language translations

[oshron]

hey, all

as you may or may not be aware, ive been doing some work into written designs for a mythology mod for 0ad. the mod will have most of the original game's features, including all of the units having names in their native languages (or in some cases a rough equivalent).

anyway, ive been doing alot of the naming already but id like to know where i can find some good translators or dictionaries for each of the languages that will be presented. this can also help other people who are interested in making mods with native languages

anyway, im looking for translators or dictionaries for these languages. the catch is that they have to be romanized translations/dictionaries so that you dont need to KNOW the darn language in order to read it (accents and whatnot to letters dont matter to me as long as teh words are legible to people who can read english (thats the only player language im focusing on right now):

Ancient Egyptian (if necessary, i could make due with the modern language(s) of egypt. suggestions here?)

Welsh (this one is more or less covered, but it would still be helpful)

Scottish/Irish (for a few celtic units)

Greek

ancient Mesopotamian languages (again, a modern language from the region will be a last resort)

Old Norse/Icelandic

Chinese (which dialect was used during the Qin and Han dynasties, if theres a modern equivalent at all?)

Hindi

Hittite languages (whatever those may be)

Latin (for both the romans and the christians; i plan for this to be the only overlapping language)

Mandinkan

Punic (for the semitic faction--hebrews, canaanites, AND phoenicians/carthaginians)

Hebrew (for some of the semitic units and hebrew-specific stuff)

Persian

Russian (or an older slavic language if applicable)

Polynesian (or rough equivalent; if i can get some from different parts of polynesia--ie hawaii and new zealand--so much the better)

[Jeru]

I speak Hebrew and have done all the Punic language work for 0 A.D.

If you just have a few dozen terms you want translated I can help out

Edited July 2, 2010 by Jeru

[oshron]

thanks, jeru. i just need to figure out what all the semitic units will be

EDIT: okay, i think ive got just about all of them. i heard once that moses ended up basing the hebrew army on the egyptian army, so i looked back at what i had for them and gave them most of the same unit classes, with some additions and subtractions, of course. here's the ones i need translation for, then, preferrably into punic because the phoenicians and carthaginians had the most influence of the represented groups in the faction:

"sickle-sword" or "sickle-swordsman", or just "swordsman"

"archer" or "bowman" or "composite bow"

"slinger", or possibly "israelite", "hebrew", or "jew" (this one should be in hebrew; its in reference to david even though slingers were common in the ancient world)

"chariot"

"woman" (or a similar word if a direct translation of "woman" cant be found, like "lady" or "female")

"merchant" (or a similar word)

"healer" (or similar)

"pillar of fire" or "pillar of smoke" or maybe just "smoke" (for the Standard Bearer unit from an expansion; this is in reference to the possible historical inspiration of the cloud and pillar of fire that followed the israelites during the exodus)

"siege tower"

"merchant ship" (or similar)

"barge" (this one should be in hebrew; this is the light warship based on egypt's riverboats)

"warship" (this one in punic; this'll be a carthaginian ship)

"fishing ship" or "fisher" or "fisherman" (for the Fishing Ship in an expansion)

"war elephant" or just "elephant" ("carthaginian" super unit)

"iron chariot" ("canaanite" super unit; this one should probably be in hebrew because, as far as i know, only the hebrews encountered the canaanite iron chariots, but a punic translation would be good, too)

i think ill base the buildings on the ones currently going for 0ad's carthaginians just for simplicity.

sorry that theres so much

Edited July 2, 2010 by oshron

[Jeru]

I translated everything into Hebrew as it is spoken today so you could have some vowels. As a rule, Semitic languages are written with consonants only, so only the consonants survive from Punic and Phoenician inscriptions and so what vowels were between them are anyone's (educated) guess.

The variation isn't very large anyway. Hebrew remained frozen for about two millenia, so I would like to think if someone spoke these words very slowly and in a thick Sephardic or Arabic accent to an ancient Carthaginian, the latter would understand them without much of a problem.

"swordsman": Ish Kherev

"archer": Qashat

"slinger": Qalla'

"israelite": Ben Yisrael

"hebrew": 'Ivri

"jew": Yehudi

(These three words essentially refer to the same people but were used in different periods in history and different parts of the scriptures).

