Language translations for leader sayings

[CivLuvah]

Which makes me less interested in his dialogue.... But at least it would be easy for Castilians to understand!

Translating Bolivar's lines should be a slam dunk for Civfanatics!

I'm disappointed nobody provided Amharic writing for Haile Selassie's dialogue back in Civ5. I expect the same for Ethiopia's leader this time. No Ethiopians play or heard of Civ, apparently.

What did they have instead?

 

[Morningcalm]

@Guandao, I also added the Cree and Mapuche transliterations I found on the Civ Wiki page.

Someone Tweet at Trever Noah? He might be willing to help : D

I also have some irks with the Dutch translations on the frontpage. Just some minor nitpicks, but thought I'd post them here regardless.

Thanks @Vandlys! I added your comments to the front page.

 

[Guandao]

What did they have instead?

Just the English translations for Haile Selassie's lines. No transliteration/Amharic writing...I'm definitely sure you can type in Amharic somehow. I like the look of the Amharic writing system.

 

[Red Khan]

I have only one reserved post left at the start of this thread; I might have to ask the mods for more! I was really not expecting that Firaxis would add so many more civs to the game!

You have lines of Lautaro two times. Combining them might save same space.

 

[Morningcalm]

You have lines of Lautaro two times. Combining them might save same space.

Thanks! Fixed. 9 new leaders—let’s see if we can fit them all in.

 

[untitledjuan]

I think Bolívar will speak in some form of Venezuelan accent. I can't buy the new Frontier Pass until June, but I can help you translating what Bolívar says. My native language is Colombian Spanish from Bogotá.

 

[Red Khan]

Here we go, I uploaded all the new speeches to SoundCloud:

Lady Six Sky
Simón Bolívar

@untitledjuan you might want to have a look at the latter.

And while we are having reemerging Spanish, let me remind you that Phillip II's pep talk line is still not transcribed. You can hear it here.

@Morningcalm, you misspelled Montezuma's name as Moctezuma. Sorry for nitpicking.
And while we are at it can I please ask you to make some corrections to my past contributions:
Tomyris

• The "First meet" line is doubled, once at the very beginning as "Greeting" and the second time in the middle of her section as "Introduction ("First meet")". Might yet again save some space.
• Can you please change the following sentence "Speaks Ossetian, an eastern Iranian language in the Caucas Mountains." to "Speaks Iron dialect (pronounced as e-ron) of Ossetian, an eastern Iranian language in the Caucas Mountains."

Genghis Khan

• Can you please change the following line in Agenda-based Disapproval
  

  Actual translation: You put on a sheep's bladder on your head and called it a double helmel, you recruited cowards and called them great baghaturs, or something?

  to the following one:
  Actual translation: Did you put a sheep's bladder on your head and call it a double helmel, did you recruite cowards and call them great baghaturs, didn't you?

 

[untitledjuan]

@untitledjuan you might want to have a look at the latter.

I've already listened to them and did a translation of them (including the one that was missing from Spain). @Morningcalm I have it on a Word document, should I send it to you?

 

[Red Khan]

@untitledjuan, I think it will be easier and better if you just write them here, in a post.

 

[Morningcalm]

@Red Khan Thanks! Made corrections. I spelled it Moctezuma on purpose since it’s closer to the original, but I changed to Montezuma to prevent players being confused anyway haha.

I've already listened to them and did a translation of them (including the one that was missing from Spain). @Morningcalm I have it on a Word document, should I send it to you?

Please copy and paste your Word document contents in a post here, as Red Khan suggested. Thanks.

 

[Red Khan]

I spelled it Moctezuma on purpose since it’s closer to the original, but I changed to Montezuma to prevent players being confused anyway haha.

I see. But IMHO leaders' name should be the same as in the game so that players and search bots don't get confused.

