{"id":3433,"date":"2010-04-12T12:48:41","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T20:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=3433"},"modified":"2010-04-12T12:48:41","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T20:48:41","slug":"an-aside-hbo-hires-linguist-to-create-language-for-a-song-of-ice-and-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/news\/an-aside-hbo-hires-linguist-to-create-language-for-a-song-of-ice-and-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"An Aside | HBO hires linguist to create language for A Song of Ice and Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

From BSC Review<\/a> (via Winter is Coming<\/a>):<\/p>\n\"An<\/a>\n

\n

EXPERT CREATES LANGUAGE FOR NEW HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES<\/strong><\/p>\n

David J. Peterson, an expert language creator from the Language Creation Society (LCS), has been chosen to create the Dothraki language for HBO\u2019s upcoming fantasy series GAME OF THRONES, based on the book series \u201cA Song of Ice and Fire,\u201d by George R.R. Martin.<\/p>\n

When GAME OF THRONES executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss needed a language for the Dothraki, Martin\u2019s race of nomadic warriors, they turned to the Language Creation Society. The LCS solicited and vetted a number of proposals for the Dothraki language from its pool of experts, with Peterson\u2019s proposal ultimately being selected by the GAME OF THRONES production team.<\/p>\n

Peterson drew inspiration from George R.R. Martin\u2019s description of the language, as well as from such languages as Russian, Turkish, Estonian, Inuktitut and Swahili.<\/strong> However, the Dothraki language is no mere hodgepodge, babble or pidgin. It has its own unique sound, extensive vocabulary of more than 1,800 words and complex grammatical structure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn designing Dothraki, I wanted to remain as faithful as possible to the extant material in George R.R. Martin\u2019s series,\u201d says Peterson. \u201cThough there isn\u2019t a lot of data, there is evidence of a dominant word order [subject-verb-object], of adjectives appearing after nouns, and of the lack of a copula [\u2018to be\u2019]. I\u2019ve remained faithful to these elements, creating a sound aesthetic that will be familiar to readers, while giving the language depth and authenticity. My fondest desire is for fans of the series to look at a word from the Dothraki language and be unable to tell if it came from the books or from me \u2014 and for viewers not even to realize it\u2019s a constructed language.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re tremendously excited to be working with David and the LCS,\u201d says producer D.B. Weiss. \u201cThe language he\u2019s devised is phenomenal. It captures the essence of the Dothraki, and brings another level of richness to their world. We look forward to his first collection of Dothraki love sonnets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you know? (Hash yer ray nesi?)<\/p>\n

The name for the Dothraki people \u2014 and their language \u2014 derives from the verb \u201cdothralat\u201d (\u201cto ride\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Dothraki have four different words for \u201ccarry,\u201d three for \u201cpush,\u201d three for \u201cpull\u201d and at least eight for \u201chorse,\u201d but no word that means \u201cplease\u201d or \u201cfollow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The longest word in Dothraki is \u201cathastokhdeveshizaroon,\u201d which means \u201cfrom nonsense.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The words for \u201crelated,\u201d \u201cweighted net,\u201d \u201ceclipse,\u201d \u201cdispute,\u201d \u201credhead,\u201d \u201coath,\u201d \u201cfuneral pyre,\u201d \u201cevidence,\u201d \u201comen,\u201d \u201cfang\u201d and \u201charvest moon\u201d all have one element in common: \u201cqoy,\u201d the Dothraki word for \u201cblood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dothraki for \u201cto dream\u201d \u2013 \u201cthirat atthiraride\u201d \u2013 literally means \u201cto live a wooden life\u201d; in Dothraki, \u201cwooden\u201d (\u201cido\u201d) is synonymous with \u201cfake.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word for \u201cpride\u201d \u2013 \u201cathjahakar\u201d \u2013 is derived from \u201cjahak,\u201d the traditional long braid worn by Dothraki warriors (\u201clajaki\u201d).<\/p>\n

More information about the Dothraki language (and their love poems) will be released over the course of the series.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How cool is that? One of the mot endearing aspects of The Lord of the Rings<\/strong> was Tolkien’s history as a linguist and the gravitas behind the language in his writings. Now, one can’t expect the language here to have the same level of depth and effort poured into it, but it’s encouraging to once again see how seriously HBO is taking the adaptation of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> series.<\/p>\n

As for the language itself, it seems a little hard to parse, and a bit softer than I would have imagined for the Dothraki, but I’m looking forward to hearing it vocalized. Who knows, maybe it’ll give Klingon a run for its money?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From BSC Review (via Winter is Coming): EXPERT CREATES LANGUAGE FOR NEW HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES David J. Peterson, an expert language creator from the Language Creation Society (LCS), has been chosen to create the Dothraki language for HBO\u2019s upcoming fantasy series GAME OF THRONES, based on the book series \u201cA Song of Ice… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n