Hovitos (language)

Indiana Jones: "Too bad the Hovitos... don't know you the way I do, Belloq."

René Belloq: "Yes, too bad. You could warn them, if only you spoke Hovitos."

―Indiana and Belloq confronting with the Hovitos.

Hovitos was the obscure language spoken by the Hovitos tribes in a secluded valley in the jungle highlands of Chachapoyas, Peru.

By 1936, the French mercenary René Emile Belloq had struck an allegiance with the Hovitos, due to his mastery of their language. After the American archaeologist Indiana Jones managed to gain the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol, he lost it to Belloq who held the relic aloft and spoke to the Hovitos in their tongue, which Jones didn't speak. As Indy escaped, Belloq directed them to kill him. He privately reflected he should hire a guide fluent in Hovitos next time if he didn't have the time to learn it.

Years later, Jones returned to the temple and claimed a second idol he had been unaware of his first visit. Upon leaving, Jones admitted to himself that he still didn't know how to speak Hovitos, but as none of them appeared to stop him, it fortunately didn't matter.

William Smyth-Kelley knew to speak Hovitos language.

Behind the scenes

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, René Emile Belloq simply orders to kill Indiana Jones by mimicking cutting his throat with his hand, but in Campbell Black's novelization and Marvel Comics' comic book adaptation, Belloq actually orders them to kill him in Hovitos.

Appearances

• Raiders of the Lost Ark novel (First appearance)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark junior novel
• Raiders of the Lost Ark comic
• Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (Mentioned only)

Sources

•  Raiders of the Lost Ark trading cards (Card: Belloq's Prize)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook
•  Belloq's Marshall College entry on IndianaJones.com (backup link on Archive.org)
• The Indiana Jones Handbook