Civs' Languages

[Psyringe]

The average Englishman sounds nothing like the one in the game, you can tell they might have used an American who specialises in doing English.

Well, that explains why I can without any problem talk English with Eastern Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc. (running a small shop in a rather international city, I often have to) ... but often get into problems when a native speaker shows up.

 

[abuaftab]

Psyringe.

That's because the native speaker is actually speaking English, rather than the contrived accent used in the CIV 4 game. Surely Plattdeutsch is very different from Hochdeutsch? How about Swiss German? Wouldn't it be cool if that was made the standard of the German Civ?

 

[Willowmound]

The Viking accent is my favourite one, because of the aggression in the voice.

It's not an accent -- it's broken.

 

[Psyringe]

That's because the native speaker is actually speaking English, rather than the contrived accent used in the CIV 4 game. Surely Plattdeutsch is very different from Hochdeutsch? How about Swiss German?

I know. I'm originally from a rural area where every single village has its own distinguishable accent, and I can guarantee that most Germans won't understand it if I speak it. There were some medieval vowel shifts in Germany that simply seem to have totally avoided our area.

However, "Hochdeutsch" is (apparently contrary to the Queen's English spoken in Civ4) a living standard, it's actually replacing the dialects. Many dialects are dying out here.

Wouldn't it be cool if that was made the standard of the German Civ?

Hmm, not really. Actually it would feel artificial, at least for me. And I sometimes get annoyed when I notice a strong accent in a translation of a video game. For a long time, this has been a hallmark of sloppy translations ... I remember hearing the two heroes of a sci-fi space adventure talking with a distinct bajuvarian accent, it just sounded out of place and altogether sloppily done. RPGs sometimes experiment with it, but I don't like the outcome either ... I'd rather see an invented accent there, having a beggar in Oblivion talking with a Berlin accent kind of ruins the atmosphere imho.

Something that would be cool for me is to have the Civ language develop with the eras, e.g. let the Germans speak medieval German in the medieval era. But it would be difficult to get the speakers for such a project.

 

[Osymandias]

as far as i know, "hochdeutsch" isn't really spoken (naturally) in germany, it's just the written language. the only dialect that is closiest to the standart high german is spoken in the region around hanover if i remember correctly.
sadly it's true that the dialects are dying out, but i also have to say that this isn't (yeat) really the case in my region. as it counts for me, i have grown up with the dialect and if i would speak standart german, it sounds very very very very artificial and every speech would take double the time, because i had to concentrate on at least the next sentence, if not the next word until i lose the plot, which happens after every 2nd sentence . so, i will make it official: i can't speak it
but needless to say that i'm very proud of my dialect, as nearly every bavarian

btw: i think i have to disappoint you, psyringe: bavarians will bring bavarian into space while they conquer it. that will be the future. so it's better you learn it as fast as you can....

 

[dguichar]

Swahili is spoken in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, etc.) The Zulu are from South Africa.

Yeah... you were absolutely right...

This is not from wikipedia... http://www.omniglot.com/writing/zulu.htm

And it states that is a member of the Bantu/Nguni family of languages, which also includes: Akan, Ewe, Ga, Igbo, Kpelle, Lingala, Mende, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Twi, Wolof, Xhosa & Yorùbá

 

[Psyringe]

as far as i know, "hochdeutsch" isn't really spoken (naturally) in germany, it's just the written language. the only dialect that is closiest to the standart high german is spoken in the region around hanover if i remember correctly.

Depends ... we have areas where high German is the native dialect (Hannover area), areas where it already has replaced local dialects, areas where is about to do so (where, for example, older people will still speak dialect, but younger people usually don't), and areas where dialects are very much alive (Bavaria and Saxony being the two most prominent examples).

Probably, since I've grown up in an area where only older people spoke dialect, high German sounds more natural for me, and dialect often sounds forced or artificial. You've grown up in an area where the dialect is still alive, so for you it's exactly the other way round: To you the dialect sounds natural, and high German sounds artificial.

As much as you have to concentrate when speaking high German, I have to concentrate when speaking dialect. I always have to pause a little, and silently rehearse a sentence I want to speak in dialect, thinking "How would grandma have said that?"

btw: i think i have to disappoint you, psyringe: bavarians will bring bavarian into space while they conquer it. that will be the future. so it's better you learn it as fast as you can....

Judging from the Bavarians among my friends, I'm absolutely certain that Bavarians will stick to their dialect - in Germany, in space, in the afterlife or wherever. (Note to non-German readers: Bavarians are known to have a very strong cultural identity compared with other culture groups within Germany. Nothing wrong about that, but it's a source of a lot of good-natured humour on both sides. )

 

[JMaltman]

Yeah... you were absolutely right...

This is not from wikipedia... http://www.omniglot.com/writing/zulu.htm

And it states that is a member of the Bantu/Nguni family of languages, which also includes: Akan, Ewe, Ga, Igbo, Kpelle, Lingala, Mende, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Twi, Wolof, Xhosa & Yorùbá

Swahili is definitely a Bantu language, but one infused with many more loan words than the rest, from the constant interaction with Arabic and other traders along the east coast of Africa.

 

[abuaftab]

Queen's English is not exactly the same as RP, correct? And I don't think that Civ uses RP.

 

[Kushluk]

Red herring.

Just becuase the mathematical facts don't agree with you, I wouldn't call them a red herring.

HK and Taiwan both have long-established, well-developed capitalist economies. The PRC's is only about thirty years old. Furthermore, it's many times larger. . .

Not exactly true. It's a myth that Taiwan was wealthy when Chaing took it over. Taiwan was a Japanese colony, and had been since 1895. The Japanese considered Taiwanese/Chinese to be an inferior race and treated them as slave labour as industrial and acgricultural workers. When Chaing took over Taiwan, it was rural, poor and reeling from wartime semislavery. Poorer than major centres like Shanghai, Beijing, and Canton by a great deal.

The PRC is 57 years old. Liberation occured in 1949.

On the other hand, look at how rapidly mainland China went from minute literacy to 90+% literacy during the Communist regime--with simplified characters.

Different areas had different levels of literacy, though of course illiteracy was far more prevalent everywhere than it was in the west. I am not doubting or attacking the gains made by the central party in regards to the literacy campeigns - those gains were real and important. What I am debating is the perceved neciessity of Character Simplification. That necissesity is obviously _only_ percieved, this is supported by the numbers.
You CAN have tradtional characters and _higher_ literacy than the mainland. And since the majority of Chinese tradtion, history, culture and art are on the side of Tradtional, I see no reason to carry on Simplified. My argument is that simplified was an experiment that turned out in the end to be unecissary, perhaps counterproductive.

 

[anglosaxon]

It would be even better if the languages were changed to reflect the period they were spoken i.e. Old English spoken by English in 1000, that would make it difficult to understand!

Ik haven a plan, gese?

 

[Panda]

It would be even better if the languages were changed to reflect the period they were spoken i.e. Old English spoken by English in 1000, that would make it difficult to understand!

Ik haven a plan, gese?

That is one of those ideas that can be implemented with a few civs but is utterly impossible for others.

 

[Silver Marmot]

From my little knowledge of Japanese, it's definitely legitimate.

 

[Armandeus]

The Japanese is modern. It seems spoken by a native to me.

The American and British civs both use the same set of English utterances. These are spoken by an American who occaisionally does a bad impression of British English (for variety, I suppose).