May I get 1 FRENCH & 1 Hebrew & 1 African speaker to help me with a script/film?

Scummbuddy · Wed 26/04/2006 17:11:30

I am working on creating the prologue to Tim Powers "On Stranger Tides" on film for a college film class. It's just a five minute movie but I'm trying to be as professional as I can be.

There comes a time during the scene where a man in the 1800's starts chanting what would be semi-magical chants in "archaic Hebrew".

I just ask for someone to come up with one or two short lines of dialog, along with spelling it somewhat phonetically for non-Hebrew speakers, for this film.

It should have something along the lines of:

come out ghosts from your hiding,
we want to see one. we want to take one.

Any help would be most appreciated.
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The film also asks for a bocor, a somewhat witch doctor, to speak the above lines in a "dialect that combined the tounges of France, the Mondongo dialect of Africa, and the Carib Indians". I would appreciate any African dialect and words, seeing as how I don't even know how many African AGS'ers there are, along with knowing any African languages and not just English.

Thank you for your time.
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After thinking about it... if you would feel more comfortable just recording the lines above on your computer and just sending them to me, that may work even better. I could just import that into the movie as a voiceover and wouldn't have to worry about getting my actors to articulate the words correctly.

Phemar · Wed 26/04/2006 17:17:23

I don't know Mondongo (or what it is), but I did learn Xhosa in junior school for a year

Maybe that can help.

Dr. Scary · Wed 26/04/2006 20:35:16

So you can do those weird clicking sounds? I have a South African friend who tried to teach me some a few years back. I could never get them right...

Sorry for the OT.

Mordalles · Wed 26/04/2006 20:39:53

sala kakuhle.

Phemar · Wed 26/04/2006 21:36:45

Quote from: Dr. Scary on Wed 26/04/2006 20:35:16
So you can do those weird clicking sounds? I have a South African friend who tried to teach me some a few years back. I could never get them right...

Yeah I can, but according to some of my Xhosa friends my accent is awful!

P.S. Mordalles, Hamba kakuhle!1

buloght · Wed 26/04/2006 21:46:49

iruba haha, that's all I can remember

Layabout · Thu 27/04/2006 02:41:29

ugh, South African, or Africanns is just an amalgam of Dutch and German, with some english thrown in for good measure.. not a real african language... but if you want translations to affricanns, i live with a bunch of saffas...

Scummbuddy · Thu 27/04/2006 04:31:38

Risking being an ignorant American, I don't know Saffas, nor how they are different from Mondongo's, but seeing as how I'm sure it's a hard request and time is running short, I wouldn't mind bending the story to take a Saffa's interpretation on the lines I wrote earlier. As long as it's something about ressurection and ghosts coming around, I'd be happy with it. The lines I wrote aren't the official lines from the book, seeing as how in the book it just says "then they chant in their respective languages". (well, it doesn't say it like that but that's the short version). I think my group has decided that we'd like our actors to say the lines, but again, we'd like an easy way to speak it from anyone who's contributing, and if you can get a recording, that would work well, as we could mimic it the best we can.

And I'm shocked I've gotten more responses about African cultures than anyone who can speak Hebrew..

Phemar · Thu 27/04/2006 06:42:59

Quote from: Layabout on Thu 27/04/2006 02:41:29
ugh, South African, or Africanns is just an amalgam of Dutch and German, with some english thrown in for good measure.. not a real african language... but if you want translations to affricanns, i live with a bunch of saffas...

Layabout, you're thinking about Afrikaans - which is a different version of Dutch - aka 'kitchen dutch'.
I was talking about Xhosa, which (along with Zulu) is the language of a lot the black people where I live.