"chariot": Merkavah

"woman": Ishah

"merchant": Sokher

"healer": Rofeh

"pillar of fire": 'Amud Esh

"siege tower": Migdal Matzor (Literal translation into modern Hebrew, I have no idea what the ancient word would have been)

"merchant ship": Sfinat Sokher

"barge": Dovrah (Literal translation into modern Hebrew, I have no idea what the ancient word would have been)

"warship": Sfinat Qrav

"fishing ship": Sfinat Dayig

"fisher" or "fisherman": Dayag

"elephant": Pil

"iron chariot": Merkavat Barzel

[oshron]

thanks jeru

EDIT: d'oh, there was one that i forgot to list earlier! ill also need a translation for "spearman"

EDIT 2: actually, yknow what would be a better translation? "phalangite", because i KNOW that the hebrews and other groups used a phalanx-like formation

Edited July 2, 2010 by oshron

[Jeru]

I have no idea how they would have called a phalanx or a phalangite but a spearman is Ish Romakh.

[oshron]

thanks anyway. i think ill make the unit a phalangite anyway

[Szczupakabra]

You asked someone, who speaks Russian, I don't, but You told, that other Slavic language can be appropriate. I speak Polish and can make some translations into old Polish. I know a Belorussian speaker, but she speaks only modern Belorussian.

By the way, I can translate the whole game into Polish if you wish.

Edited July 16, 2010 by Szczupakabra

[ben00]

Latin translations:

"swordsman" - gladiator (gladius is sword)

"archer" - sagittarius

"slinger" - fundator or funditor

"chariot" - essedum (for war chariots)

"woman" - femina

"merchant" - mercator

"healer" - medicus (i think)

"pillar of fire" - smoke is fumus, fire is ignis, pillar is columna (in a building), don't know if you can say columna ignis or columna fumi...

"siege tower" - tower is turris, siege is obsidio, don't know the exact form... Maybe you can just say turris

"merchant ship" - navis oneraria

"fisherman" - piscator

"elephant" - elephantus

[Quassy]

swordsman: "gladiator" was an entertainer, not a "real" solider. You could use "pedes" (foot, foot soldier) or "miles legionarius" (legionary soldiert), or if you want to be more specific "hastati" (legionary soldiers with sword and shield)

healer: "medicus" (~ doctor) or "archiatros" (~ first doctor, chief healer)

[Alpha of the Eagles]

swordsman: [...] or if you want to be more specific "hastati" (legionary soldiers with sword and shield)

Hastati wasn't a general term for swordsmen, it was the name of those soldiers who were among the poorer society classes and fought in the first lines of the Roman army (they were armed similarly, but weaker than the Principes).

Gladiator would be more correct, even though I think it only applies to those who fought in the arena. Then again, I think there will be no "swordsmen" for the Romans, they will be properly named Hastati, Principes, Triarii, etc.

Also, do not forget the famous Velites, or the javelinmen who harassed the enemy lines before the clash.

[Ephestion]

Jeru how do you know what the Punic language was?

[Jeru]

Let me guess: It was actually Greek?

[SirWolf]

Def. like the idea of mythology, maybe because i still play AoM

I can take care of the Slavic languages with Szczupakabra, I'm from Poland and Poland is pretty much at the centre of slavic-speaking countries. In our education system we learn literature and mythology often using the original archaic terms of the language, as our language evolved very quickly.

We describe some of other slavic languages as being "archaic" becuse of how things are named, a single term usually is used to define a multitude of things and u distinguish the meaning depending on the circumstances..

But simple phrases should be rather easy

[Ephestion]

I want to know because this is the first time i heard of them speaking Hebrew. And yes, Carthage was a Greek colony at some point, there are numerous artifacts and histories saying so. But what i am interested in is how you derived that they spoke Hebrew.

[Jeru]

I never claimed they spoke Hebrew. They spoke Punic (that is what the Romans called it anyway). Punic is a Semitic language from the same northwestern branch as Hebrew, and it comes from their Phoenician ancestors. More information on this topic is available on Wikipedia and I also found this blog post which is interesting for Hebrew speakers - Once the writing system is switched it is actually very easy for a native Hebrew speaker to read and mostly understand.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Jeru