For other texts, see wiki:EnglishStyleGuide. For pronunciation of specific strings, see wiki:Audio_Voice_List.

This guide provides some ground rules to write specific names for 0 A.D.

Specific names are in the native language, not in English. Every language has its own orthography (conventions to write down a language). To avoid unnecessary confusion, be consistent and stick to the rules listed below.

Britons, Carthaginians, Gauls, Iberians?

Greek

Ancient Greek is the language used for the Athenians, Macedonians, Ptolemies, Seleucids, and Spartans.

There exist numerous systems to transcribe Greek; one is not intrinsically better than any other. However, consistency matters, so please stick to the system listed below:

• consonants:
  • β, π, φ, ψ → b, p, ph, ps
  • γ, κ, χ, ξ → g, k, kh, ks
  • δ, τ, θ → d, t, th
  • σ/ϲ/ς, ζ → s, z
  • λ, μ, ν → l, m, n
  • ρ → r, but initial ῥ → rh
• vowels and diphthongs (use a dictionary to check vowel length):
  • α, αι, αυ, ᾱ, ᾳ, ᾱυ → a, ai, au, ā, āi, āu
  • ε, ει, ευ → e, ei, eu
  • η, ῃ, ηυ → ē, ēi, ēu
  • ι, ῑ → i, ī
  • ο, οι, ου → o, oi, ou
  • υ, υι, ῡ → u, ui, ū
  • ω, ῳ, ωυ → ō, ōi, ōu

Other things to take care of:

• accents are meaningful, therefore write the correct ones (which can change depending on position), differentiate between e.g. α, ά, ᾶ, ὰ.
• names are in the nominative; genitive is the case for combining nouns; also check the number (singular, dual, plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter); adjectives should match the nouns they belong to

Latin

Classical Latin is the language used for the Romans.

Writing Latin is easy, because, well, it uses the Latin alphabet. However, check to ensure:

• dictionaries indicate vowel length, so do we; thus: hastātus, not hastatus
• write ae and oe, not æ and œ, nor e; thus Caesar, not Cæsar or Cesar
• differentiate between u and v
• do not differentiate between i and j, both are written i
• names are in the nominative; genitive is the case for combining nouns; also check the number (singular, plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter); adjectives should match the nouns they belong to
• sometimes words are plural only, e.g. insidiae “ambush”; check the whole string has the proper number

Meroitic

Meroitic is the language used for the Kushites.

Old Persian

Old Persian is the language used for the Persians.

For a basic introduction, see ​this document. For an overview of the most important Persian inscriptions (typically with images, transcriptions, and translations), see ​this page. When writing Persian, ensure:

• check your strings are in the nominative
• indicate vowel length (ā as opposed to a)
• use x, not kh
• use š, not sh
• use ç, not ch
• use th, not θ

E.g. Artaxšaçā (Artaxerxes), not Artakhshacha.

Sanskrit

(Vedic or Classical?) Sanskrit is the language used for the Mauryas.