vortigaunt speech is different from HL1

[tehsolace]

In HL1, the vortigaunt's speech is this animal-type noise with clicking language, and in HL2 is much more like some foreign language. Compare the language you hear during the reasonance cascade part in HL1 with the part in HL2 where the two vorts talk to each other before you get instructed on bugbait... theyre totally different. why is this??

 

[MultiVaC]

Maybe it's because they were slaves being mind contolled, which might reduce them to an animal-like state making it easier for them to be forced into doing their tasks.

 

[bbson john]

Gallum galla gilla ma

 

[VortigauntLover]

I know, the vorts has clicks and a much higher voice. Much higher.

I wish they still had that cute high voice. :x

 

[Darkside55]

I don't know what you mean by "animal noise" and "clicks." They still made words and phrases in the original HL language, it just seems that they're using different words here.

The actual voices are completely different, though, yeah.

 

[Para]

Actually they speak Finnish in HL1. That just proves they're way more intelligent than people think

 

[Solaris]

ReallY?

 

[Darkside55]

Do they really? Could you give us some translations, Para?

 

[tehsolace]

heres what the hl1 vorts sound like. totally different from hl2.

 

[Darkside55]

It IS different, but it's not all THAT different. I'm listening to the HL1 vorts in GCFScape right now and I can imagine both their old language and their new language merging together.

 

[tehsolace]

i disagree... i think not only do their voices sound different, but so does the language they speak. the HL1 language has much different accent than the HL2's.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Possibly they were using a far less sophisticated form of language, being collared and in a very hostile situation. Perhaps the collars dimmed their intelligence. Perhaps they were using a specialised, different-sounding 'battle language'. Perhaps they were forced to speak differently by the Controllers. /shrug

 

[Darkside55]

Well what really makes the two languages sound different is the voice. The HL1 voice is so high-pitched and raspy that it's hard to make out, in contrast to the HL2 voices which are deep and clear, with gruff, defined words. But let me try and phoneticize some of the HL1 vortigaunt sounds and compare it to the HL2 vortigaunts.

In HL1, the sounds I'm hearing are like..."vee so," "hoo ee chi ka," "koo aks e" "tai ah ko eh eh," (this one, slv_1, is helluva garbled; now I see what you're talking about clicks, 'cause this one towards the end is like all clicking) and "asun do ko ka." Really short bursts of sound as you can see, mostly vowels, and the words almost always end in a vowel.

HL2, words are rougher but are still, short bursts. These words have more consonants, using vowels mostly in the middle of words, and only sometimes at the beginning and the end. The consonants "g" and "l" feature heavily, especially the former; this is not a letter that I heard anywhere in the HL1 vorts.

HL2 words:
"ah glah," "ta," "duit," (that's an interesting one because it doesn't fit in with the sounds of the rest of them) "gong," "long," "gallonga," "gah la long," "ja galing jer alla gung," and "jer (cher?) long gong, shallah ger." Two other sentences, one from their finest poet: "gallum ba gallili ma," and the words from their greatest philosophers: "kepanum gananen vorgennot." (That one I might've butchered)

They do look different, I'll admit. But if you imagine the words of the HL1 vorts being spoken in the voice of the HL2 vortigaunts, it's really not that much of a stretch. The thing is also that we have no idea how complex the vortigaunt language is, nor do we understand what they're saying. The HL2 vortigaunts are speaking in a relaxed atmosphere, while the HL1 vorts are in combat situations. The shift in both letters and structure could be due to this. All-in-all, the words in either situation are bursted sounds composed of vowels with certain stressed consonants; k's primarily with the HL1 vorts and g's and l's with the HL2 vorts. Certain other consonants show up as well: d, h, j, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, and v.

I'm no linguist, but I could certainly see these "two" languages meshing together. I refuse to believe it has anything to do with the collars, or because of the controllers, or anything like that. Sulkdodd's "battle-language" idea is another plausible answer.

 

[lun4tic]

ching chong nip nong nong

 

[Gorndt]

Klaatu Baraata Niktu

 

[Que-Ever]

In half-life 1 it was all "hut hut, hooteley wa, hootely wa". In half-life 2 it's all "galllu galla gillam ga".

 

[tehsolace]

Well what really makes the two languages sound different is the voice. The HL1 voice is so high-pitched and raspy that it's hard to make out, in contrast to the HL2 voices which are deep and clear, with gruff, defined words. But let me try and phoneticize some of the HL1 vortigaunt sounds and compare it to the HL2 vortigaunts.

In HL1, the sounds I'm hearing are like..."vee so," "hoo ee chi ka," "koo aks e" "tai ah ko eh eh," (this one, slv_1, is helluva garbled; now I see what you're talking about clicks, 'cause this one towards the end is like all clicking) and "asun do ko ka." Really short bursts of sound as you can see, mostly vowels, and the words almost always end in a vowel.

HL2, words are rougher but are still, short bursts. These words have more consonants, using vowels mostly in the middle of words, and only sometimes at the beginning and the end. The consonants "g" and "l" feature heavily, especially the former; this is not a letter that I heard anywhere in the HL1 vorts.

