VoiceMod (made for TotalRealismMod)

[Shigawire]

Greetings. I have started work on a modification where the voice-commands are to be translated from english to the appropriate languages. We have no plans to do the pre-battle speeches. This mod was made primarily because we want a more authentic experience, rather than hearing a Roman legionary respond with "Sir! Yes Sir!" like some US Marine..

The classical latin translations are in their final stages, and I have submitted the translations to my panel of experts to fix any errors, and improve on it.
Voice-recordings wont begin until the list has been approved.

The Ancient Greek translations are being worked on as we speak.

This VoiceMod is intended as a module for the RomeTotalRealism mod ( www.rometotalrealism.com ) which is being worked on by GaiusJulius, Zapppa and others. This mod changes the names of some cultures:
Spain = Iberia
Scythia = Sarmatia
Egypt = Ptolemaic Empire

And it also changes names of some cities and units. It also adds entirely new units (new 3d models) and other changes. It's constantly being worked on, currently version 3.2 (I'm not working on it at all, only the voicemod)

Our VoiceMod has its base on the www.twcenter.net forum, but I decided to go here because we need more people. Here is the link to the thread:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=14199&st=0

Requesting:

1.More people who are naturally good at linguistics, and phonetic pronunciation.

2.People who know/have knowledge in one of the following languages:
Celtic languages - Gaelic, Cornish etc (for Gallia, Iberia, Britannia)
Ossetian language (for Sarmatia/Skythia)
Phoenician language, or know which language could be a viable substitute.
Pehlevi/Pahlavi (for Parthia)
Ancient Gothic (for Germania)

3.People who can deeply research peoples such as Dacia, Numidia, Thrace, Illyria - and come up with possible language-substitutes (for example Ancient Gothic for Dacia). Since some languages are indeed lost 'forever', we aren't focusing on getting everything perfect, since it is impossible. But we do want to get as close as we possibly can, within the boundaries of what is 'possible'
For example, Ossetian is the closest language to the one spoken by the Sarmatians, and before them the Skythians. It may be different in many ways, but that is of no consequence. Ossetia is a region close to Chechnya.

4.But linguistics isn't everything, we also need people who can mod the gamefiles, since we will have to modify the structure of the audiofiles as a whole. So if you are a modder, and know how to mod the placeholders for the sounds, and which units have which sounds, we hope you can join the team and help out.

Right now the structure is as follows:
Arabic, Barbarian, Roman, Greek

very simple :)

We are going to have:
Celtic (any substitute): Gallia, Britannia, Iberia
Ancient Greek: Greek City States, Macedon, Pontus, Ptolemaic Empire, Seleucia.
Classical Latin: Julii, Brutii, Scipii, SPQR
Ossetian: Sarmatia
Pahlavi: Parthia
Phoenician (or any substitute): Carthage
(Ancient) Gothic: Germania
?: Dacia
?: Thrace
?: Numidia

not so simple ;)
or, even if it IS simple, I wouldn't know how ANYWAY.. :D
Which is why we need someone who can look into the mod-files.. so please consider volunteering if you think you're up to it.

[wilpuri]

Sounds excellent Shig. Looking forward to the release.
~:cheers:

[Silver Rusher]

Wouldn't Numidians speak Phoenician?

[Shigawire]

Wouldn't Numidians speak Phoenician?

I.. don't know.. that's what I need people to find out. :)

[Silver Rusher]

I'm pretty sure they do. Thracians probably speak Thracian. And Dacians probably speak the same language as Thrace, but I don't know.

Actually I think the language that Thrace speaks is similar to modern Hungarian, or maybe just a mixture of an Indian language and Macedonian-Greek.

[Silver Rusher]

Ah ha!

Here you go my friend: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Thracian%20language

[dclare4]

Hi there,

Just a suggestion, I find it rather annoying to hear the pieces on the stratmap (armies/diplomats/etc) reporting 'out of moves sir' it's kinda hokey in my opinion. I was thinking perhaps, 'Can go no further, sir' would sound more 'realistic' - out of moves reminds you that you're just playing a game.

best regards,
Clare

[Ranika]

The Gallic tongue is most similar to modern old Irish, most likely the Munster dialect (which is VERY different than the common form of Irish, though Gaeligh would probably do just as well). My Irish is a mixed form of the Connacht and An Mhumain (Munster) dialects, as my family is from a rather isolated region on the border of Munster and Connacht, and I was raised speaking both of them.

Iberian would be more akin to Basque, or the 'standard' Irish (Gaelic is a mash of Gallic and a Celtic Iberian dialect, as the Gaels are Celtiberian and Gallic in origin).

The Britons would speak a number of Brythonic tongues, modern Welsh would probably work fine.

[Shigawire]

A group of persons speaking Breton has volunteered, so they will cover the Celtic tongue. :)

I know it's not 'correct' to have Celtiberians speaking it, but I have to generalize.. If I were to use every single language possible, this project would take years. As a team-leader, I have to make decisions on things like production-schedule. Since we can only speculate on what language the ancient Celts spoke, I have decided that we just need a language that "sounds" right enough.. to cover all 3 celtic groups.

If I were to expend years on the project, we could distinguish between various dialects, but it would be a waste of time in my opinion, and my team and I don't have time for all that.

Latin and Greek translations are being finalized.

I'm going to write a list of the Pahlavi and Celtic commands.. then I will transmit the lists to the people in question, and they can start translating it..

[chef4fun2]

First timer I was wondering if this MOD is open to all and if so were is the location to down load the MOD at?

[Dromikaites]

3.People who can deeply research peoples such as Dacia, Numidia, Thrace, Illyria - and come up with possible language-substitutes (for example Ancient Gothic for Dacia)

The Dacians where just another Thracian tribe acording to the contemporary sources. The Thracians in RTW are actually a combination of real Thracians and...Macedonians. The starting territory of this faction corresponds to the European half of the satrapy of Lysimachos (323 BC - 281 BC), the other half being in Asia Minor (Turkey), coresponding roughly to the province of Bythinia in RTW.

For Dacia, Thracia and Illiria, the closest language would be perhaps modern Albanian. See http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Thracian%20language, as suggested by Silver Rusher. At least Albanian and Illiryan should be quite a good match.

Or, if you prefer the "Dacian was similar to Latin" theory, have them speak...Romanian, as it is the only modern Latin language that kept almost all the complicated grammar rules of Latin. Keep in mind however that most Romanian historians and linguists DO NOT adhere to this theory even though it was originally developped by a Romanian. The only advantage for your project comes from the fact it might be a lot easier to find Romanians on this forum than finding Albanians, due to the fact Romanians are 7 times more in terms of population size. Besides, from my own experience (being a Romanian) I can testify that Romanian language sounds "exotic" to people who've never heard it before (to get you an idea, it sounds like a cocktail of 80% Italian and 20% Portuguese though in writting is more like 70% Italian). Still, for historic acuracy I would recomend to use Albanian for Illiryan and Dacian/Thracian.

Trivia: Romanians are the only nation among the descendents of the Roman empire that still call themselves "Romans". In Romanian language the name of the people is spelled Romani, the same way Romans would spell their name in Latin. The only other people living today calling themselves Romani are the inhabitants of Rome, the capital of Italy.

[SMZ]

I know an Albanian quite well, if you wish I could see about contacting him for this project.