Language translations for leader sayings

One more for Kupe:

Agenda disapproval:
"Ka pūkaitia, e koe, te para ki te whenua, ka tuku ai ki te moana. Ka pirau, ka raru te ao nei. Nāu!"
Close translation: You pile waste on the land, and dump it in the sea. This world is decaying and in danger. Because of you!
In-game translation: You pile filth on the land and dump it in the sea. You waste and spoil the world!
 
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Stumbled upon this video on Youtube

By the way, does anybody now a channel that put up all leaders' cutscenes into separate videos as here for Civ5. All I was able to find is videos containing all intros or all defeated scenes.
I would like to see the faces of the Gathering Storm voice actors as well.
 
I would like to see the faces of the Gathering Storm voice actors as well.

And R&F! Although I cannot believe they used a couch or even a researcher for the person that voiced Wilhelmina. She is so inaccurate, it's unbelievable. There are perfect recordings of her voice, and they just gave her a generic voice from a person from the Utrecht area. No N pronunciation at the end of words, no correct consonant articulation... Bah... But I digress...
 
And R&F! Although I cannot believe they used a couch or even a researcher for the person that voiced Wilhelmina. She is so inaccurate, it's unbelievable. There are perfect recordings of her voice, and they just gave her a generic voice from a person from the Utrecht area. No N pronunciation at the end of words, no correct consonant articulation... Bah... But I digress...
That's unfortunate. Teddy, who of course also had his voice recorded historically, is on point. (Can't comment on Laurier and Curtin, who I'm sure are also on record.)
 
Stumbled upon this video on Youtube
That Gandhi splashscreen literally screams "Why pick Gandhi again when you could have THIS?!" :king:

But these videos are always fun. They inevitably fall into two categories:
1. Wow, the VA looks like the character himself/herself
2. Wait, how can this person make THIS kind of voice???
 
That's unfortunate. Teddy, who of course also had his voice recorded historically, is on point. (Can't comment on Laurier and Curtin, who I'm sure are also on record.)

Yeah the Teddy sounds extremely good indeed. Even though I'm not a native English-speaker it sounds well done to me. Another point where I don't like the Dutch version is the word "Floreert" (flourishes). Technically, it's correct, but I have never heard a Dutch person say it, and 70 years ago it would even be rarer, since English loan-words were far less common. The dumbest thing is, we have a perfectly common word for it that is a literal translation: (op)bloeien. In this context the conjugation would be "bloeit (op)".
In one of the livestreams (I think Inca) FXS said how they not only have voice actors, but coaches too, so that the language is depicted correctly. Not all people who can act the language properly would know perfectly how to speak it. But to be honest, I think with modern people like Wilhelmina, FXS just thought the native Dutch person doing the voice acting would know enough, but frankly, she does an impression of what a typical person would mimic a current royal to be. To make matters worse, all her phrases (aside from Floreert which is BS, sounds modern) don't have any spicy old-timey feeling to them. Let me illustrate by these examples:

Original Wilhelmina,
Skip to 2:42 - 3:02
Ik dank alle aanwezigen, voor hun tegenwoordigheid, alhier op dit ogenblik. Thans loopt dit tijdperk voor mij ten einde. De strijdende taak, die wij allen tesamen gehad hebben, die wij zovele jaren tesamen hebben vervuld, ga ik neerleggen.
Translation: I thank all present, for their representation, here in this moment. Now is the time my era has come to an ende. The fighting task, we all shared (had together), that we have completed so many years together, I will lay down.

Civ VI Wilhelmina,
0:00 - 0:15
Ik ben Wilhelmina, koningin der Nederlanden. Het is mijn grote eer, u eindelijk te ontmoeten.
Translation: I am Wilhelmina, Queen of The Netherlands. It's my great honour, to finally meet you.

Some notes to listen to in the original clip, are three things especially;
  1. In the 1950's you'd hear the N constantly on radio and tv broadcasts, and so the queen uses it too. Nowadays, Dutch people always swallow the N at the end of the word. Compare the original in words like "aanwezigeN" / "tesameN" / "hebbeN" / "tesameN" / "neerleggeN" en the Civ VI version in words like "NederlandE" and "OntmoetE". Note how the spelling still uses the N in modern Dutch, but the pronunciation doesn't. This is such a simple, yet crucial detail. When I hear people pretend to be a broadcaster from the 1950's, this is the first thing they do, because it's the most obvious.
  2. A second thing is the R, which is subtle but to Dutch people extremely noticable, I reckon. The South of the Netherlands uses an extremely hard R, that's pronounced way back in the throat in a gutteral sound. If you want a good example, listen to Harald's R at the end of his words; it sounds very similar. This R is highly noticable in Limburg and Noord-Brabant. In the 1950's, they did the same still. Current Dutch in the central and North-West of the Netherlands, is extremely similar to the American R (as in the end of the word Car). You hear the voice actess trying to get the R right, but to be fair, she doesn't quite get there.
  3. Also, the G at the end of words like "dag" (day) later on in the Civ VI video, is way too harsh. People from the west/north-west use a very hard G, that sounds in the back of your throat. People from the south east use a soft, very frontal, G. Royals in the 1950's had the same G. It's neigh impossible for people pronounce, if they didn't grow up with it, without training. Guess they didn't feel the need to train the voice actress.

