One of the fascinating characteristics of the most popular conlangs is their ability to take on a new life separate from the books, movies and TV shows for which they were created. Peterson says this is the part where you decide how the language says what it wants to say. But there’s a creative aspect as well, which is creating the lexicon. He said the technical part consists of creating the grammar and making sure it works, which he compares to programming or puzzle-making. He gives an example: the Dothraki equivalent to “How are you?” is Hash yer dothrae chek?, which translates to “Are you riding well?”įrom there, Peterson said, it’s equal parts technical and artistic. The importance of horses in the Dothraki culture gave Peterson a starting point for developing the language. Peterson said he paid close attention to the culture surrounding Dothraki in Martin’s books. It’s now a fully-functional, human-usable language with a vocabulary of over 3,000 words (and growing).”īut what’s the process for creating a language? Where do you even start? On his Dothraki blog, Peterson writes: “The language (as it is today) is an expansion of the small bits of Dothraki found in the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Martin book series entitled A Song of Ice and Fire, non-English languages are referenced but not written out at length. In the case of Game of Thrones, based on George R. Peterson is best known for inventing Dothraki and High Valyrian, but he also created conlangs for shows like Defiance, Penny Dreadful and The Shannara Chronicles. And one of its officers is something of a legend in the pop culture world. The Language Creation Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to “conlanging” - the creation of constructed languages. And of course Game of Thrones has High Valyrian, Dothraki and several others. Even Parseltongue, the serpentine language from Harry Potter, is a conlang. Think of your favorite science fiction/fantasy book, movie or TV show - do the characters speak a made-up language? Star Trek‘s Klingon is a conlang, as is Avatar‘s Na’vi and Elvish from Lord of the Rings. It may sound overdramatic, but conlangs are all around us.
But apparently in High Valyrian, the word for “prince” is gender-neutral, so it actually translates to “prince or princess,” opening the door for a female ruler.īut let’s back up a bit. It all comes down to a prophecy that says a “prince” will rule Westeros. The second episode of Game of Thrones season 7 included a new addition to the fiery battles and steamy sex scenes viewers have come to expect: a language lesson.Īs the show’s 16 million fans already know, a major plot point of the episode revolves around a small grammatical error in High Valyrian, one of the series’ constructed languages - or “conlangs.”
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