Hi everyone, I've been looking into the possibility of creating Proto-Germanic voice lines for the Germans in 0 A.D. First, a note about AI: I used ChatGPT to help me find linguistic sources and prepare the first word suggestions below. This is preliminary research, not a finished translation. I'm not a historical linguist, and the proposed forms have not been independently reviewed by one. Some of them may well be wrong. No audio has been generated yet. My idea is not to reconstruct exactly what the Cimbri spoke around 100 BC. As far as I understand, the surviving evidence simply doesn't allow this. Instead, I would like to find a reasonable linguistic approximation that fits the historical setting of 0 A.D. and sounds good in the game. We only need about 18 short voice lines. Ideally, they should be one or two syllables long, but I don't think this needs to be a strict requirement. Before experimenting with recordings or text-to-speech, I would like to get the words and their pronunciation into a reasonably good state. 1. Which language should we use? Release 28 describes the Germans as a coalition of the Cimbri, Teutones, Ambrones and other Celto-Germanic groups. Official Release 28 announcement: https://play0ad.com/new-release-0-a-d-release-28-boiorix/ The linguistic situation seems rather uncertain. For example, Gilles Quentel discusses early contacts between Continental Celtic and Germanic. There are also different interpretations of the surviving names of the Cimbri and Teutones. Bichlmeier and Blažek discuss several possible etymologies of these tribal names in their 2020 publication. I think reconstructed Proto-Germanic could be a reasonable common language for the faction, as long as we make clear that this is an approximation, not a reconstruction of an attested Cimbrian dialect. There is also the question of the First Germanic Sound Shift and its chronology. For our purposes, I would initially use a consistent reconstructed Proto-Germanic pronunciation rather than trying to reconstruct a hypothetical earlier dialect specifically for 100 BC. Of course, I would be interested in other opinions on this. 2. First suggestions for the voice lines I used the English meanings from the Audio Voice List, with the Latin translations as an example: https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/wiki/Audio_Voice_List The following is a working draft, NOT a finished or academically validated translation. The asterisk indicates a reconstructed form. Most candidates were initially found through Wiktionary's Proto-Germanic reconstruction entries, which often refer to etymological dictionaries such as Kroonen or Orel. However, I have not independently checked every individual reconstruction against these books. I also used the freely available Proto-Germanic grammar by Winfred P. Lehmann and the IE-CoR linguistic database. Some forms are more tentative than others. I have marked the particularly uncertain ones instead of pretending that we already have a complete solution. Selection and greetings Hello Proposed: *hailaz! Literally "healthy, whole". A possible greeting, but not an attested Cimbrian one. What is it? Proposed: *hwat? Simply "what?". Shortened for gameplay. My lord? Proposed: *frawjô? "Lord", without "my". The appropriate form of address should be checked. Movement and fighting I will walk Proposed: *gō "I go / walk". I will fight Proposed: *fehtō "I fight". The meaning and exact form should be checked. I will attack! Candidate: *hwētō! "I attack". This candidate needs further linguistic checking. I will march! Proposed: *farō! "I go / travel". Not specifically military marching, but perhaps sufficient for a short acknowledgement. I will retreat! Candidate: *wīkwaną "To yield / retreat". This is still an infinitive. A shorter and grammatically appropriate spoken form is needed. Battle cry Open. Perhaps a non-verbal shout would work. Alternatively, a short expression based on a reconstructed verb for fighting could be considered. I would not want to invent something and present it as an authentic Germanic battle cry. Working and gathering I will build Proposed: *timrō "I build". I will work land Candidate: *arjaną "To plough". The appropriate short spoken form still needs checking. I will gather Proposed: *samnō "I gather / collect". I will herd Proposed: *drībō "I drive". This could refer to driving livestock, but is not exactly the same as tending a herd. I will fish Proposed: *fiskō "I fish". I will repair Candidate: *bōtī "Improve / make good!" Not specifically repairing a building. The form and its use in this context need checking. I will hunt Reconstructed stem: *huntōn- The precise form and vowel length remain open. The IE-CoR database gives *huntōn- as its reference form, but its explanation also mentions *hūnton-. This needs further checking before choosing a spoken form. I will heal Candidate: *hailī "Heal!" An imperative rather than "I will heal". The exact form needs checking. Other (I will put myself into) garrison Candidate: *felhō Intended meaning: "I enter / go inside". This is one of the least secure suggestions and needs both lexical and grammatical checking. It is not an attested term for