I really don't like Fear2_1 through Fear2_4 it says OOOST all the time which means Cheeeeese in Swedish.
So basically the dwarves are running around shouting for cheese when they are afraid.
I don't know Swedish and I still don't like them. It seems out of place and not what I'd expect someone to exclaim in fear.
It's not like I run around shouting FEAR FEAR FEAR whenever I'm scared. AAArgh or Ooooh would be more appropriate.
Good point!
Yes, "Ouch that hurt", "That was painful" are all valid expressions, but do you scream SCAAAAARY when someone jumps out in front of you?
No you'd probably say Aaargh or Iiii or something, and then when the scary thing was over, you'd state " That was scary".
Exactly. You could easily have had recordings of "Aaaah", "Oooooh" and "Iiii" in place of Fear2_1 through Fear2_4 and
nobody would complain that they're not spoken in dwarvish. In fact, the intro animation to Dwarf Fortress ends with a miner breaking through and shouting "Oooooh!" in response to something scary and undoubtedly dangerous. That's
canon, folks.
Such nitpicking. Ost can mean many things...
There's nothing wrong with nitpicking. And we are invited to provide feedback, suggestions, or contribute to the project. Besides, he raised some good points and I found the discussion interesting.
In some languages (like Japanese for example) you use the adjective exactly like that to express the emotion. For example: Itai! Atsui! Kowai! Meaning Painful (Aargh!), Hot (Aargh!), Scary (Aargh!). Gotta remember when you spill hot coffee over yourself that it's Atsui! not Itai! or people will look at you strangely...
When someone gets hurt or accidentally spills coffee on themselves (foreigner or otherwise), they'll blurt out whatever comes naturally (polite or otherwise). At the moment the pain is registered by the brain, I don't think they much care whether their vocalization or vocabulary choice will draw strange looks or blank expressions. It's not like they have much time to think about it.
Extreme cases of fear would also elicit nearly-automatic responses. If someone in a scary outfit jumps out at you from the bushes at night, you don't really think about what you say, you just vocalize. You flinch and you shout. That said, your first language and language habits (such as picking up "colorful metaphors"; i.e, dirty words) could influence this.