Language translations for leader sayings

[jinzou]

Originally Posted by IgorS

But why "bar hammar" is a "son of a donkey "driver"" and not just "son of a donkey"? "Son of a donkey" makes absolute sense, since "donkey" is used as a curse word in the Semitic languages.

He clearly pronounces it "ḥammar" (חַמָּר), including the geminated מּ. Thus, it's a donkey driver and not a donkey which would be pronounced "ḥəmar/ḥəmor"

[IgorS]

Originally Posted by jinzou

He clearly pronounces it "ḥammar" (חַמָּר), including the geminated מּ. Thus, it's a donkey driver and not a donkey which would be pronounced "ḥəmar/ḥəmor"

Oh, I didn't see it was "hammar" and not "hamor", in "KaTaL", indicating a profession. A quick check in Wiktionary shows that Hebrew also has this word, only it is very archaic.

חַמָּר - מי שעיסוקו נהיגה בחמור.

"Hammar - someone, whose profession is "driving" a donkey."

[Louis XXIV]

Originally Posted by jinzou

He clearly pronounces it "ḥammar" (חַמָּר), including the geminated מּ. Thus, it's a donkey driver and not a donkey which would be pronounced "ḥəmar/ḥəmor"

It could also just be the voice actor who misspoke.

[IgorS]

Originally Posted by Louis XXIV

It could also just be the voice actor who misspoke.

Could be, because "son of a donkey" is definitely a curse, while "son of donkey-driver"... I don't know, it sounds stupid.
But the voice actor claims on his website that he knew what he was doing. Too bad we can't contact him.

[jinzou]

Originally Posted by Louis XXIV

It could also just be the voice actor who misspoke.

Could be, but I doubt it... His pronunciation seems accurate, but it does seem Arabized a bit.
He does pronounce the pronouns differently from what I'd expect (entu instead of ant/antun, eneḥa instead of anaḥnen/naḥnen)
Also from what I know, in classical Aramaic king Darius was referred to as "Daryawahush (דריוהוש)" Darihush (as the VA pronounces it) is a modern term.

The way that the VA pronounces the Gimmel rafa in DariusPeaceful as a voiced uvular fricative, shows that he is from an area where Arabic ghain is pronounced that way, and it affects his Aramaic pronunciation (I'd expect it to be pronounced as a voiced velar fricative in Aramaic).

Igor and others would you like to try to decipher his other lines? I can post here the other phrases (which I understand partially), and maybe others here can fill up the gaps?

Edit:You know who the voice actor is?

[jinzou]

Originally Posted by IgorS

Could be, because "son of a donkey" is definitely a curse, while "son of donkey-driver"... I don't know, it sounds stupid.
But the voice actor claims on his website that he knew what he was doing. Too bad we can't contact him.

Yeah, when I first heard it, I also thought he said "donkey"...

In his written messages he keeps going on what a great and faultless king he is, and how everybody else is so completely incompetent ("I think you misunderstand the situation: I am the great Darius, king of Persia, and you are a worthless cur, unfit to kiss the hem of my garment"). So with that in mind, I think it is somehow reasonable that he calls another leader a donkey driver or even worst than that...

Btw, "taḥtai bar ḥammar" could also mean "beneath/under a donkey driver" which is stronger than "beneath me, son of a donkey driver"

[jinzou]

A small update:
DariusHateHearIt1: Go on! (lit. go!) זל! zal!
DariusHateHearIt2: I'm listening (lit. I hear/listen) שמענא sham'na
DariusHateYes2: Agreed (lit. it has become agreeable) השתווא hishtawe
DariusNeutralNo: [your offer is] not good enough (lit. it's missing a handful) חפנא חסר

[The_J]

Originally Posted by IgorS

But the voice actor claims on his website that he knew what he was doing. Too bad we can't contact him.

The voice actor's website?

[IgorS]

Originally Posted by The_J

The voice actor's website?

I don't remember if it was his website, or something similar... Look a few pages back for the address.