entering a garrison. A few remarks about the list The grammatical forms are not consistent yet. Some are first-person forms, others imperatives, infinitives or reconstructed stems. Personally, I don't think every response necessarily needs to be in the same grammatical form. The important thing is that it works as a short and natural-sounding acknowledgement in the game. However, we should make sure that the individual forms are actually plausible and not simply invented by an AI. Also, several suggestions deliberately use a broader meaning than the English original. For example, "I travel" instead of "I march" or "I drive" instead of "I herd". These would be gameplay decisions, not exact translations. I would be happy to replace any of these suggestions if there are better alternatives. 3. Sources Here are the main sources I found. Historical background Gilles Quentel (2012) Early Linguistic Contacts between Continental Celtic and Germanic: Lexical Aspects. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331482184_Early_Linguistic_Contacts_between_Continental_Celtic_and_Germanic Harald Bichlmeier and Václav Blažek (2020) "Cimbri" et "Teutoni". https://journals.lki.lt/actalinguisticalithuanica/article/view/2041 Václav Blažek On chronology of the First Germanic Sound Shift (Lex Rask – Grimm). https://doi.org/10.14746/linpo.2022.64.1.1 These publications discuss historical names, etymologies and linguistic developments. They do not provide translations of the 18 voice lines. Grammar and pronunciation Winfred P. Lehmann A Grammar of Proto-Germanic. University of Texas at Austin. https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/books/pgmc/index The chapters on phonology and inflection are particularly relevant. R. D. Fulk (2018) A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages. https://www.benjamins.com/catalog/sigl.3 The complete e-book is available as Open Access. I have not worked through the whole book, though. Vocabulary IE-CoR – Indo-European Cognate Relationships https://iecor.clld.org/ One useful example is the entry for "hunt": https://iecor.clld.org/cognatesets/1349 It references Kroonen's Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic and also illustrates why some details need further checking. I also used Wiktionary's Proto-Germanic reconstruction entries as starting points for individual words: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Proto-Germanic_reconstructed_terms Some examples: *fehtaną – to fight: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/fehtaną *timrōną – to build: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/timrōną *fiskōną – to fish: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/fiskōną *hwētaną – to attack: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/hwētaną These entries are helpful for finding possible forms and references, but they are not a substitute for checking the original academic literature. 4. What is still missing? Before recording anything, I think we would need: - Someone with knowledge of historical Germanic linguistics to review the suggested words and their grammatical forms. - A consistent pronunciation guide, preferably using IPA. - Better solutions for the uncertain expressions, especially retreat, repair, healing and garrison. - A decision on the battle cry. - A way to produce natural-sounding recordings that can be freely distributed with 0 A.D. I know there has already been some discussion about AI-generated content in the project. I'm not attached to using AI for the final audio. Human recordings would be fine as well. For now, AI has mainly helped me find sources and put together this preliminary list. I would be interested to know whether AI-assisted linguistic research is acceptable for this kind of contribution, and what the requirements for the final recordings would be. 5. Questions Does this general approach make sense for the Germans in 0 A.D.? Would reconstructed Proto-Germanic be a suitable choice, or should we consider another linguistic approach? And is anyone here familiar with historical Germanic linguistics who could help check the proposed words and pronunciation? I would be happy to continue working on this if there is interest. Thanks!

Oh sorry, I was pretty sure I disabled all mods, but one was still there. I disabled it and didn't get the error. Sorry 

Exciting news! I've finely brought this project to a testable and reviewable state. A big change since my last posts is that I've managed to make the performance impact minimal. The inertia system pay for itself and is kinda having 0 cost including the collision detection logic and other logic related to it. Having a lot of units that have the "charge" effect fighting is also demonstrated to be reasonable on performance with only a few percent increase in simulation cost for a given battle. This project have a lot of implications, and anyone willing to be testing the PR and giving feedback would help tremendously to make it move forward. If you are able to, please do.  PR link

Sounds like the gui/session/session.xml file is out-of-date. Are sure you have nothing modified and no mods loaded?

Good to know! And a big thanks to @Vantha