The Pfhor Language

[Destroyer E]

Throughout the Marathon Trilogy, we hear the Pfhor yell at us as the walk up and attack. Ever think about what they are saying?

I figured it'd translate to "Die human!", "There he is, get him!", or something along those lines.

Another theory I've had is they could just be groaning. The Pfhor could be beyond verbal speech (with some sort of mental communication), and making some sort of attack noise. I'm assuming the S'pht at least know how to communicate mentally, so during their assimilation, the Pfhor could have learned it as well.

Any other ideas?

[Switch]

Well I would say they don't communicate verbally because they have a written language... but then again so do the S'pht

[ChauSara]

We have a written language and we communicate verbally... >_>

[Verdaru]

It could be some sort of sound manipulation like they used for the Elites in Halo 1.

[Diomedes]

Considering how much damage the marine has inflicted upon the Pfhor empire, it seems like after a while, the aliens would yell things like "Oh no, not him!" or "Oh God I'm going to die!"

[Destroyer E]

Considering how much damage the marine has inflicted upon the Pfhor empire, it seems like after a while, the aliens would yell things like "Oh no, not him!" or "Oh God I'm going to die!"

Depends on their arrogance. It could also be "Heh. I could take him."

[Great_Pretender]

*on the radio*
"HOLY -blam!- I'M UNDER ATTACK!! HELP ME!"

*SO stops*
"What the hell's a Ech Oh Ech Ech Ach Oh?"

-TGP-

[shongshong]

well, thoes guys seem preity calm... maby there like, "Hey! man, what is up!" and they smak you across the face with the staff. (assuming that the staff thing is like high-fiving eachother. Not responding to there high-fives will make them only angry and swing at you again)

[Switch]

well, thoes guys seem preity calm... maby there like, "Hey! man, what is up!" and they smak you across the face with the staff. (assuming that the staff thing is like high-fiving eachother. Not responding to there high-fives will make them only angry and swing at you again)

you win most creative, Imagine how pissed you would be if you hi fived someone and they killed you and all your friends, talk abotu unfriendly

[LegacyTyphoon]

Maybe something along the lines of:
"EAT MY ALIEN WASTE STUPID HUMAN!!!"
or the literal translation (since what they say tends to be short...)
"YOU EAT [pfhor name] DOODIE!!!"

"I'm gonna dent your skull with my staff Bi-atch!!!"
literal translation:
"[pfhor name] SMASH!!!"

"Suck my [reproductive organ]!!"
literal translation:
"SUCK [pfhor name] YOU!!"

"Death to the human scum!!!"
literal translation:
"[pfhor name] DOES YOU!!!"

[shongshong]

woah.. dood, thats like 120% a little too off ye rocker style...
I mean... look at youre icon, and look at what you just yelled.. "Its ok man! were here for you, your going to get some help,"

[LegacyTyphoon]

woah.. dood, thats like 120% a little too off ye rocker style...
I mean... look at youre icon, and look at what you just yelled.. "Its ok man! were here for you, your going to get some help,"

You haven't been long enough have you? You should know me by now...

[Switch]

Shongs been here forever, and this should explain alot, shong, thats legacy

[shongshong]

oh!! offf courrsee!!! I should of put that one togeather!... arg.. its been rather confusing lately with everyone gettin' new names and all that fangle... did you announce that you were 'legacy' somewhere? cause i didnt get the memo.

pluss that last comment was more in a sarcastic voice

[Switch]

[attachmentid=7]

[shongshong]

Rofl! as if I go around looking into peoples profiles all the time

[Destroyer E]

well, thoes guys seem preity calm... maby there like, "Hey! man, what is up!" and they smak you across the face with the staff. (assuming that the staff thing is like high-fiving eachother. Not responding to there high-fives will make them only angry and swing at you again)

Wow... I laughed rather hard at this one.

So the S'pht's communication involves them flashing and firing a bolt at you?

[Phsyco_kid]

Maybe the fighting classes don't communicate in any way and are just piecing together random words (like the ass. BOBs) that they hear.

[shongshong]

well.. the bolt is kinda like the equivilent of high fiving or waving at someone from far away... but in the pfhor world, your suposed to deflect it with youre hands (like a high five but just long distance)

[Destroyer E]

Maybe the fighting classes don't communicate in any way and are just piecing together random words (like the ass. BOBs) that they hear.

The ass BOBs manage to say actual words. The Pfhor only make sounds. Perhaps the Pfhor are incapable of annunciating English, but they were able to reproduce it through the ass BOBs.

[shongshong]

I alwayse thought that the assimilated bobs were just re-wired humans to work at low nural conditions... kinda like mashing up youre BIOS in a pc to make youre computer work differently. So maby the ass. bob's brain is just a scrambled human brain spiting out random words.

but, I dont think the pfhor would make the bobs speak what they would speek.. its way too much re-programing for a simple I.E.D. (like... if you were gona build a car bomb, you wouldnt put a GPS device in it to blow up civilians)

[assassingao]

Is possible that the ass. bobs was made insane and injected some kind of bomb that activates when it found the target?

Who knows?

[Destroyer E]

I believe there is a hidden terminal on this in Marathon 1. Here's Durandal's initial warning about the Simulacrums:

The S'pht have informed me
that he Pfhor are building
cyborg simulacrums of the
Marathon crew. I imagine that
you will meet some of them
soon, and wanted to warn you
not to get too close to them:
about three meters.

Now here's a little something from Wikipedia:

A few [BOBs], called simulacrums (or "assimilated BOBs"), are actually living bombs created by the Pfhor; upon seeing the player, they will run directly towards him. They are almost indistinguishable from the genuine humans, except that in the game, they will always be wearing a green outfit, do not actually attack with weapons, have yellow blood (this can be revealed upon shooting one with an assault rifle bullet, which is not strong enough to kill), will shout ridiculous phrases that a normal person would not (in Marathon, they only said "Thank God it's you!", but in later games, things like "Kill me", "I'm out of ammo", or, most infamously, "Frog blast the vent core!"). There are theoretically (as the simulacrums are not humans, they do not need oxygen) vacuum-enabled versions, except they say different phrases. When close enough, the assimilated humans will explode and inflict severe damage upon those nearby. Certain levels task the player to destroy all the simulacrums without harming the identical normal humans, with the majority of the real officers wearing green.
According to a terminal message, there are other differences between the real human and the bomb (due to obvious graphical limitations, they are not actually seen in the game). It is revealed that they have orbs for vision, not eyes, only two toes, a bomb implanted in the intestine, and lack of external genitalia.
There are three thousand simulacrums according to the plotline.

'Assimilated' would imply that they were real humans once, but there are many factors against this theory. The article states most of them, including the fact that they are all green.

[shongshong]

created from scratch! ha! well, what do you know...

so thats why certen body parts in thoes diagrams seem strangly too unhuman... (like the feet etc...)

[Destroyer E]

But conclusively we know that the Pfhor can create the proper technology to articulate human speech, yet they've never done it themselves.

Also, Durandal communicated with the S'pht who communicated with the Pfhor. I think this was all through non-verbal, though.