Alexander's... "Greek"

[MattZed]

None of the accents in the game bother me. I'd rather have a good voice actor that really gives me a character to respond to than have a purely "accurate" depiction of what the leader historically sounded like. I also think it's nice for leaders to be largely intelligible to modern speakers of their languages, although since I only speak English and a little bit of French, I'm not sure how cool the "ohey, I know what you're saying," feeling is.

As for the two leaders I fully understand, Washington and Elizabeth, I think they're fine. I'd even say good. Yes, I'm well aware that the RP wasn't invented until after Elizabeth's death, so her accent in Civ 5 is entirely anachronistic. However, it's an anachronism that I associate with Elizabeth; most popular films portraying her life have her speaking with an RP accent. A similar story for Washington about his accent; his in-game accent is very similar to the one used for him in popular films. (and, to be fair, it isn't THAT far off)

 

[George Abitbol]

Attila speaks a horribly wrong grammatical Chuvash. Yet, no one seems to care. Ramsess speaks Egyptian Arabic not Ancient Egyptian or Coptic, Suleiman speaks Modern Turkish not Ottoman Turkish, Wu Zetian speaks Mandarin not Old Chinese, Napoleon has a Canadian accent not a French accent, and so on.

Napoleon has a real french accent, but the fact he uses the second person pronoun ("tu" instead of "vous") makes him very arrogant (see my signature )

Off-topic, but with the new culture-orientation given to France, I would prefer Louis XIV as a french leader. At least, leader, UA, UB and UU could match!

 

[reddishrecue]

Napoleon does speak some known words sometimes such as "La France" or "Bonjour". Isabella and England however also speak known languages such as "la bendicion" or "trade agreement with England". Pedro II also sounds like he speak Spanish/Portugal.

 

[JSMCAG]

For anyone interested in what the leaders are saying, or which language they are talking in, just check THIS THREAD!
Seriously one of my favorites, surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet!

There it also explains how, and why, Attila's Chuvash is so broken it's not even funny... How that is even acceptable I have no idea.
Sure it's very easy to say that it's not a problem when both English speaking leaders speak perfectly understandable English. What Attila is saying is downright incomprehensible, and I think it's downright shameful the way Firaxis gutted that language...

 

[local_hero]

He's one of the game's most recent leaders, so the modern language isn't out of place for him - though, as with Elizabeth, the accent is almost certainly wrong. By contrast, Harald's modern Danish is wholly out of place (but I don't care since (a) I don't speak Danish, and (b) I love the way he sounds).

I dare not say how spoken Swedish in the 17th century sounded like, but written Swedish from that time is quite different. There was differences in grammar too I believe. The Swedish spoken by Gustavus in game is perfect though and this is a non-issue. I suppose it's like with Washington and Elizabeth for you. To my ears they sound good while you might have some small remarks.

 

[neoaspilet11]

Gustavus and Assurbanipal voice are pretty awesome. Do all Swedes speak like Gustavus? or just the voice actor has that talent. In my earlier games I always include Gustavus just plainly of his voice. i started tp dump him when he sucks at game and research agreements. I am an Asian, i dont undertand anything he says. Assurbanipal too has a kingly voice. it seems recorded inside a cave with echoes.

 

[Teproc]

Eh, I'm from a French-speaking part of Canada so I know. Trust me, it's different just like American English and British English. In CiV, Elizabeth doesn't sound like an English.

I mean, you might be right, but I'm French from France and I didn't recognize it at all, so they did a good enough job for me at least.

 

[otaman1]

Napoleon has a real french accent, but the fact he uses the second person pronoun ("tu" instead of "vous") makes him very arrogant (see my signature )

La France vous offre cette proposition exceptionnelle.
It's true, he uses a lot of "tu". I guess Firaxis was trying to make him an aggressive and mean leader.

 

[Sagax]

As a matter of fact, Catherine's Russian is also weird. Some of the phrases, while grammatically correct, are just out of place because Russians don't speak like that (It has nothing to do with the imperial/modern Russian disparity). The VA's intonation is also strange in some lines.

 

[LoneRebel]

If someone says that Napoleon sounds like a French Canadian, I'm willing to believe it. IIRC, Napoleon is voiced by Greg Gobbi, who was 2K Games' VP of Product Development (and a French Canadian I believe). The more you know...

 

[Gustavus Rex]

Gustavus and Assurbanipal voice are pretty awesome. Do all Swedes speak like Gustavus? or just the voice actor has that talent. In my earlier games I always include Gustavus just plainly of his voice. i started tp dump him when he sucks at game and research agreements. I am an Asian, i dont undertand anything he says. Assurbanipal too has a kingly voice. it seems recorded inside a cave with echoes.

I guess we do. The actor sounds like he's from Gothenburg though with makes him slightly more jolly-sounding than the avarege swede. I think he speaks to soft and weak.. The real Gustav probably had more power in his voice.

 

[Veras]

Pedro's portuguese also sounds a little unnatural. His Rio accent is okay, since Pedro II lived his whole life there, but the pronunciation is weird sometimes. It isn't like Maria's portuguese, which is very awesome.

 

[seanflokstra7]

Napoleon has a real french accent, but the fact he uses the second person pronoun ("tu" instead of "vous") makes him very arrogant (see my signature )

Off-topic, but with the new culture-orientation given to France, I would prefer Louis XIV as a french leader. At least, leader, UA, UB and UU could match!

This is going to sound like the stupidest question ever, but how do you make a signature? A lot of users have a signature but I don't

I know, off-topic

 

[Browd]

Go to My Account, and you will see on the left-hand side a menu of options. Under the heading Settings & Options you will see Edit Signature. Pretty self-explanatory from there.

 

[seanflokstra7]

I really, really hope all Swedish people talk like Gustavus does
It sounds really awesome, and Swedish is an awesome language

As for William(I'm Dutch, so that gives me the right to judge), he speaks old Dutch. That's definitely not a bad thing. This kind of language resembles the dialect spoken in Noord-Brabant(A province in the south).

 

[seanflokstra7]

Go to My Account, and you will see on the left-hand side a menu of options. Under the heading Settings & Options you will see Edit Signature. Pretty self-explanatory from there.

Thank you

 

[NeoNio]

I wan't to punch the screen every time Pedro wants to trade, it infurates me to the point i start building an army so i don't have to hear him again, Elizabeth's isn't so bad in comparison.

 

[nick50]

My partner is Venetian, and she was really impressed that Enrico Dandolo speaks with an authentic Venetian dialect. Apparantly there's quite a distinct difference

 

[Loucypher]

As for William(I'm Dutch, so that gives me the right to judge), he speaks old Dutch. That's definitely not a bad thing. This kind of language resembles the dialect spoken in Noord-Brabant(A province in the south).

You mean he speaks HAMMY Dutch, right? Just...just listen to his DOW. Or the way he refuses deals. It's hilarious. I love it though, the voice actor clearly had a lot of fun doing his lines.
Though it's not entirely historically accurate given that William likely would've spoken French...but it's not a bad choice given that we do want the Dutch language represented.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Hey, they should get Vic Mignogna to voice Italy/Rome's leader in the next game!

Related: I suggested on the blizzard forums they get Crispen Freeman in the next project they need dubbed... Guess who they picked to voice the male wizard in Diablo 3? I like to think I have the golden touch for voice actor selection.