What David actually said to the Engineer. Mystery Revealed.

Alien-Covenant.com/forum/

Forum Topic

Pinned Topic59971 Views132 Replies

sukkal

MemberOvomorphJun-20-2012 6:15 PM

SPOILER: This is about the meaning of what David said to the Engineer. If you are one of those people who doesn't want to know, don't read this. These are the words that David said to the Engineer: ida hmanâm aî kya namrrtuh zdêêtaha. gwhivah-pyorn-îttham sas daatrr kredah.

And what does it mean? Literally it breaks down to: this man (is) here because not-die he-desires. life_increase_wish to-him you-(can)-give he-believes. And what is the best approximation of what that means in everyday English? What would the sub-title have been if there had been one? This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life. And where did this information come from? It was supplied by Dr. Anil Biltoo of SOAS at the University of London. Dr. Biltoo was hired by Ridley Scott to design the Engineers’ language, teach it to the actors who learned it, and appear on screen as David's language instructor. If you've seen the film, you know what he looks and sounds like. That's also him teaching David while the rest of the crew is still in hibernation.

The Engineers’ language is based on Dr. Biltoo's own version of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European. In the fictional context of the movie, it is assumed that over 5,000 years ago contact between the Engineers and humans exposed us to this mother language whose human "daughters" are now spoken by roughly 3 billion humans. Because of this fictional "real link" in human past to the Engineers and their language within the logic of the storytelling, David is able to communicate with them. One of David's features is that he knows all forms of human communication. Some of the words in "Engineer," as it was apparently commonly called during the production, actually have a recognizable connection to modern English.

You'll likely recognize «hmanâm» as "human" or simply "man." The verb at the end. «kredah» ("he believes"), has echoes in English "creed," which is a "set of beliefs." For those who are interested in getting even more flavor of what the language is like.

Here is the full version of Schleicher's Fable in the version that the Engineers would likely understand. hyewîs yasmâ hwælnâ nahâst aqwhunsâz dadrrkta, tâm ghêrmha vagam ugênthâ, tâm magham bhrrma, tâm hâmanam hêhok bharânt. hyewîs aqwhobyun vakta; mya kêrt xnutâya vizât hmanam aqwhunsâz uh-gnathâ. aqwhunz vaktantâ: kludh hyewa! kêrt xnutâya vîvîzdama: hâmanas patâsa hyewasya hwælnam swah gwhârmam vastram hyewîzbya hwælnâ nahâst. tod aklawa hyewîs agrâm abhogtâ. Apparently Michael Fassbender spent hours and hours committing the entire fable to memory, only to have the first line of it used in the film. Poor Fassy. Corroboration HERE of the translation.

132 Replies

Indy John

MemberOvomorphNov-26-2012 8:24 AM

I want to bring up a point that I have seen addressed. Say the situation was reversed. Would we let just one human, say Fifield for example, speak for the entire human race? Or would the 'aliens' ask him questions that would force Fifield to make instant decisions and then take actions similar to the Last Engineer? Would we expect the human to size up the situation, consider all of the history of how he was place in statis, and then make judgements and take actions that could alter the universe? When discussing the Engineers they certainly have a role in all that has happenned in our movie. but to expect this last Engineer ro grasp everything that we have discussed here is a bit much. It would make sense if he was Jesus or some sort of Supreme being,,but maybe he just an ordinary Engineeer in an extrordinary situation. I just picked Fifield as an example you pick any charator in our movie.

Be choicelessly aware as you move through life

Indy John

MemberOvomorphNov-26-2012 8:31 AM

"..As all of a sudden the Engineer then noticed that maybe David was not Human and he confirmed this once he touched his head..." When watching this scene the depiction of David and the Last Engineet seems to me quite revealing of their feelings. David seems amost in awe of the situation like he was being accepted as a living orgnism and the Engineer, while realizing David was robotic, has an affection much like he would have toward a pet. Then the suddeness of ripping off the head and going on a rampage was startling.

Be choicelessly aware as you move through life

markweatherill

MemberOvomorphJun-20-2013 3:45 PM

I thought it was 'Good day. My head is removeable. Please detach it from my body and hit this old man with it.'