 

[untitledjuan]

Bolívar in-game doesn’t seem to have a very strong accent from either Venezuela or Colombia. To me, he sounds just like the regular Spanish Latin-American dubbed film and TV program. It is an accent that aims to be neutral in order to distribute it to all Latin America without showing variations or regional words. However, it can also be a particular “neutral” variety from Caracas or elsewhere in Venezuela, but I doubt it. It is unlikely to find someone in Venezuela or Colombia that speaks naturally with that accent, as it is a constructed “neutral” one to appeal to all of Latin America.

However, Bolívar does use words such as “vuestra”, “os”, “conocéis” etc. that are nowadays frequently used in Spain, but that would sound archaic, extremely formal or old-fashioned in modern day Colombia and Venezuela. It wouldn’t be inaccurate though, as some letters written by Bolívar himself show that he did use those words and that they used to be more common, at least in formal speech, in colonial and early Colombia and Venezuela.

1. BOLIVAR MA DECLARE WAR FROM AI A-02

¡Vuestra tiranía, si no se controla, llevará a la oscuridad al mundo y, por esta razón, os declaro la guerra!

Your tyranny, if it is not controlled, will lead the world to darkness and, for this reason, I declare war on you.

2. BOLIVAR MA DECLARE WAR FROM HUMAN B-12

Seguir con la guerra es lamentable, pero necesario al lidiar con serpientes como vos.

To keep on with war is lamentable, but it is necessary when dealing with snakes like you.

3. BOLIVAR MA DEFEAT A-07

Todo lo que he hecho lo hice por la nación de la Gran Colombia. Soy un patriota hasta el final.

All that I have done I did it for the nation of Gran Colombia. I am a patriot until the end.

4. BOLIVAR MA FIRST MEET A-04

El presidente Simón Bolívar os da la bienvenida a la Gran Colombia.

The president Simón Bolívar welcomes you to Gran Colombia.

5. BOLIVAR MA KUDOS A-06

Al parecer conocéis tanto de historia como de diplomacia. Vuestro pueblo se beneficia de vuestro gobierno.

It seems that you know about history just as much as you know about diplomacy. Your people benefit from your government.

6. BOLIVAR MA MISC PEP TALK B-04

Las almas generosas se interesan en la gente que busca recuperar los derechos otorgados por el Creador y la naturaleza.

Generous souls are interested in people that seek to recover the rights granted by the Creator and by nature.

(This may be a reference to the early constitutions of Colombia, which state that the rights that its citizens have are granted by God and nature, I am sure somewhere in the preamble of the Constitution of 1819 or 1886 there is a part which is almost the same as what Bolívar says here.

7. BOLIVAR MA WARNING C-08

¿Puedo daros una advertencia? Cambiad vuestros métodos o los que lideran los ejércitos lo harán por vos.

May I give you a warning? Change your methods or else the leaders of the armies will change them for you.

8. SPAIN PH MISC PEP TALK C

Llegará el día en el que cuando estemos contemplando el mapa del mundo, no será el mundo. Será España

The day will come when we will be looking at the map of the world, but it will not be the world. It will be Spain

 

[Franz_van_der_Aaagh]

Lady's Six Sky sounds to me slightly strange, especially these [ks] consonant clusters in the coda of phrase, but, well, I'm not a native speaker to juge it. Same applies to prosody/intonation. That might be either a good clue to identify the spoken language, or a trace that the lector did not have a proper phonetic transcription, though.

 

[Red Khan]

6. BOLIVAR MA MISC PEP TALK B-04

Las almas generosas se interesan en la gente que busca recuperar los derechos otorgados por el Creador y la naturaleza.

Generous souls are interested in people that seek to recover the rights granted by the Creator and by nature.

(This may be a reference to the early constitutions of Colombia, which state that the rights that its citizens have are granted by God and nature, I am sure somewhere in the preamble of the Constitution of 1819 or 1886 there is a part which is almost the same as what Bolívar says here.

With some leaders like queen Victoria and Pedro II it's actually a real quote by real life counterpart.

or a trace that the lector did not have a proper phonetic transcription

As far as I know they try to hire voice actors who are native speakers. Apart from dead languages obviously.

 

[Morningcalm]

Thanks @untitledjuan! Added your Philip II and Simon Bolivar translations.

