Translation of the leaders' speeches

I think it's safe to say Ramesses is speaking Coptic. Arabic would have just been too big a stretch. Coptic and Hiawatha's language were probably the most difficult ones to find for Firaxis - Wikipedia says there are only 300 speakers left of Coptic.
 
Has anyone noticed that in the video for Alexander, if you watch the horse as he approaches you, it seriously looks like it's the horse that starts talking?
Click to expand...

The secret to Companion cavalry; Mr Ed.
 
Actually it's quite possible he is speaking middle Egyptian, we know enough to reconstruct it.
 
Ergo Sum said:
I think it's safe to say Ramesses is speaking Coptic. Arabic would have just been too big a stretch. Coptic and Hiawatha's language were probably the most difficult ones to find for Firaxis - Wikipedia says there are only 300 speakers left of Coptic.
Click to expand...

The language is studied extensively by egyptologists and historians. I have a friend who knows Coptic well (though I don't know how fluent he is).

Anyway:

Gandhi: On the behalf of the Indian people, I extend a hand of friendship to you.
 
Whatever the case, the fact they're not speaking gibberish that sounded worse than an infant trying to learn to speak, like in civrev, is a big plus. :) Firaxis definitely learnt from that mistake.
 
Sabretou said:
The language is studied extensively by egyptologists and historians. I have a friend who knows Coptic well (though I don't know how fluent he is).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm just saying that regardless of how well it's studied, it'd be more difficult to translate a few phrases and find a convincing voice actor than with languages that have x million speakers.
 
spicytimothy said:
I'll get us started.

China - Wu Zetian
"Greetings. I am Female Emperor Wu Zetian. China seeks peace in order to achieve independent development. If others don't cross me, I do not cross others."

There are 2 minor errors tho. It seems that they used "我" as "I", which is actually contemporary Chinese. In ancient China, the emperor refers to himself as "朕". Also, Ancient Chinese never called the country "中國" or "China". In Wu Zetian's time, she would have most likely said "大周", or "The Great Zhou Dynasty". OR in the very least "The Great Tang"... It's a ridiculously small thing but it's the small things that makes it authentic...
Click to expand...

Empress Wu Zetian? Interesting choice there by Firaxis... and having watched the trailer video... she sounds like a peasant! :blush::cry:

She'd obviously not use the personal I, "我" (wǒ) but rather the Imperial I, "朕" (zhèn)... plus the fact she gave herself the title Empress Regnant Shengshen "聖神皇帝" (Shèngshén huángdì).

Usage of "中國" (Zhōngguó) appeared by the Zhou dynasty (~770BC) where guó meant capital, though anyone calling themselves "皇帝" (Huángdì)... the fact they were the Chinese Emp(eror/ress) was kind of implicit. If a name must be used... use "大周", "天下" (tiānxià) All Under Heaven or even "華夏" (huáxià).

And one final gripe... the Tang dynasty precedes both the Yuan & Qing, where Chinese had yet to undergo the phonological shift to create modern Mandarin... she should be speaking Middle Chinese (kind of like Cantonese (Yue) initials with Shanghainese (Wu) finals). :goodjob::king:
 
The translation of Bismarcks speech is a bit complicated as well :p

Im Namen des großen deutschen Volkes heiße ich euch willkommen.

That translates roughly into:
In the name of the great people of Germany, I welcome you.

But "Volk" is singular in german, so "the people" must be interpreted as a unity and not as individual people. You could as well say "the great tribe of Germany". But that makes it sound archaic.
The last "euch" means "you", but it is in fact a short form for "your majesty".
 
I ran the video by my friend, he confirms that Ramesses II is speaking neither Coptic nor Middle Egyptian. While he ought to be speaking Late Egyptian, he isn't, and so it's most likely Arabic.
 
Looks like they need some fix until the game is historically accurate. For example, instead of Zero the Japanese UU should be A6M Zero and China's UU is Zhuge-Nu, not Cho-Ko-Nue.
 
As to the accent of Washington, it's almost certain that the "American accent" is closer to the "British accent" of the 18th c. than the current "British" one. Has to do with colonies being more linguistically conservative and such. Holds true for many words as well as the accent, with the American of today including in common usage many words that are practically archaic

All of which is ignoring the ridiculousness of considering accents in terms of nationality, rather than locality. An American from Boston sounds almost nothing like one from New York, even, despite the rather minor geographical distance between the two! And linguistic atlases are full of significant, though minor, differences in accent over distances as small as just a few miles!

Neither one is particularly close, to be sure, but the American one would probably be slightly closer. Gurr's post on the subject of Shakespearan era English accent reconstruction is fairly complete ( http://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/07-1/gurrothe.htm ) although as with all things on the internet, there are far better options both in print and film.

