Arabic

[mac89]

As far as I know we have ONE translator for this language, Beiss I suggest you page him and tell hims to get his ass over here and start translating!

http://rapidshare.com/files/3744279/...rabic.txt.html

[Beiss]

Good idea, mac.

I've updated the website some more. There's an MSD page now.

[hogofwar]

hi
I got the file, and will start translating. but one question (out of curiosity only) .... is there is any deadline for this to get finished ???

[Beiss]

Nope.

As quickly as possible is a always a good deadline, but hey, I'm not counting on getting done anytime soon... What kind of arabic are you going to translate it into?

Also, the file you got seems to be a little incomplete (some of the samples seem to be missing in the list...) I'll post here again once I've corrected it. And when it's checked, it's on the website - don't use the old link that mac posted. I've edited a few things.

As for translation - you don't have to translate things directly, especially if they sound weird to you. As long as the translation makes sense to a person who speaks arabic

[Beiss]

Ok - I'm not entirely sure about how to do this. I think I rid the msd from most spelling errors, misconceptions, and missing text.

How are you going to translate it? Can you send us a txt file back, or do you need msword or something? The best would be if you could enter the translations on the emptry row below each sample in the list, but since arabic is written backwards and everything...

Anyway, the new file is on the website. Click "MSD's" on the menu, and it should be listed on the bottom of that page.

[hogofwar]

I am going to translate it into modern standard Arabic then to"Literary" or classical Arabic.
If I send back, I doubt that the Arabic font would be recognized by your system :/ ...

[Beiss]

Yeah... but there are lots of arab letters in the time new roman font.

Like: ﻘﻚﻻﺷﷲﯞﭛ

Yeah. I hope I didn't just say something offensive, I just picked out letters randomly. Anyway, the important thing is the person who is going to record the new samples can read your translation

[mac89]

Nope.

As quickly as possible is a always a good deadline, but hey, I'm not counting on getting done anytime soon... What kind of arabic are you going to translate it into?

Also, the file you got seems to be a little incomplete (some of the samples seem to be missing in the list...) I'll post here again once I've corrected it. And when it's checked, it's on the website - don't use the old link that mac posted. I've edited a few things.

As for translation - you don't have to translate things directly, especially if they sound weird to you. As long as the translation makes sense to a person who speaks arabic

I might have missed a couple, but I noticed that some just werent there like: Arabic_Player_Leader_Killed_1 there was no 2?!!!! :hmmm:

[Beiss]

Yeah. I noticed. Odd. :hmmm:

[Osiris1975]

Hi, I'm Egyptian, I'll help you guys if I can. I speak arabic, but its the local modern version. I know how formal arabic should sound, however, because its the same form of arabic that is used in the Qu'ran. Formal arabic is the same throughout the arab world, and is typically the kind of arabic used in modern times for important things, such as news casts, board meetings, political speeches, etc... Therefore you can use the same exact arabic for both Egypt and the Moors. The Turks don't speak arabic, maybe they did back then, but I don't think so.
So anyway, I'd be happy to help you guys out. The pronounciation of arabic words in the release version of Medieval 2 is terrible, I have to say, quite dissappointing. And the accents are off for when they are speaking english.
The thing about arabic is pronounciation is flowing...if you listen to some of the arabic words in the game, you will notice some sharpness in the syllables. For example when you click on an arabic unit and they say na-em. The pronounciation makes me cringe every time I hear it. Its obvious a non-native speaker was used, because there should be no sharpness between the na and the em. Also, this word uses a letter not present in the english language, and the voice actor they used in the game is clearly not capable of pronouncing it.

Additionally, even the word sultan, is pronounced as an english speaker would say it, not a native arabic. Sultan as an arabic speaker should be pronounced as sultaan, with emphasis on the second syllable.

Anyway, let me know how I can help you guys, my email address is osiris1975@comcast.net.

[Osiris1975]

Oh ya, also, so you know these two letters that you used in the above post:
ﯞﭛ
They dont exist in traditional arabic, and definitely would not have existed in medieval times. One represents the P sound that does not exist in arabic, and im not sure what the other one is.

[Beiss]

Well, as long as you know what letters to use and not, I'm fine. I was just showing that the times new roman font had arabic letters in it.

As for the Arabic word for "yes", as you said above, could you explain by "sharpness"? I understand that hearing the Arabic speech in the game makes you cringe - that's why we're making this mod, you know However, I thought that the word was supposed to be pronounced with a sharp throat-stop sound... even though the voice actor probably did it wrong. Anyway, glad to have another Arabic speaker on board.

[Osiris1975]

Hi,

Yes, thanks for doing this mod, so I won't have to cringe. Its hard to describe how the word na'am should sound. What you can try to do is make the sound 'aaaah' like you are saying 'aaah' at the dentist. You will notice that the sound is coming from the back of your mouth, just before your throat. Now, try dropping the the source of the sound a few inches lower so its coming from somewhere closer to your adams apple. The sound will be come alittle more gutteral, but not very much so. Then end the sound with 'em' just like any english word that ends with the letter m. Now proceed this whole thing with 'na' and you will get an idea of how the word should sound. The reason that the voice actor in the game has a very pronounced throat stop is because english speaking people have a hard time transition from two vowel-like sounds, especially if they are similar. If the word is pronounced correctly, there will not really be a throat stop.
If you like, I can record myself saying it to a wav or mp3 file and email it to you.

[Beibars]

Salam, i'm from Lebanon, i've a particular interest in seeing this mod coming throught, partly because my version i German, and i can't understand it, i changed the Localised pak file in the Language sub-folder, to change the written Language into English, but i can't do anything for sound.

Second, because i think each culture and civilisation should have it's own.

So i'll help in any way i can, i'll start translating the text into Formal Arabic, wich is very hard, but i can't record any sounds, so i guess Osiris would have to do it, good luck with that, and i hope you can record it without any local accent, since we're doing Formal Arabic, and at those time, Arabs nearly spoke all the same way.

[hogofwar]

to Osiris1975 and Beibars
ookaay, I'm glad you want to help, i translated part of the battle event file, if you want I can send it to you to tell what you think so we can help each other .

[Beiss]

Er. Why do you have German version if you don't speak German? :hmmm:

Anyway, good luck translating!

[Osiris1975]

send away, hogofwar, my email addy is posted in one of my previous post.

[Beibars]

to Osiris1975 and Beibars
ookaay, I'm glad you want to help, i translated part of the battle event file, if you want I can send it to you to tell what you think so we can help each other .

Send it to Ebon-Hawk@Hotmail.com .

Er. Why do you have German version if you don't speak German?

I live in Lebanon, it's not that hard to figure it out.

[Beiss]

LOL How mean to upload an iso if you have the German version... hahah

[Beauchamp]

I speak a little arabic too, albeit a dialect from Shams (Syria). Just PM me if help is needed, but I think that Osiris has got it since he's actually from al-Misr and im from the U.S

@Osiris:

I think these two letters are either Kurdish or early turkish, in Farsi their is the Pa (ba with three dots) and two others but I have never seen these before...