What do you think about the voice acting in Civ 6?

[Zaarin]

Geoff Knorr's beautifully composed themes for the Huns almost makes up for their inclusion. Li Ling Si Han would be a good musical source for a potential Xiongnu Civ though. I blame Disney's Mulan for making Americans confused about the Xiongnu and the Huns.

TBF I think connecting the Huns and Xiongnu was fashionable in certain linguistic and anthropological circles at one time, but as far as I know support for that theory has pretty much entirely evaporated.

 

[God of Kings]

I wouldn't call Attila's language in Civ5 "Chuvash based gibberish". "Grammatically butchered Chuvash written without a fluent speaker's help" is more accurate....

Calling Attila's speech "Chuvash-based gibberish" is an insult to all babies babbling in Chuvash.

 

[Guandao]

TBF I think connecting the Huns and Xiongnu was fashionable in certain linguistic and anthropological circles at one time, but as far as I know support for that theory has pretty much entirely evaporated.

There was once a theory that the Chinese at the time once pronounced "Xiongnu" as "Hunnu", making an apparent historical connection more likely. So fiew linguistic evidence has survived to substantiate this claim....

 

[halfhalfharp]

Robert's voice gives me the impression that the guy they had lined up cancelled, and they had to settle for a stand-in who could do the accent. This really needs a do-over... he's way too young sounding for the characterization.

Really that bad? But I was greatly touched by his delivery in the defeat lines. The grief was so beautiful, although the voice is sounding too young.

There was once a theory that the Chinese at the time once pronounced "Xiongnu" as "Hunnu", making an apparent historical connection more likely. So fiew linguistic evidence has survived to substantiate this claim....

Yup, as a Cantonese speaker, Xiongnu is pronounced as "Hun-no" so I always have the impression that the "Huns" are "Xiongnu" missing the last word. But Cantonese pronunciation was derived from Tang dynasty official language so this may not be an appropriate support.

Edit: Thx moderator for joining my posts, its such a pain for me to do so on phone.

 

[Zaarin]

There was once a theory that the Chinese at the time once pronounced "Xiongnu" as "Hunnu", making an apparent historical connection more likely. So fiew linguistic evidence has survived to substantiate this claim....

If I'm not mistaken current reconstructions of Old Chinese place the pronunciation as more like /qʰoŋnu/, so there goes the theory. My overall impression of the current state of "Who were the Xiongnu?" is that no one knows and every theory is highly disputed.

 

[halfhalfharp]

If I'm not mistaken current reconstructions of Old Chinese place the pronunciation as more like /qʰoŋnu/, so there goes the theory. My overall impression of the current state of "Who were the Xiongnu?" is that no one knows and every theory is highly disputed.

Yeah and possibly it will remain that state until human has invented the time machine to travel back to the past...

The only possible breakthrough can be an ancient Xiongnu text written in chinese characters, just like what Japanese did before they invented Hiragana. But the hope of such evidence is certainly vague.

Or else it will be very unlikely to deduce anything as we have scarce knowledge of both Huns and Xiongnu due to their lack of writing system and significant buildings.

 

[heinous_hat]

Really that bad? But I was greatly touched by his delivery in the defeat lines. The grief was so beautiful, although the voice is sounding too young.

Yeah, nothing wrong with the actor. It just strikes me that either they needed someone older, or a younger rendition of Robert.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Just heard Khmer for the first time. Well, that was, um, interesting... If I didn't know better I'd swear I were listening to some obscure sub-Saharan African language.

 

[halfhalfharp]

Just heard Khmer for the first time. Well, that was, um, interesting... If I didn't know better I'd swear I were listening to some obscure sub-Saharan African language.

Yeah their phonetics are pretty scary, with plenty of diphthongs and maybe triphthongs?
He is speaking with numerous and quick oral+lip+tongue movements even for the shortest sentence... and the tone is also... em, distinct, I can only say.

I really want to know how a Cambodian response to his acting. (But to my guess, Jayavarman is speaking Khmer correctly in tones and pronunciation, based on what I heard of Thai and Vietnamese.)

 

[Guandao]

If I'm not mistaken current reconstructions of Old Chinese place the pronunciation as more like /qʰoŋnu/, so there goes the theory. My overall impression of the current state of "Who were the Xiongnu?" is that no one knows and every theory is highly disputed.