HL2 words:
"ah glah," "ta," "duit," (that's an interesting one because it doesn't fit in with the sounds of the rest of them) "gong," "long," "gallonga," "gah la long," "ja galing jer alla gung," and "jer (cher?) long gong, shallah ger." Two other sentences, one from their finest poet: "gallum ba gallili ma," and the words from their greatest philosophers: "kepanum gananen vorgennot." (That one I might've butchered)

They do look different, I'll admit. But if you imagine the words of the HL1 vorts being spoken in the voice of the HL2 vortigaunts, it's really not that much of a stretch. The thing is also that we have no idea how complex the vortigaunt language is, nor do we understand what they're saying. The HL2 vortigaunts are speaking in a relaxed atmosphere, while the HL1 vorts are in combat situations. The shift in both letters and structure could be due to this. All-in-all, the words in either situation are bursted sounds composed of vowels with certain stressed consonants; k's primarily with the HL1 vorts and g's and l's with the HL2 vorts. Certain other consonants show up as well: d, h, j, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, and v.

I'm no linguist, but I could certainly see these "two" languages meshing together. I refuse to believe it has anything to do with the collars, or because of the controllers, or anything like that. Sulkdodd's "battle-language" idea is another plausible answer.

i do agree that if the HL1 voices were done with the same pitch and tone (and quality) as in HL2, it may have possibly been the same sounding language... especially considering the lack of very many soundclips that were made to use as reference in HL1.

but still, is there any meaning behind the voices sounding so different? its very obvious that valve planned these creatures to be alien slaves from the start, so did they just not expect for them to be speaking english in any sort of sequel, so they made a more animal sounding voice?

 

[Lyndon]

Maybe its decryptable and valve actually wrote a real code for writing Vort language in HL2. Like the zombies voices being backwards, maybe valve put some answers right in our face. Do the sounds have real letters defined for them? can anyone open up a can of HL2 and check?

 

[el Chi]

Possibly they were using a far less sophisticated form of language, being collared and in a very hostile situation. Perhaps the collars dimmed their intelligence. Perhaps they were using a specialised, different-sounding 'battle language'. Perhaps they were forced to speak differently by the Controllers. /shrug

Perhaps they have a bigger part to play and so noises that were less staccato-aggressive and that bore some semblance to a human tongue became a necessity.
Just throwing that out there.

 

[laughterkillsme]

Man, this isn't tolkien with his fully planned out elven language and whatnot.

I'm sure they were like "sounds good, lets keep it". Than again, maybe Valve figured out the meaning of life and if you play the votiguants voices backwards while eating screaming babies you'll hear it too.

 

[el Chi]

Man, this isn't tolkien with his fully planned out elven language and whatnot.

I'm sure they were like "sounds good, lets keep it". Than again, maybe Valve figured out the meaning of life and if you play the votiguants voices backwards while eating screaming babies you'll hear it too.

I lol'd

 

[Absinthe]

I have to say that el Chi's explanation seems the most likely. Just a design change. No lore involved.

It's a shame, because I prefer their old way of speaking to their current "gla glum gloo di gloo glubbleglum" one. They originally sounded alien, but now they just sound human. It was one of my few disappointments with HL2.

Of course, somebody could always e-mail Gabe and if his first reaction isn't "Why are they wasting my time with this shit?", then we might get an answer.

 

[Para]

Do they really? Could you give us some translations, Para?

I should've been a bit more clear, they speak Finnish only in two of their taunts and unfortunately since I can't remember the name of the files (don't have HL1 installed atm so I can't check them myself either) and those two...well, I'm not going to translate them right now, lets just say that they found a way to get (mild) profanities into the game while avoiding the censors.

 

[TheSock]

I think you all forget that VALVe was just another computer gaming company when they made Half-Life. For all we know the original vortigaunt VOs were made in one afternoon. A lot of things seemed to be like that in the original HL. Raising the Bar goes over how they made the test sequence level in one weekend IIRC.

 

[lemonfridge]

Klaatu Baraata Niktu

 

[Darkside55]

but still, is there any meaning behind the voices sounding so different? its very obvious that valve planned these creatures to be alien slaves from the start, so did they just not expect for them to be speaking english in any sort of sequel, so they made a more animal sounding voice?

No, I think their role was supposed to go this way. They would've been speaking English in the sequel, I think Valve must've known that from the start. Even in HL1 you were supposed to liberate them and lead them to war against the Nihilanth. And they even began speaking English in the game; they say "Die!" clear enough.

The change in voice was probably because, well...we can see why; they're so damned hard to understand in HL1. At least now we can hear their words clearly, and I mean words both Vortegese and English.

Man, this isn't tolkien with his fully planned out elven language and whatnot.

Haha, I was telling Gorndt yesterday (in our IRC channel), "I bet it was a discussion like this that led Trekkies to develop a Klingon language. I'm going to be the first teacher of Vortegese."

 

[pomegranate]

Perhaps the vorts in HL2 are from the north. After all, every planet has a north....

 

[esplin]

I always wondered if the Vortigaunts in HL1 were saying "Die!" or if it was just my imagination.

The real answer for the change in Vortigaunt speech is...........they just didn't care. It's clear from Raising the Bar that Valve was not worried about the new Vortigaunt voice "fitting" with the old one.
Although I will agree that the old vortigaunt speech was cooler and I would love to have it back.