Of particular noteworthiness in the light of this accent discussion is the following:
Gurr said:
Moreover, since even the relatively brief historical period of speech recordings, since about 1890, speech and particularly RP can heard to have changed with recognisable thoroughness almost every decade, a retrieval process yearning all the way back to Shakespeare invites only despair.
Click to expand...

In conclusion, Washington might as well use a modern Virgina accent because it's not like you can prove they absolutely positively didn't speak that way back then, so get over it since native Virginians have a fairly nice sounding accent.
 
SHS` said:
Empress Wu Zetian? Interesting choice there by Firaxis... and having watched the trailer video... she sounds like a peasant! :blush::cry:

She'd obviously not use the personal I, "我" (wǒ) but rather the Imperial I, "朕" (zhèn)... plus the fact she gave herself the title Empress Regnant Shengshen "聖神皇帝" (Shèngshén huángdì).

Usage of "中國" (Zhōngguó) appeared by the Zhou dynasty (~770BC) where guó meant capital, though anyone calling themselves "皇帝" (Huángdì)... the fact they were the Chinese Emp(eror/ress) was kind of implicit. If a name must be used... use "大周", "天下" (tiānxià) All Under Heaven or even "華夏" (huáxià).

And one final gripe... the Tang dynasty precedes both the Yuan & Qing, where Chinese had yet to undergo the phonological shift to create modern Mandarin... she should be speaking Middle Chinese (kind of like Cantonese (Yue) initials with Shanghainese (Wu) finals). :goodjob::king:
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree. Although speaking Mandarin is a compromise I'm willing to accept, just like the other mistakes.
 
To summarize what's been translated so far (and what's still missing) the following list:
  • America - Washington: The people of the United States of America welcome you.
  • Arabia - Harun al-Rashid: Welcome to all. I am Harun al-Rashid, caliph of the Arabs. Come to me, and talk to me about your empire.
  • Aztec - Montezuma:
  • Babylon - Nebuchadnezzar: :huh:
  • China - Wu Zetian: Greetings. I am Female Emperor Wu Zetian. China seeks peace in order to achieve independent development. If others don't cross me, I do not cross others.
  • Egypt - Ramesses II: Greetings. I am Ramesses the god. I am a living [...] to Egypt, parent of all civilizations.
  • England - Elizabeth I: We are pleased to meet you.
  • France - Napoleon: Welcome. I am Napoleon, of France, the smartest soldier in world history.
  • Germany - Bismarck: In the name of the great people of Germany, I welcome you.
  • Greece - Alexander: Hail (stranger?), I'm Alexander, son of Kings and grandon of Gods.
  • India - Ghandi: On the behalf of the Indian people, I extend a hand of friendship to you.
  • Iroquois - Hiawatha:
  • Japan - Oda Nobunaga: I should like to extend greetings to your good self of heroic prestige, and in addition, fair and equitable coordination will be cordinally appreciated.
  • Ottoman - Suleiman: The Ottoman Nation salutes you, stranger. I am Suleiman.
  • Persia - Darius:
  • Rome - Augustus: Greetings. I am Augustus Caesar, emperor of Rome and Pontifex Maximus. If you are a friend of Rome, that's welcome.
  • Russia - Katerina: I greet you, stranger. If your mind and tact equal to your attractiveness, we will get along remarkably.
  • Siam - Ramkhamhaeng: Greetings. My name is Por-khun (Lord) Ramkamhaeng. I am glad to have you in Siam.
  • Songhai - Askia:
Corrections and additions are naturally welcome. Spicytimothy, maybe you want to maintain this in the OP, or link to this? Otherwise I'll make a fresh post when it's complete.
 
Siam : (From memory) Greeting. My name is Por-khun* Ramkamhaeng. I am glad to have you in Siam.

*Por-khun is Title which like king. Consist of 2 Thai words. "Por" is father in Thai and "Khun" is nowaday "Khun-nang", which mean governor in Thai. So Por-khun probably equal to "Duke" or something like that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

FXS_Sar
New Civ 6 challenge of the month: Know Your Enemy
Replies
7
Views
3K
Nigel_Tufnel2
Nigel_Tufnel2
tedhebert
Do you have the impression that you always get the same leaders as AI opponents in your games ?
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
Krikkit1
K
Hellenism Salesman
Do the leaders look historically accurate?
2 3 4
Replies
69
Views
5K
Patine
Patine
Xefjord
Change the recommended Civs and unlocks for some leaders (Recommendations)
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
Leucarum
Leucarum
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 381: Augustus Caesar of Rome
Replies
8
Views
852
0urBall
0
Back
Top Bottom