Scumbuddy, so it's just some lines about spirits being ressurected ad ghosts coming to haunt? I'll see what I can do.

esper · Thu 27/04/2006 10:16:09

Who here is an mpikipuaji? (That's swahili for "nosepicker). I'm going to Kenya in August, and I could get anything you want then, but it's a bit far off. As for the Hebrew... You may very well need a native Hebrew speaker to get the lines to sound convincing and to put them in proper grammatical order, but I may be able to come up with the actual words for you. Give me a bit, since I'm at work right now.

And, BTW, you may wish to either go to a bookstore and read through a copy of some Kabbalistic literature, or go to www.sacred-texts.com and look through the Hebrew, Grimoire, or Occult/Esoteric section for some stuff. I don't think a practitioner of Solomonic magick or Q'abala would be saying what you've got there. Rather, it mostly incorporates threatening things with severe judgment using variants of the holy name of God and the angels if it doesn't show itself.

Afflict · Thu 27/04/2006 11:43:22

Quote from: Layabout on Thu 27/04/2006 02:41:29
ugh, South African, or Africanns is just an amalgam of Dutch and German, with some english thrown in for good measure.. not a real african language... but if you want translations to affricanns, i live with a bunch of saffas...

ROFL OMG thats funny in Africa we have alot of native tounge. I mean in South Africca we have 11 offficial languages and I mean we have

Afrikaans
English
isiNdebele
isiXhosa
isiZulu
Sepedi
Sesotho
Setswana
siSwati
Tshivenda
Xitsonga

Then there is also a mixture called funigalo or something like that... it uses a little of all the languages. When you cross the borders of SA into the rest of africa there are people that talk french and other lanuages too!

So yeah that response was extremly funny, but now you know.
But on a more serious note here is something that Esper might be interested in.

This is a dictionary for engligh to xhosa: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Xhosa-english/
This also contians the translation of the zulu words that are shared etc...

Ayway just google some of it etc.. And i am sure youll find lots more.

This short African lesson was brought to you by Afflict

LoL

PS: Hamba kakuhle bhuti

Scummbuddy · Sat 29/04/2006 15:05:28

Has anyone been able to get anything yet?

Think of it as a personal adventure. To unlock this one puzzle, you need to speak aloud this chant of certain text in a language you can research!

Whee!..... the fun!

Scummbuddy · Tue 02/05/2006 04:39:07

I really need the help from anyone before this Saturday, or perferably sooner. I know it's a bother for you all to ask someone, but if anyone could help me out, I'd be really appreciative.

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I forgot to mention before, but could I also ask of someone who speaks fluent French to convert this line:

"Walk more slowly then, so I can see where you put your feet!" - he is supposed to sound irratated when speaking it.

Thank you all.

Nostradamus · Tue 02/05/2006 08:33:53

I am a native hebrew speaker but the lines would provided would just not sound right in hebrew. Will not come out as mysterious or scary.
The first line is OK but the seond line should be better than "we want to see one we want to take one" so if you can pull something else or give me more of the context of this 'd pull something good for you.

Afflict · Tue 02/05/2006 12:54:38

Hey nostradamus I would suggest make your own lines as close to this as posible since you know the langauge believe me scummbuddy will still appreciate the help!

Scummbuddy · Tue 02/05/2006 15:25:31

I agree. Go ahead and change it to how you see fit. You would know better. I just made up those lines as to what the general chant would be. The book doesn't mention what they chant, so I went ahead and made those lines. If you can tweak it a bit to make it sound more natural, go for it.

Thanks!

Scummbuddy · Wed 03/05/2006 20:13:21

I've got the French dialog down now, thanks to the AGSers on the French AGS message board and to dsg_charly on these boards.
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I hope I can get the other languages translated, but be glad there is no Google Translate or Babelfish for me to use, as that would just rape the proper translation.

Thanks again!

Nostradamus · Fri 05/05/2006 09:17:05

Scummbuddy I have recorded it for you, Give me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you, tellme iy fou like it or if you want is spookyer or different somehow.

Scummbuddy · Sat 06/05/2006 07:57:13

scottrnichols3@comcast.net

Thank you!