Some small details are;
  • the i in "Ik" (Ik ben Wilhelmina), where she almost pronounces it like an E (as in Hell) to sound more posh. It's a caricature move, and it makes the voice sound way to comical.
  • the fact that Royal Dutch sounded way flatter than the average modern Dutch speaker. The corners of your mouth are stiff when speaking, and the jaw does not move down all that much. The voice actress here does the opposite. Again, brilliant if you want to do a caricature, horrible if you want to represent the Queen of a country in a Civ game.
  • there are no old school words which we barely use nowadays, but were not uncommon in the 1950's. Words like "thans" (now), "alhier" (here), and "tesamen" (together).

Honestly, my mate and I should have been paid to write the dialogue and coach the voice actress, and the result would have been 100% better. Guaranteed : P

Victoria, Harald and Frederick sound good to me (haven't heard Kristina that much yet), and I don't speak/know the other languages, so I hope the Dutch one is just the dark horse of the lot...
 
I love Queen Victoria's VA
Really? She sounds incredibly flat to me, like she's reading her lines. Her voice is also mildly annoying. :p
 
I love Queen Victoria's VA
I quite enjoy hearing Amanitore. It's her voice more than her language tho.

Opposite case for me is Wilhelmina - I really like hearing Dutch, but I'm not great fan of her voice acting.

CdM's portrayal seems to be a good mix to me. She has good voice of a schemer, and, well, can anyone hate French language? :p (also, switching between French and Italian is a great thing)
 
Kupe and Laurier translations added! Let me know if I missed anything.
 
Really? She sounds incredibly flat to me, like she's reading her lines. Her voice is also mildly annoying. :p

I think it's intentional? Even her avatar looks stuffy and pretentious. Like fake politeness.
 
I think it's intentional? Even her avatar looks stuffy and pretentious. Like fake politeness.
Well, as far as her animations go, I actually think she's a little too lively. Victoria had a great reputation for being stoic and inexpressive, even as a young woman; if they wanted an English queen famed for her temper tantrums they should have brought the moody and mercurial Lizzie back. (Should have anyway for a number of reasons IMO.)
 
Teddy, who of course also had his voice recorded historically, is on point. (Can't comment on Laurier and Curtin, who I'm sure are also on record.)
I've listened to a couple of John Curtin's speeches, and the voice actor does a really good job in portraying the mid-20th century shift in Australia from a more English-sounding accent to a modern Australian one. IRL Curtin's accent had distinctly English and Australian traits, whereas the Civ 6 version leans more towards modern Australian. But you can still tell it's an older Australian accent.

BTW the voice actor shown in the video is actually a well-known TV and film actor in Australia. I was pleasantly surprised when his photo came up, thinking "hey, I know him!".

[EDIT: removed opinion, and then readded with context]
 
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I've just seen Matthias Corvinus' intro and war speech in the Solar Gamer's stream. The voice actor is a well-known actor here in Hungary, especially known for giving voice-overs in many films (dubbing is a huge thing in Hungary). The English translation is actually quite perfect, I can't give a better one. I also like the fact that Matthias speaks in a bit old-fashioned manner (though not really in a way Hungarian was like in the 15th century).

Intro: "Mátyás vagyok. Én vagyok Magyarországnak királya, ellenségim ostora, az igaz híveknek védelmezője. Üdvözöllek."
In-game translation: I am Matthias. I am King of Hungary, scourge of my foes, and defender of the faithful. Greetings.

War declaration: "Pimaszságod okozá e háborúságot. És én boldogan viszem ellened győzelemre a Fekete Sereget."
In-game translation: Your insolence has provoked this war, and I shall be happy to lead the Black Army to victory over you.
Actual translation: Your insolence has caused this war, and I happily lead the Black Army to victory over you.

I will post the remaining leader sayings if I come across them.
 
On the topic of Frederick's last sentence when defeated, which is mentioned as unresolved in the original post:
As far as I can tell, he's saying:
Si überrich fri des strites und des hasses.

Sorry for probably incorrect spelling of Middle German, I only speak contemporary German, never studied old variants and don't know the appropriate diacritics.

Literal translation: May you be most free of quarrel and hate.
 
In one of the livestreams (I think Inca) FXS said how they not only have voice actors, but coaches too, so that the language is depicted correctly.
You have to give them credit, this feature is a very complex linguistic project by it's own right and FXS go through a lot of effort for something that can be considered a flavor feature. And they are actually improving from game to game. In Civ5 they messed up Attila's Chuvash, but in Civ6 another minority language from Russia, Ossetian, is much better, the VA is a native speaker and people who know the language can actually understand and translate the lines spoken (apart from a couple of mistakes). Catherine the Great in Civ5 spoke perfect Russian, despite being born a German princess and speaking with accent, but Catherine de Medici speaks French with Italian accent in Civ6. So I guess they listen to the feedback, I even won't be surprised if they monitor this thread too. So most probably next time Wilhelmina will speak proper royal Dutch. :)
 
@Red Khan I would greatly appreciate it if you upload the GS leader dialogue to soundcloud. :D I seriously have no clue how to extract them from the files.
 
Just met Eleanor in my game and holy wine glasses! Is she speaking Occitan? Or some old variety of langue d'oc?

Unfortunately I didn't make it in time to record her lines :|
I haven't listened closely enough to confirm 100%, but she does seem to be speaking Medieval Occitan.
 
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