About the language

[NosPortatArma]

Hi, brilliant mod you got there EB team, really love it. I have some question about the naming of characters and units and such though. Hope I can get my point across, bear with me.

Since you cannot name units with letters from the alphabeths the different cultures (you can't use greek or phoenician letters for example) would have used for many reasons I assume that you are transcribing it right? Then I wonder: How did you draw the conclusion that that 'k' sound should be spelled with a 'q' and an others with a 'k'? a minor question but intressting one.

Also: Why do you use only V's in latin names? I'm fully aware that the romans used V in that way but wouldn't it be a more correct and/or better transcribtion if you put U's where the V's would be pronounced as such? And I think to use 'romans spelled it that way' is a rather bad point considering that they didn't use the same alphabeth (or atleast, letters are not pronounced the same way. tlaking about english) and that the carthaginians wouldn't have spelled carthage 'qart-hadast'.

Sort of understand what I'm saying yes? Will you change this in EB2? and of course, I'm not here to say that you are wrong, rather asking you the reasons for it. I'd like to know, really

[NosPortatArma]

Forgot some small things: the 'romans spelled it that way' also ignores that they only used capital letters. GAIVS looks better than Gaivs. but perhaps you are factoring in 'feel' too? want to give the arabian factions spellings with q's because it looks arabic and romans with V's because it looks more classical latin.

[yuezhi]

try carving the letters U and J (as in IUPITER) in on a slab of rock. I think that's how roman post services worked.

remember,better writing materiel like paper was not widespread until the crusades.

source: Asterix the Gaul

[NosPortatArma]

try carving the letters U and J (as in IUPITER) in on a slab of rock. I think that's how roman post services worked.

remember,better writing materiel like paper was not widespread until the crusades.

source: Asterix the Gaul

or better yet, try carving the letters S and O

[BroskiDerpman]

IVPITER. There!

[Stath's]

Well, i am opposed to the use of Capital letters.

GAIVS looks better than Gaivs

I don't share this opinion.

Regarding all the others, i don't have an opinion

[NosPortatArma]

Well, i am opposed to the use of Capital letters.



I don't share this opinion.

Regarding all the others, i don't have an opinion

spelling it with v and using capital letters would be 'fully' roman, spelling it with u and with lower case letters is fully english, but spelling it with v and with lower case is just an odd abomination Get me point?

[Stath's]

^ Ok, then, Gaius works perfectly for me

[athanaric]

Since you cannot name units with letters from the alphabeths the different cultures (you can't use greek or phoenician letters for example) would have used for many reasons I assume that you are transcribing it right? Then I wonder: How did you draw the conclusion that that 'k' sound should be spelled with a 'q' and an others with a 'k'? a minor question but intressting one.

Because k and q are used for different sounds, not for the same one. At least in modern Arabic and a couple of other languages, some of them not even related to Arabic, k is a normal k, while q is pronounced much deeper down the throat. It's a bit difficult to explain but even more difficult to pronounce. Some modern languages (English, German, modern Turkish etc.) re-interpret the q as a k. Thus "koran" instead of "qur'an" and so on.

Forgot some small things: the 'romans spelled it that way' also ignores that they only used capital letters. GAIVS looks better than Gaivs.

CAIVS looks even better. But capital letters are a bit tiring for the eyes after a while, so in the interest of legibility and keeping a somewhat uniform look, it#s perfectly reasonable to use normal modern letters.

[Appius Pulcher]

I actually prefer they way it is in EB1 with lower a lower case v instead of a u. I know it's not completely consistent, but it helps give the faction a roman feel, and I also agree that using only upper case letters would be annoying to look at after a while. A good compromise I think.

[Dr. Croccer]

The Romans used a 'v', not a 'u'. Simply because we adapted old Latin to make sense to modern ortography doesn't mean that a mod based upon historical accuracy should do the same. It's different with some other languages, like the Semitic ones. Those were written in alphabets without vowels, but the pronunciation can often be guessed. There's no need to write 'Qart-Hadašt' as 'Qrt-Hdšt', that isn't historical accuracy (as we're still transcribing, rather than using the actual Phoenician alphabet) and is just needlessly confusing unless there are no other alternatives.

The capital letters thing is silly though, more annoying than immersive.