Translation Team: Please stop doing this...

[OneWordASCIILettersOnly]

Now I'm curious though... how often does the word "portend" show up in modern media? I would bet you'd be hard pressed to find it in any of today's newspapers and newscasts. :/

I just checked InfoTrac's archives of newspapers and magazines, and the answer is _a lot_.

[Kiroh]

Honestly, given his personality, I get the impression that Urianger's archaic dialogue is a deliberate affectation he adopted while studying his dusty tomes. He's totally an ancient lore nerd; I'll bet dollars to donuts that, back in his high-school/college days (or Eorzean equivalent), he started talking the way he does to get geek cred among his scholarly peers. I very much doubt he was raised to speak the way he does.

As a bonus, he's clearly an introvert, and the complicated dialogue likely intimidates riff-raff that would otherwise pester him. Not that that stops individuals like Moenbryda...

Not entirely true, as someone who read quite a lot of older books as a kid I can tell you that it often does bleed into your everyday vocabulary without even realizing it. For instance, when I use quite people tell me I sound like an old man, it's not intentional and I don't particularly notice unless pointed out by someone else.

[kyuven]

As well as being fluent in beast-tribe speak? >.>; Nah, the "local accent" responses we give are just there for amusement. (Example: "I go whither the wild rose blooms." Did we come from the same uni as Urianger? O.o Wait... then we would've said goeth and bloometh... =_= )

Beast Tribe's a bit...different. We would adopt their speech pattern to be diplomatic, which is what we're doing in all of the beast tribe quests.
However, the ROG/NIN one isn't really entertaining. It's just impenetrable and is the key moment when I didn't feel like it was something *my character* would actually say. Our words should be broad strokes and closer to the English the actual players speak. "I believe there is mummery taking place." (paraphrased) should instead be "Something isn't right about this." Cuz if you're using words the average player wouldn't use, you set up a disconnect between the player and their character.

[Kiroh]

If you want an idea of how bad in could have been had the translation team decided to go much further back, here's a perfect example :

[Fornix]

Now I'm curious though... how often does the word "portend" show up in modern media? I would bet you'd be hard pressed to find it in any of today's newspapers and newscasts. :/o

Not quite, last use in a quick google news search for example reveals these articles:

yesterday: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.2097087
yesterday: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Militar...om-budget-cuts
20 hours ago: http://www.economist.com/news/financ...ebt-crisis-not
17 hours ago: http://www.fa-mag.com/news/hedge-fun...ays-20650.html


Portend is a word which most certainly still is part of modern day vocabulary.

[Wadoka]

Ye'd hate t'have me in yer FC, then, f'r I speak like that all th' time.

What's funny is, the Rogue cant, seems t'be an odd mix o' Pirate... and Paisano. Jarring and fun!

[ZanzhizExaverion]

Fix'd for OP's convenience.

[BigPapaSmurf]

I do think SE is a bit too heavy-handed with the olde english.

I appreciate their use of it and their unique variation of it, however...

To me, it's less about having trouble understanding it & more about how silly its overuse feels.

They say "mayhaps" and "thee" about a 100x too much.

I think they can relax the language just a tad & perhaps eradicate the word "mayhaps".

[kyuven]

If you want an idea of how bad in could have been had the translation team decided to go much further back, here's a perfect example :

What's interesting though is that the modernizing of the bible's translation didn't really kick in until the 20th century. For example, one made in the very late 19th century makes ample use of the "-eth" suffix on words, something that had fallen out of use by that time. As an example, take a look at Lincoln's Gettysburg address or hell, Emmet's "Speech from the Dock." Honestly, they really should be deriving the dialogue for this game from post-Shakespearean plays and speeches, especially given how many amenities we have that didn't exist during the time the language being spoken was used.
Right now it's the equivalent of someone talking like a 1920s gangster on a cellphone.

[Kiroh]

What's interesting though is that the modernizing of the bible's translation didn't really kick in until the 20th century. For example, one made in the very late 19th century makes ample use of the "-eth" suffix on words, something that had fallen out of use by that time. As an example, take a look at Lincoln's Gettysburg address or hell, Emmet's "Speech from the Dock." Honestly, they really should be deriving the dialogue for this game from post-Shakespearean plays and speeches, especially given how many amenities we have that didn't exist during the time the language being spoken was used.
Right now it's the equivalent of someone talking like a 1920s gangster on a cellphone.

That's really not at all what it is. These dialects were specifically chosen, especially for Ramuh and Midgardsormr and the like in particular, because these beings are thousands of years old if not older. Speaking in modern parlance for them would be far more out of character for ancient beings than speaking with a dialect you or the OP doesn't like.