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I noticed that the units named in Yu Jing have accents in their names. How do the players pronounce it the right way? Unless you've had formal training in Chinese, doesn't it get confusing/difficult?

Although I must say the naming does show that the creators did do research instead of just plastering any rough translation on the models. Kudos to you guys.

For a lot of them I think I actually prefer to have a 'translated' name, then the 'real' name afterwards, but they aren't too bad.

 milkboy wrote:
I noticed that the units named in Yu Jing have accents in their names. How do the players pronounce it the right way? Unless you've had formal training in Chinese, doesn't it get confusing/difficult?

Although I must say the naming does show that the creators did do research instead of just plastering any rough translation on the models. Kudos to you guys.

I just assume that any time I try and pronounce something in another language I'm going to be like Brad Pitt in "Inglrious Basterds".

"Bon-Jern-Oh."

I know Yu Jing is said Jew-Ching. So that part I got. Everything else is a crapshoot.

And least I can say NINJA.

They kind of caught my eye the first time I glanced through. I just find that it is a bit hard to identify some of the armies. The figures for Nomads and Aleph look quite similar to me. But it's probably cos I'm just exploring and never played it or even know the rules.

If the search function on the official forum were working right now, I'd find the two or three explanatory threads concerning the names.

Chinese linguistics arguments are more perilous than asian land wars.

This is compounded by the fact that it's a Spanish game and spanish pronunciation got mangled by the English translations as well.

The Ojotnik weapon, for example. In its writeup, it is Russian, and gives the pronunciation as a "hard H, almost like a k - o-KH-ot-nik" (my phrasing). This sound is often made in Spanish with a J. In many other languages, the J is a 'y' sound. So the pronunciation of it varies from Ojotnik, to oyotnik to okhotnik.

Now add that to Chinese and whichever translation system being used. Pinyin or otherwise.

Some of the Haqqislam units are particularly odd to pronounce too.

Odalisque? Odd-a-luk.
Bashi Bazouk? Bo-Sh-U Bo - Zouk.
Kum (this one always gets a laugh when said wrong) - Qum/Koom.

At the end of the day, however it is pronounced is perfect for the melting pot that is the future in INFINITY!

Also - what IS the most common language spoken in the future of INFINITY?

Most common would probably differ by faction, and even sub faction (Chinese and Japanese in Yu Jing, for example). IIRC, it's only about 200 years in the future right? I can't see languages being squashed in 200 years. Though I guess they'd have made a universal translator by then so it wouldn't be a problem.

Both of those languages are far older than even English (which has changed pronunciation several times since they codified it and gave it standardised spelling and so-on.

There is no lingua-franca for infinity. No basic, no common that I see (apart from the current standard of English if you want to be understood by someone else who doesn't speak your language). Esperanto would be nice - but I don't see it happening.

I guess it remains English then?

Even haqqislam needs to have that.... I like to call it the phlegm sound.

As for the OP, Chinese is very complex. Even if it spelled the same in pinyin, it could have a lot of different pronunciations. Some of them (like the English "deer" and "dear") will have different meanings but same pronunciation. Take this Chinese poem as an example:

Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den

In a stone den was a poet called Shi Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.

In pinyin, it will be written as:

Shī Shì shí shī shǐ

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.


My solution: get a Mandarin-speaking Chinese friend and just ask them. Hahahahaha.

Glad I play Ariadna. Much easier...

*reads names...*

Never mind.

 TheKbob wrote:
Glad I play Ariadna. Much easier...

*reads names...*

Never mind.

Refine further, go Caledonian

Greys. SAS. Scots. Easy Peasy.

 motyak wrote:

 TheKbob wrote:
Glad I play Ariadna. Much easier...

*reads names...*

Never mind.

Refine further, go Caledonian

Greys. SAS. Scots. Easy Peasy.

Until you get to Uxia (pronounced oo-SHEE-a).