Unimportant thing that bothers me

[Cincinnatus C.]

Why is China's unique unit the Chu-Ko-Nu as opposed to the Zhuge-Nu? Why isn't it romanized properly (or, if you take issue with that, consistently with the leader and great person names, but really pinyin is considered "proper" at this point in history)?

I mean, you have Great General Zhuge Liang leading your troops of crossbows named after him, and yet they bear markedly different appellations.

It's not even Wade-Giles (Chu-ke-nu)! I don't even know what it is!

Also, why does Morgan Sheppard call her Wu Zoo-tian? I mean, he hams it up in pretty much all of the leader intros but I always cringe when he says that in particular. It's not even the phonetic English pronunciation...

I only wish it weren't too late to cancel my preorder.

 

[Lord Monkey]

I think your title pretty much sums it up. Sorry buddy.

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[jjkrause84]

Maybe because there are MANY ways to Romanize Chinese words and they simply chose one?

Shansi
Shaanxi

OR

Szechewan
Ssu-ch'uan
Sichuan

....as examples.

 

[Cincinnatus C.]

Maybe because there are MANY ways to Romanize Chinese words and they simply chose one?

Shansi
Shaanxi

OR

Szechewan
Ssu-ch'uan
Sichuan

....as examples.

That doesn't explain why they didn't a) go with what is by far the most common system, and the one that is accepted as official by nations such as China and Taiwan and b)why it's not consistently applied within the game itself - there's no Chu-ko Liang in sight, for example.

I'm not trying to sound like I care very deeply about this, it's just something I don't understand and that bugs me a bit.

 

[Lord Monkey]

I only wish it weren't too late to cancel my preorder.

I'm not trying to sound like I care very deeply about this

Am I missing something here?

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[carlisimo]

It's one of those words that was pretty well-known (to history and weapon geeks) long before Hanyu Pinyin. If it were unknown, then it would be translated instead of romanized, like the names of most unique units are.

My guess is that it didn't enter through Mandarin. Peking, Hong Kong, Nanking, Sun Yat-Sen, Chiang Kai-Shek, etc. entered English through Cantonese, and only the place names have been replaced by romanized Mandarin versions. Maybe it's the same story here? Or perhaps it uses an obscure romanization system (I don't know them all, but I do know there was a system that wasn't Wade-Giles nor Hanyu Pinyin used in between those two, and there've been others).

Either way, the old form has been kept for the sake of familiarity, based on the target audience. It should probably change but it's not an obvious decision.