Malays unit dialogues

[EmpAhmadK]

I still do not have the Rise of the Rajas DLC, but after playing several Multiplayer games as the Malays, I realised that they made a lot of mistakes in the units speeches. It's not really a complain, but it's more to a friendly note to the developers (if they read this). I don't really mind about it since it is not an essential part of the game, especially when they spent a long time doing this and well, it's quite unfair to say that they made a bad expansion.
So first, how the units call us. We can hear them say multiple times things like: "Apa suasananya baginda" (What's the condition sir) and "Ya baginda" (Yes sir). But actually the word 'Baginda' doesn't fit the context. Baginda is used to refer to someone who should be respected, for example: "Baginda masuk dewan itu dan disambut orang ramai" (He went in the hall and was greeted by everybody). Meaning that it is used to refer to someone else, and not refer to the person you are talking to. Usually, we use 'Tuan' to talk to a commander or a war leader, or 'Tuanku' if he is a king or a royalty.
Another mistake I realised is the King's speech. He says: "Aku akan (something)nya" (probably something around the lines of 'I will do it'). In the Malay language, the king do not say 'Aku' or 'Saya'. The royals have a different language and in this case, they say 'Beta'. So it should be 'Beta akan (something)nya'.
Also, if we are supposed to be the normal units' king or something, the units should say 'Patik pengerti' and not 'Aku pengerti' (I understand) since when a civilian is talking to a royal, they should refer themselves as 'Patik' and not 'Aku'.
So those are the mistakes, which I wish will be fixed by the developers. But if it is too hard, then they don't need to since it isn't really important.

EDIT: I also just remembered this. When we tell our military to attack, the Kerambit Warriors for example, one of the things they say is 'Maju!' (Forward!) Actually, when it comes to attacking, it's supposed to be 'Mara!', since Maju is more to 'Negara yang maju' or 'A (great/advanced/something like that) country'.

[Cats. Just Cats.]

I think it's difficult to be precise with the language, because the game takes place in the years 500-1500. It's not the same as today's language, so they have to ask a specialist in old languages to create the speeches. I don't know if they really did this. But some of the mistakes you notice may not have been true for the past.

The speeches have never been very good, I think. Although I don't understand them, so I can't really judge. What has always been odd is that the Byzantines are speaking Latin while they should be speaking Greek. I understand Latin a bit because I learned it at school, so I recognize the words.

[conqueror060]

Originally posted by Cats. Just Cats.:

I think it's difficult to be precise with the language, because the game takes place in the years 500-1500. It's not the same as today's language, so they have to ask a specialist in old languages to create the speeches. I don't know if they really did this. But some of the mistakes you notice may not have been true for the past.

The speeches have never been very good, I think. Although I don't understand them, so I can't really judge. What has always been odd is that the Byzantines are speaking Latin while they should be speaking Greek. I understand Latin a bit because I learned it at school, so I recognize the words.

Regarding the Byzantines, I was always wondering why they don't speak Greek. But after Attila campaign, I realized that, in this game, "Byzantines" not only cover the Greek/Byzantium part of the civ, but also late Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire. So, it isn't as inaccurate as it sounds.

[EmpAhmadK]

Originally posted by Cats. Just Cats.:

I think it's difficult to be precise with the language, because the game takes place in the years 500-1500. It's not the same as today's language, so they have to ask a specialist in old languages to create the speeches. I don't know if they really did this. But some of the mistakes you notice may not have been true for the past.

The speeches have never been very good, I think. Although I don't understand them, so I can't really judge. What has always been odd is that the Byzantines are speaking Latin while they should be speaking Greek. I understand Latin a bit because I learned it at school, so I recognize the words.

Actually when you say it that way, it's quite true. But, the King's language had been used since the old days, that I am sure. So maybe the Baginda and Maju is correct, but I'm very certain that the fact that they didn't use 'Beta' is wrong.

[Player]

That sounds unfortunate, especially when the translations[ageofempires.wikia.com] for the Vietnamese unit dialogue seem uncharacteristically good (the wiki says the pronunciations are modern rather than medieval, which would be a separate issue). I don't know Vietnamese, but judging from my Chinese knowledge, the word choices are appropriately medieval. Perhaps the Vietnamese version was done by a competent translator who was given accurate instructions on their context, thus was able to add a lot of cultural texture to the script.

E.g. the male villager refers to himself as 草民 "your grass-like subject," the female villager 民女 "your female subject," military units 小人 "this petty person," the monk 貧僧 "this impoverished monk," the king 朕 "we." The king also uses royal-sounding words like 護駕 "safeguard your king" and 恩準 "approve by my grace." The only one that looks suspicious is translating "shepherd" as 奴才/奴婢 "slave servant," though there may be language quirks involved I don't know about.

Originally posted by Cats. Just Cats.:

I think it's difficult to be precise with the language, because the game takes place in the years 500-1500. It's not the same as today's language, so they have to ask a specialist in old languages to create the speeches. I don't know if they really did this. But some of the mistakes you notice may not have been true for the past.

The speeches have never been very good, I think. Although I don't understand them, so I can't really judge. What has always been odd is that the Byzantines are speaking Latin while they should be speaking Greek. I understand Latin a bit because I learned it at school, so I recognize the words.

Indeed the unit sound bites in the Age games have always been written to be unbelievably flat, characterless and unnatural, even without the mistranslations and bad pronunciations or flat delivery. This makes the Vietnamese version surprising.

The technical difficulties of the translations vary. However, problems are often caused by the hired translators misunderstanding the context, as may have happened with the Malay version here.

Reproducing the historical pronunciations is not always possible, but neither is it absolutely necessary; for most people, "sounding just like our period dramas" is good enough, which is a test the Age games often fail to pass. For AoE3, Microsoft actually redubbed all the voices for Chinese and Japanese units in the respective localized versions, because some of them sound plainly too weird or too wrong to native speakers.

As for the Byzantines speaking latin, the Ensemble designer Sandy Petersen gave this explanation:

It was their official state language, a majority of their population did not speak Greek, it helped maintain the feel for a continuation of the Roman Empire, and I like Latin better than Greek.

[Cats. Just Cats.]

Although, with the Italians in the mix, they are the more suitable candidate for a "continued Roman empire" now.