[IgorS]

Originally Posted by jinzou

Btw, "taḥtai bar ḥammar" could also mean "beneath/under a donkey driver" which is stronger than "beneath me, son of a donkey driver"

Stronger, but way too complicated... "You are worse than a donkey-driver's son, you son of a... donkey-driver!"...

[The_J]

Originally Posted by IgorS

I don't remember if it was his website, or something similar... Look a few pages back for the address.

Ah, found it, thanks .
I like to collect such links for the info center, because they are all interesting to read.

[Guandao]

Great! Now most of Darius' dialogue is translated.

All we need is hateYes01, declares war, peaceful, defeated, and request.


Possible meanings for declares war: 1.Your greed and ineptness leaves me little choice: prepare for war! 2. Your people cry out for relief from your incompetence. Prepare for war! 3. Your continued existence is an embarrassment to world leaders everywhere. You must be destroyed.

possible meaning for peaceful: We'll call it a tie, shall we?

Possible meanings for Defeated: 1. Curse you! The blood of the greatest leader in world history is on your hands! 2. You fool! Do you know what you have done? The world will long lament your heinous crime! 3. You have defeated me?? But how could this have happened? There must be some mistake!

Possible meaning for Request: In my endless magnanimity, I am making you this offer. You agree, of course?

These are all from the xml files. Perhaps they can help you translate.

[Guandao]

I'll try to contact an Ancient Greek professor to finish the rest of Alexander's lines

For Zarma, Mohawk, Nahuatl, Akkadian, and Quechua, I'll contact professors. Maybe I'll get lucky and find the ones who wrote the lines.

[IgorS]

Originally Posted by Guandao

I'll try to contact an Ancient Greek professor to finish the rest of Alexander's lines

For Zarma, Mohawk, Nahuatl, Akkadian, and Quechua, I'll contact professors. Maybe I'll get lucky and find the ones who wrote the lines.

Good luck on that! Let's hope you will get some answers.

[Raneman]

Originally Posted by black213

What does Gandhi say when he refuses to make peace? Would be interesting to know.

Also wondering this.

[Morningcalm]

Thanks for the contributions, guys. Updated Darius. I had to remove info about the sources for each translation since the OP exceeded the maximum no. of characters allowed. Now it fits, and if we get more translations I'll probably have to create a new thread that links back to this thread.

There are YouTube channel owners who know how to speak Mohawk, but I haven't been fruitful in trying to reach them. They didn't answer my message. One of the posters in this thread was to help us with the Quecha translations, but he hasn't gotten back to us in ages. *shrug* Not sure if he'll come back, that'd be great.

It'd be awesome if you guys could find translations for the others! Thankfully Gods and Kings is full of leaders whose languages should be relatively easy to translate (exception: Attila, who may or may not be speaking a made-up language).

[The_J]

Originally Posted by Morningcalm

Thanks for the contributions, guys. Updated Darius. I had to remove info about the sources for each translation since the OP exceeded the maximum no. of characters allowed. Now it fits, and if we get more translations I'll probably have to create a new thread that links back to this thread.

Like already offered, we moderators can insert some posts if you like. You just have to tell us how many you think you need.

[Morningcalm]

Cool. Didn't know you made that offer though. Unless I forgot...I'll keep you posted when I have a better idea of how many posts I'll need.

[EulerMcE]

Just a note that there are leader intros for the new civs on the G&K website: http://www.civilization5.com/godsand...civilizations/

Theodora speaks Greek from the sound of it.

Boudicca speaks Welsh. Moreover I believe she says
"Mae fy enw(?) Buddug, brenhines y Celtiaid. [something]" - My name is(?) Boudicca, queen of the Celts. [something]

I read somebody said they spoke Welsh so we should be able to get that translated.

[Louis XXIV]

Can anyone confirm Dido (or at least comment whether it's Arabic or not). The choppiness makes me think Punic is a possibility at least.

For Byzantium, I was only listening for key words, but they made me think Medieval Latin (I thought I heard "figlia" or "daughter). Then again, other parts sound Greek, so I clearly don't know.