Voice actors

[Sequoia]

Obviously it's easy for a Russian company to get Russian voice actors that we'll hear even in the English version of the game, but I'm curious who did the voice acting for the Afghanis, both Red and Blue side. I believe there's several languages spoken in Afghanistan but at least one must be prevalent. Any one reading this forum that can answer?

[souldierz]

I don't have an official answer, but if i were a betting man, I would bet on Pashtun, it's said they are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and are very influential in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Many moved into Pakistan as refugees during the Soviet Afghan war.

I would not expect there to be much dialect unless someone put out a voice mod like the famous one we have for CMSF right now.I would only expect maybe 5 or 6 words to be used to describe certain things like moving around or seeing a tank, but it should be interesting to see what comes out of it.

[Schrullenhaft]

I would guess that Pashto would be the dominant language that Snowball will probably use (the Southern variant being one of the 'official languages'). Eastern Farsi (also called Dari) would be the next most common. There's also Hazaragi, Uzbek, Turkmen, Aimaq among the other more common languages spoken (a total of 48 languages are spoken, some by small groups).

I doubt that Snowball will go through the hassle and cost of recording several languages for the Afghani forces since a majority of the players of the game will probably be unable to discern the differences. They may have several voice actors to record Afghani voices and it is possible that you may get some Uzbek, Dari and Pashto mixed together (rather than distinct, by region, groupings). These are just guesses on my part; I don't have any specific information on the development of the game.

[Sixxkiller]

Pashto and Dari are the two most common, with Dari maybe being a bit more used depending on the circumstances. Most Afghans are good in 2 or more. I speak more Pashto personally as Dari is frick fracken hard .

[dima]

Pashto and Dari are the two most common, with Dari maybe being a bit more used depending on the circumstances. Most Afghans are good in 2 or more. I speak more Pashto personally as Dari is frick fracken hard .

You speak Pashto?

[Sergei]

Obviously it's easy for a Russian company to get Russian voice actors that we'll hear even in the English version of the game, but I'm curious who did the voice acting for the Afghanis, both Red and Blue side. I believe there's several languages spoken in Afghanistan but at least one must be prevalent. Any one reading this forum that can answer?

You might also be asking what language the Soviets speak, given how the Red Army was even more multi-ethnic! But of course Russian (and related languages like Ukrainian) had a dominant position.

[dima]

You might also be asking what language the Soviets speak, given how the Red Army was even more multi-ethnic! But of course Russian (and related languages like Ukrainian) had a dominant position.

Actually quite a large proportion of solders serving in Afghanistan during that was were from Central Asian parts of USSR and their primary language was not russian. Still they spoke and understood russian very well. Overall russian army during the whole of USSR had only russian language spoken, certainly when it came to official communications with CO's. Even in Ukraine, Latvia or Uzbekistan.

[LongLeftFlank]

So we can expect to see some "nonwhite" faces among the Red Army troops?

[Sixxkiller]

You speak Pashto?

Ya I have a working knowledge of it as 4 tours in Afghanistan made it impossible to not pick up. Sorry never replied Dima, missed this one

[Sequoia]

So now that the games out any one know what the Afghans are speaking?

[Clavicula_Nox]

I haven't spent any time listening to them, but I would expect Pashto. Most of the 1980 scenarios take place in Pashtunistan and most of the US-Saudi-Pakistanian funded mujahideen groups were Pashtun, to include Hekmetyar.

Could always be Dari, though.

[SlapHappy]

Not trying to derail the thread, but did you know that Andy Griffith was a voice actor for Close Combat: A Bridge too Far? He supplied one of the British (yes, British) voices.

Sixxkiller: That's still very impressive considering you have no formal education in that language.

[Sequoia]

I know it's a minor point, but part of my reason for posting is I'm wondering if Snowball actually went to the trouble of hiring Afghan voice actors. They could have, for instance have hired a local Khazak to do the voices and very few people would ever notice the difference. I imagine it would have been much more difficult than it was for Battlefront to find Arabic speakers for CMSF.