 

[Canterbury]

Hey, @Morningcalm. I've got a couple of fixes for Kupe after relistening to his audio, plus a bit of research from earlier.
Can you please replace the ones on the first page with these. Thanks.

Declare war (by human): "E tā! Tirohia te rangatira rā me te whakapuakitanga pakanga. Kai tawhiti koe, e hoa! E kite ana tō nui pūwhāwhātanga."
Close translation: Bro! Look at the chief over there with the war declaration. You're amazing, mate! It shows how "big but hollow" you are.
In-game translation: Look at the big civ leader with the war declaration. Great job, mate! Really shows off how hard you are.
Note: "Big but hollow" ("nui pūwhāwhā") in the last sentence describes something being not as solid or strong as its size would suggest (i.e., appearing harder than it actually is).

Defeat: "Kāti, i tino ū paku pakaru te iwi Māori. Ā, ko te mea nui, ka pūmau tonu o mātou mana."
Close translation: Well, the Māori people have been completely and utterly broken. But the important thing is that our mana (power, influence) shall still endure.
In-game translation: I have done my utmost, but your strength was greater. My heart, at least, will beat undefeated.
Note: The in-game translation is almost completely different to what Kupe is actually saying here.

....

Also, for the "Declare war (by AI)" close translation, could you please replace "shaking (or quaking)!" at the end with just "quaking!". On reflection, there's no need for the ambiguity. Thanks again.

 

[Uberfrog]

3. BOLIVAR MA DEFEAT A-07

Todo lo que he hecho lo hice por la nación de la Gran Colombia. Soy un patriota hasta el final.

All that I have done I did it for the nation of Gran Colombia. I am a patriot until the end.

I am disappointed they didn’t go for a variation on

El que sirve una revolución ara en el mar

for his defeat line.

 

[Morningcalm]

@Canterbury, I added your revised lines to Kupe's entry. Thanks!

 

[Red Khan]

I've consulted a scholar of Persian about Cyrus's language and he said that it's a very poor attempt to portray Middle Persian, with bad pronunciation and grammar so broken that exact translation is not possible. Moreover Middle Persian is not historically accurate for Cyrus, since it's came into being about 500 years after him, he should have been voiced in Old Persian.

Bearing in mind the big disclaimer above here are the transcriptions for the lines:

Agenda-based Approval: Nēk dānam kē jahišn hā hast, kē widardam mē tuwān
Agenda-based Disapproval: Agar frēb šāyad, xwāhēm kē pad dast ī man abāz bawēd.
Attacked: Afsānhā rā mēšenawīst-ēh, ayādgār ī spāh ī amāwand ī man? Raw ud wēn!
Declares War: Nūn pad mardomān ī tō namāyēm, kē čiyōn azēr ī framān ī ādūg pādixšāy tuwān wāng ??? dāštand
Defeated: Ham nēmag ī kārzār saxt kam dīd ēstād hēm
Greeting: Raw, pēš ī kūruš ī wuzurg ī pārsī ēstāda ī. Dānēm kē zōr dōst šawēm, pad kāmistīh nūn rāy
Pep Talk: Az garānī ī dušmanān ī amāh ranjūr mā bawēd ud az āfarīn ī dōstān ī amāh halag mā bawēd. abestān ō xwēš dārēd, mā abārīgān

 

[Zaarin]

I've consulted a scholar of Persian about Cyrus's language and he said that it's a very poor attempt to portray Middle Persian, with bad pronunciation and grammar so broken that translation is not possible.

I'm vindicated. That's exactly what I said with just my passing knowledge of Iranian languages.

Moreover Middle Persian is not historically accurate for Cyrus, since it's came into being about 500 years after him, he should have been voiced in Old Persian.

To be fair, Old Persian is pretty poorly attested; they'd have better luck making him speak Avestan than Old Persian, which would probably be less historically accurate than just using Middle Persian. Middle Persian is reasonably well-attested, however, so there's no excuse for the poor job they did with it. Just like Gilgabro's bad Akkadian.