investigate. What do you guys think?

BigDave

I have seen this shot before and discussed it a number of times, but i am not sure it has ever been released, as well as a number of other shots.... I have not seen this one on my Extras... but indeed i had seen the Still Image above.

Who knows if they can understand English, as this Language had not even came into existence until like 700 years after the Engineers Mission went to POT.

I however look at this scene as the Engineer being interested... just as if we landed on Mars and Dug up a Cave and found a Tomb and a Stone Tablet.... i am sure those who made the discovery will look at the writing on these Tablets even though they would not know what they mean.

I think the Engineer was surprised and intrigued that we had learned to Create Works of Literacy in Paper Books.  Just as the Engineer was also interesting in the Chandelier and Violin Girl on the Screen. He was interested and surprised in how far we have come on our own since THEY Abandoned us.

Something Real

TDBY - What on earth was that remark supposed to mean, may I ask?

Ati

Something Real - He wanted to be kind. :/

MonsterZero

Just another reason why they didn't pursue the Engineers angle for Covenant.

Would they speak english? Subtitles through the movie? Have to create another language(budget) ........get the actors to learn these lines...."DEERTH Ta' Urthot-ak olitotn, suifght!!"..uggh.

Tons of scenes where David is translating.

Sounds like a lot of world building. Better to keep it simple...Some space monsters and their victims...The End.

Something Real

ATI - I do not understand. :(

Ripleys_Ghost

Nobody wants a lot of talk anyway.  They want action and gore.

Something Real

RIPLEYS_GHOST - That is the problem with films, these days. :(

esther85

In the beginning of the film Prometheus, David learns the proto indo european language. Schleicher, Grimm brothers, Schmidt etc tried to recreate this language. Shaw's and Holloway's thesis was the Engineers should understand this language, because this is the proto language, the first language, the aboriginal one. The English belongs tó this language family, só in this case yes, the Engineer could understand something.

Anyways there are a lot of language family, and seemingly they aren't connencted. We can talk about finnougrian/uralian, altaian, semi-hami, indo european etc. Right now we think, there was not just one craddle for the languages. However the indo european is the biggest language family, it's not the proto language. But who knows, maybe about 2100 they'll proove it :)

esther85

In the extended version the Engineer talks in proto indo european anyways.

AdamPD

That's yet another question I pondered.

I assume based on the extended cut that he only spoke that proto indo european? language, but when Weyland starts saying "You see this man?"..it's as if the Engineer understands what he's saying, as he looks over to David to examine him.

esther85

#AdamPD

He understands some things, but basically he can't understand English well. Look on his reactions! He saw, that the crew don't like Shaw, so they won't translate her words. So he (the Engineer) tried to understand her. At least that's what Is see ín his eyes.

Well, can you imagine the Engineer's situation? I mean, have you ever heard a person, who speaks a very far language of yours? You can hear out some words, that is similar, but even if you concentrate so much, you can't figure out, what's going on...(Just an example: My language however belongs to a language family, every member of that is very very far from my language unfortunately. I think, I can understand, what it means to not understand a text, but just feel something about the topic. :) )

Well, that could be an answer for your question, what do you think?

Resurgence

I personally think that the engineer was trying to communicate with Dr. Shaw as he probably felt that she was both the person who discovered where they were and was the one trying to be silenced and that he didn't want to harm her, he just wanted to talk to her after the crash knowing she wanted answers and he wanted a way off the moon and that they could help each other, and understood her fear after his attack on the rest of the crew, but he was annoyed with them.

BigDave

"In the extended version the Engineer talks in proto indo european anyways"

The Original Set of shots indeed.... Ian Whyte and Micheal Fassbender had to learn a fair bit of PIE Dialog.. and Ian Whyte performed the Dialog and it was more longer than even the Deleted Scenes...

But they was not happy how Ian Whytes Dialog came off so they did a Darth Vader with him and Dubbed over his Voice.. but unfortunately the Dubbed over voice was just made up Gibberish and not the Original Dialog on the Engineers Part that is.

Also the Elders Scene was longer than the Deleted Scene and the Sacrificial Engineer also spoke a few lines of Ancient PIE, and unfortunately we have no information on this Dialog.. only a small portion of the Elders One Line was ever released on the Do***entary Sections of the Extras.

BigDave

@Resurgence

If we got to see the complete Original Cut, well all the scenes then no doubt the Engineer was portrayed in a different light.

When he was awoken he was surprised to see Mankind had arrived he did not look Aggressive at first... but this could be put down to being disorientated after being in Cryo-Sleep for a long time. The extended Scene does seem to show a bit of interest from him... he seemed very interested in Dr Shaw, in her Emotional Reactions and maybe the Engineer was interested in Females full stop.

Then he realized what David was saying and could see that among these Humans was a Frail Old Man who was Greedy, Selfish and even had it so his own intentions was put before the other crew and Shaws Questions... Knowing also this Old Man wants more Life, and has created a AI that can use Engineer Technology and Reach the Stars and know where the Engineers Outpost is...

The Engineer knew at this point, Mankind needs to be Stopped, because if we are not... then indeed WE WOULD BE THE GODS then..

I feel after the Crash, he was angry and needed to get to another Ship and as he left the ship, he noticed the crashed Life-boat so he went to investigate, and also with the intention to make sure that no Survivors are there and no means for Humans to leave this place.

Then when he entered the Life-Boat he was amazed at the Scene with the Violin Girl, the Chandelier and then the Books... as he saw some elements of our Culture.

Then David alerted Shaw again which gave her location away and it seemed the Engineer was inquisitive about her he would no doubt have to kill her or even capture her and take her to another ship who knows... he certainly did not seem like he just wanted to Kill her Full Stop..