You sure? Sandy Petersen said that they hired an actual consultant for a real language.
He also said said consultant may have tricked them:
Besides, Nahuatl isn’t a dead language. People who actually know the language still exist. Even if Sandy didn’t admit the in-game language is wrong, we’d still have ways to know.
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If they can’t find Manchu speakers, they could hire Xibe language speakers as an alternative.
Xibe language is a Tungusic language like Manchu, and has more remaining speakers than Manchu.
The Xibe people consider themselves to be descendants of ancient Hsien-pei people and different from the Manchu, but the modern Xibe customs and their language are very similar to those of the Manchu.
It also preserves the old features of Manchu phonology well, and in fact it is thought that only differed from Manchu as a dialect.
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I’m a little surprised the Jurchens aren’t voiced with the Manchu language as well. I’m more understanding about Khitans not having their own voice because the Khitan language is genuinely “dead”. The Daurs may be genetic successors of the Khitan but their language is actually heavily influenced by Manchu, and is not very close to the original Khitan language, which is believed to have sounded more like a Mongolian dialect. So in my opinion having the Khitans voiced by Mongolians is actually weirdly on point.
Meanwhile, the Manchu language, albeit no longer widely used (hardly spoken by anyone at all in China), is still somewhat alive given it’s only been a little over 100 years since the fall of the Qing dynasty. Hence, you can still find a few experts who are able to speak them and it’s a bit of a shame the Jurchens are voiced by them.
But then again, as a Chinese I found this to be a little funny and again, weirdly on point. It felt like a funny reference to the fact that sometime around mid-Qing dynasty the Jurchen (or Manchu) ruling class are starting to give up the Manchu language themselves and by late Qing dynasty the majority of Manchus no longer speaks proper Manchu, with everyone turning to speak mandarin instead. It’s said even some Qing emperors themselves complained about how it was a bother and unnecessity to study the Manchu language.
Especially considering they could have just used this if they were short on time:
There’s a surprising amount of it that’s been transcribed. Enough in fact that I found 90% of the voice-lines needed for them for a mod I was making.
Also there are dead languages in the game right now being spoken. So it’s not really a barrier.
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Very good point actually. I didn’t think of that before. I guess they could’ve put in a little more research then.
It took me about an hour in my spare time to find it.
Jurchen and Khitans not speaking their own languages, along with those civs not having campaigns, are some big issues I have with the DLC. As much as I don’t care for the 3k stuff, it would be a much easier pill to swallow if the Medieval stuff wasn’t half-baked…though if they insisted on doing a 3k DLC i’d still rather they had done Jurchens and Khitans as a completely seperate DLC so that I could’ve just not bought the 3k stuff and still gotten a complete Jurchens and Khitans. As it stands…i’ll probably buy the DLC, but not until its on a pretty significant sale, and after i’ve withheld my purchase long enough that it doesn’t validate the DLC in Microsoft’s eyes anymore.
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I hope if the upcoming Jin dinasty civilization for AoE4 have manchu voice-line they will replace the voice-line for the Jurchen in AoE2 instead of the inaccurate chinese voice-line.
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If they speak Manchu I am going to laugh so hard.
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It would be a pleasant surprise, but I very much doubt it because it requires thousands of dialogue to be recorded.
You would only need about 45 voice lines per aoe2 civi.soldier voices are already there in aoe3 just both villagers king and monk remain.
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Unlikely, Manchu is practically extinct, so I see them ending up reusing Chinese voices…
Irrelevant. Cuman, Chagatai & Muisca are all fully extinct, and yet are in the game.
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Good point…then it could be…
Meanwhile, Nahuatl (Aztec) is extant and isn’t in the game.
I still bank on my theory that they had a Maya speaker hired for the Mayans, and they asked them if they could speak Nahuatl and they lied for an extra pay-cheque.
Funnily they redid the Inca monk voice lines recently. But none of the ones that sorely need it.
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That seems like a plausible theory. Sandy Petersen insists that they got a Nahuatl speaker. Though, his word isn’t so good nowadays, so I dunno…
Nope, they didn’t. They’re reused from AoE3.
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Which makes me wonder why they don’t reuse more. Like Manchu from AoE3 or Greek from AOE4 or AOM.
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Or he THINKS he did. He does not speak Nahuatl, so he wouldn’t be able to check 
Oh so THAT they can yoink from AoE3, but no the Manchu lines?
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