Indy John

MemberOvomorphJul-02-2013 11:34 AM

"..now i can assume that the Engineer must have also said or meant something similar to "how dare you come here and demand immortality, why should you have that..." @BigDave › Do you think that the Engineer thought of 'immortality' like we humans do? I would think in terms of godlike, infinite, no ending to what is known.. The Engineers reactions was more humanlike and godlike(immortal). Clearly the Engineer was not 'immortal' in the human understanding. And that sort of explains why Charlie started drinking early in our movie he was so disappointed not being able to talk to 'God'.

Be choicelessly aware as you move through life

Confused

MemberOvomorphSep-23-2013 4:48 PM

While its nice to be speculative concerning engineers and humans shared a genetic match and so a language connection could be postulated; such stimulates the imagination. In this instance however, such arguments are from absence. There was nothing to indicate the language David spoke was of any significance or relevance. The sole engineer either wasn't interested in what David said, or didn't understand the language. The presence was eradicate the threat, android decapitated: humans dead.

Tonja

MemberOvomorphJun-20-2014 7:51 AM

We do not really know what David said...hence the Engineer ripping off David's head to beat Weyland to death with it.

Tonja

MemberOvomorphJun-20-2014 7:56 AM

On the planet of the Engineers, tearing off the heads of the young and using them to beat the old to death is a tradition that dates back at least 2000 years!!

Trevorl314

MemberOvomorphNov-30-2015 8:38 AM

When David is learning to speak the language, he recites Streicher's Fable. He uses the same "da drukda" word with the engineer. ??

Thoughts_Dreams

MemberNeomorphJan-23-2016 5:24 AM

I would have preffered that they would have had subtitles to it but after doing some reserach I found an answer that made sense.

Cry Havoc

MemberOvomorphApr-02-2018 5:33 PM

This is a test

BigDave

MemberDeaconApr-18-2023 5:16 AM

"@BigDave › Do you think that the Engineer thought of 'immortality' like we humans do?"

I think its Hard to say for sure... it depends on HOW it was that RS wanted to Portray them. It seems that they saw Immortality as in a way to Procreate, as in they likely had NO RELIGION as FAR as a Immortal After-Life.

And so they would see the way they would LIVE ON would be to PASS ON their DNA and to Teach their Knowledge. The Engineer in Question either saw that Mankind was a Inferior Creation who he found was a INSULT to Demand some kind of Immortality.

Or he was a Engineered Creation used for a Purpose like say Replicants are, and so when he saw Weylands Demands, he maybe saw in Weyland, his own Creators and Masters who maybe his kind had Rebelled against.

The Engineer seemed to take PITY on David, maybe that he saw himself in David as he was a Creation like David was to SERVE, and if these Enhanced Engineers are Superior to the Alien Covenant Engineers which they appear to be, but they are Servants of those Engineers, then YES... the Engineer could have seen a Similarity in David. And so would see this Old Man Weyland, who is Dying and thinks he has the GIVEN RIGHT to be Immortal because he Created David, the Engineer likely seeing this as a Insult in how Weyland reacts and treats David who is a Superior being...

Ultimately the Engineer would realize the Potential of Danger that a Advanced being like David could pose, as the Engineers posed this Threat to their Creators and so the Engineer could NOT allow David to Survive and so he also had to GO!

Regarding the Immortality Aspect... the Background to the Engineers from Concept, was they were ONCE like Humans, they had Advanced in ways to Prolong themselves, but they was NEVER really Immortal... but it was SOMETHING that they had been working to become... to be on the VERGE of something where they would Transcend from their Organic Bodies.....

Back to David... he is the CLOSEST to Immortal.... he could UPLOAD/SAVE his Synthetic A.I Soul.... thus be able to Re-incarnate himself... if a Human was able to Transcend their Soul/Memories to a A.I Storage like say we see in the MOVIE... The 6th Day.... and then UPLOAD this to a Synthetic like David then THIS would be a way for a Human to become Immortal of sorts.

I would like to think the Engineers had tried this or Similar.... maybe the Xenomorph or its Progenitor is something they saw as being the KEY to this Immortality?

The Closest we have seen to what i Propose is RIPLEY 8 she is a Clone, that has retained some of the Memories/Soul of Ripley... was the Xeno-DNA the KEY?

If so this would Explain a Better Interest from the Engineers in a related Progenitor.

R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017