Imagine Qin Shi Huang speaking a reconstructed form of Old Chinese..... I can clearly see the connection to the Tibeto-Burman languages in the reconstruction. So many consonant clusters got lost on the way to Modern Mandarin.....

 

[halfhalfharp]

Imagine Qin Shi Huang speaking a reconstructed form of Old Chinese..... I can clearly see the connection to the Tibeto-Burman languages in the reconstruction. So many consonant clusters got lost on the way to Modern Mandarin.....

A drama using modern construction of ancient chinese
Its fun but This is hell, please don't do this lol.
Qin will sound like another Khmer leader.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Oh wow, that's even more grating to a western ear than modern Chinese.

 

[halfhalfharp]

Oh wow, that's even more grating to a western ear than modern Chinese.

Thats why I think Mandarin is overall fine, compared to this.

If we want a taste of chinese antiquity, shaking off the modern Mandarin accents, Min dialect and Cantonese will be a better option than a completely reconstructed old chinese.

 

[JH24]

I'm curious, what are the thoughts on Lautaro? I like his voice, his language ((Mapudungun) is nice to listen to but I have no idea if he's speaking it well, or if there are some interesting things about the way he speaks it.

Coming from the Netherlands, I like the way how the voice actor speaks Dutch as Wilhelmina, but the voice itself is a bit too high-pitched for my liking. It's a bit too cartoony/exaggerated. It doesn't help I've heard her voice a few times in cartoons. But overall I like it and you can tell she puts effort into it.

 

[Bad Wolf]

what are the thoughts on Lautaro?

He's dreamy.

 

[MyCatSplash]

Just heard Khmer for the first time. Well, that was, um, interesting... If I didn't know better I'd swear I were listening to some obscure sub-Saharan African language.

Yeah, I always feel a little bad when he's in one of my games because I can't help but cringe a bit. I'm sure it's a wonderful language to some but it just hits my ears all wrong.

 

[Zaarin]

I'm weird. I love ejectives and implosives, and to me Khmer is just magic to my ears.

 

[Guandao]

A drama using modern construction of ancient chinese
Its fun but This is hell, please don't do this lol.
Qin will sound like another Khmer leader.

But didn't Qin Dynasty court language sound like this....

Thats why I think Mandarin is overall fine, compared to this.

If we want a taste of chinese antiquity, shaking off the modern Mandarin accents, Min dialect and Cantonese will be a better option than a completely reconstructed old chinese.

Yes please to a Min Chinese dialect, my mom is Hainanese and my dad is Hokkien, but their ancestors immigrated to Malaysia in the early 20th century.

I'm curious, what are the thoughts on Lautaro? I like his voice, his language ((Mapudungun) is nice to listen to but I have no idea if he's speaking it well, or if there are some interesting things about the way he speaks it.

Coming from the Netherlands, I like the way how the voice actor speaks Dutch as Wilhelmina, but the voice itself is a bit too high-pitched for my liking. It's a bit too cartoony/exaggerated. It doesn't help I've heard her voice a few times in cartoons. But overall I like it and you can tell she puts effort into it.

Nahuelhual (the surname of Lautaro's voice actor) sounds like a Mapuche last name as opposed to a Castilian Spanish one. He is very likely a descendant of the Mapuche, possibly based in Chile.

 

[God of Kings]

The surname of Poundmaker's voice actor isn't Tootoosis. It's Bearchild.

My mother, whose first language is Mandarin and fluent in Cantonese, listened to an Old Chinese reconstruction and concluded that it sounded more like Vietnamese to her, despite Vietnamese not having trilled "r"s unlike some Old Chinese reconstructions.

 

[halfhalfharp]

The surname of Poundmaker's voice actor isn't Tootoosis. It's Bearchild.

My mother, whose first language is Mandarin and fluent in Cantonese, listened to an Old Chinese reconstruction and concluded that it sounded more like Vietnamese to her, despite Vietnamese not having trilled "r"s unlike some Old Chinese reconstructions.

I wonder if they shared a common ancester or proto language?

Vietnamese and Thai, languages heavily influenced by Khmer always sound funny ( to a degree that is laughable) to chinese speakers due to the mismatch of the tones.

Imagine Qin greeting us with his intensive tongue rolling and vietnamese tone.