As yet another benefit of attending Comic Con, it looks like we may be chatting with David J. Peterson on the podcast, at least by October, perhaps far sooner. Submit potential questions here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Peterson

That's awesome! I've heard this guy on the nerdist podcast and he's is just super smart. Anyway this might be too meganerd but I would ask him why he thinks that the development of different languages for TV/Film has become mainstream. Rather than a couple of bleeps,bloops from R2D2 or a chewie roar meaning a statement that others understand and are never subtitled.

Might be recorded as early as next week, so get those questions in!

Submitted!

Wow, I am looking forward to this! I have a HUGE interest in languages, and was happy to hear that Dothraki and Valyrian were developed for use in the HBO show. I have a few questions for the podcast to consider.

1. When constructing a language, what factors must be kept in mind? For example, vocabulary and grammar are some of the most obvious factors that come to mind, but there are also the possible phonemes of a language, orthography, and culture (such as the Dothraki expression for something done in secret, "under a roof"). What factors make it feel "authentic?"

2. Are these languages constructed using languages from the real world as models? When I think of the Dothraki, I think of Mongolians, and Valyria reminds me of the Romans. Did Mongolian or Latin (Or any other real-world language) influence the development of these constructed languages?

3. From what I remember, there are a few examples of Dothraki and Valyrian words in A Song of Ice and Fire, and a mention of gender in Valyrian from Maester Aemon, but little else. Does this make it easy to develop a language with little existing material, or more difficult? Do the existing vocabulary help to create distinct characteristics or "flavor" of the constructed languages?

4. Dothraki still exist during the current time of the books, but Valyria collapsed long ago. Has this affected how Valyrian was constructed? Do the people of Slaver's Bay speak pure Valyrian in the show, or a Ghiscari dialect? (Again, in the show) Does Daenerys speak a different dialect of Valyrian (High Valyrian?) from the inhabitants of Slaver's Bay?

5. Can you explain the lunar, solar, terrestrial, and celestial genders of Valyrian?


Amin, thanks for the opportunity to post these questions! I look forward to hearing this interview.

I have a few:

1) How many real-world languages does he speak/understand? (And which of those does he consider the hardest/easiest to learn?)

2) Has he ever influenced or changed the actual lines spoken on the show, to conform with his languages? Or will he always modify the language to fit exactly what the show need?

if there was a word for " thank you " in dothraki what would it be ?

Does he have any insight into Aemon's last words when condsidering the four genders of Valyrian?

Valonqar. Your thoughts?

If you had to spend the rest of your life speaking a made-up language, which one?

What were your reasons for creating the multiple variants of Valyrian: High Valyrian that Dany speaks, and Low Valyrian flavored by each city that Dany visits.
I'm stoked that he went to the effort to make all the variants like in the books, but most viewers will probably only notice that the language being spoken is not Dothraki, if your lucky, let alone different subsets.

Accents. When writing a language, is there a particular accent in mind? Eg. The way High Valyrian accents should sound vs Dothraki vs Low Valyrian

Is punctuation a thing that you make up for a language as well, or do you just kind of map existing rules for English on to it to assist in readability for (I can't believe I'm saying this) non-"native" speakers of the fake language?

Does he have any tips for authors who might want to come up with--if not a full language--SOME words of their own language?

1. What's his favourite language? Real or made up. And Why?

2. How does he feel about the moves by minority language speakers trying to hold on to their language or revive dead languages? For example; the revival of the Cornish language (Kernowek) after its extinction in the 19th century.

ETA: 3. If he does, how does he justify the linguistic base of English being present in the world of asoiaf? I.e. English is the result of a mix of Latinate, Germanic and Romantic language roots. And if English= the common tongue; how did it evolve in westeros? And if you do take that into consideration, does this mean that languages closer (geographically) to westeros, like Braavosi, will have echoes of the common tongue?

Medium Valyrian?

Do you have any other fictional languages from fantasy/sci fi that you would like to extend into a more complete language like you did for Dothraki?

1.Are current vocabularies of Dothraki and Valyrian sufficient for daily conversations? How long does it take to master both if you learn a few phrases and words each day?
2. In Game of Thrones season 4, there was a speech in Low Valyrian (the scene when Daario fought with the Meereenese champion) that was actually an insult used in a Monty Python movie. Have you translated any pop culture reference or famous saying into Dothraki or Valyrian? If not yet, what's the Valyrian and Dothraki translation for these :
Live long and prosper
May the Force be with you
So say we all.
(I love crossfandom shit) :p

I never realized he did his undergrad at Cal, I actually did all my Linguistics pre-reqs there! Since I double-majored in Linguistics and Neuroscience I have quite a few questions on the whole language=thought stuff:

1) Was the Dothraki have no word for "Thank you" a reference/parallel to the fact that the Klingons don't either? In more real life terms, why didn't they take it on as a loan word from one of the cultures they subjugated? Did they find the concept utterly foreign so they refused to or do the Dothraki in general shun concepts and words from cultures they perhaps deem inferior?

2) Related to Brightflame's question. How much do you think about culture and philosophy when constructing these languages' diction and grammar, not just the idioms? What are some more subtle examples of these? I've listed the three classic staples from real life languages which may or may not be interesting to ask him about:
- Colors. How do the color schema of Valyrian and Dothraki differ? Are the Valyrians obsessed with the different shades of reds and oranges?
- Number systems. Do the Dothraki have a different system for counting and logistics since they're quite good at war but unconcerned with commerce?
- Time. How do Valyrians and Dothraki think about time differently? Horizontal or vertical spatial metaphors? (The month ahead vs the month below in English vs Chinese).
- Grammatical Genders might also be interesting to ask about given Valyrian's 4.

3) From a diction standpoint, any interesting subtle biases in the languages? Something like the bias against left-handedness (adroit vs gauche, (ambi)dexterous vs sinistrous)? What about genders?

4) How challenging is it to decide how much language actually equates thought when constructing these languages? As a fan, I kinda want you to go overboard and make the language completely about the philosophy. You know, the classic "In the language of the Ordos, there are no words for the concepts of 'trust' or 'honour'. There are more than three hundred for the concept of 'profit'." So how do you balance that pressure to come up with a realistic language?

Finally, a question not on that topic:
5) How did you decide how far apart Dothraki and Valyrian would be linguistically? Would 'original' Valyrian be to Essos what Proto-Indo-European was to Eurasia except spread on the backs of dragons instead of horses?

Could he possible give a very nasty Dothraki phase to yell at stupid drivers on the road who fail to obey the simplest rules of common decency let alone the rules of the road? And a very cool phase to get in someone's pants? ( I do wear a feathered cap everywhere I go)

Episode has been recorded, thanks for the qs

I hope he taught ya'll the proper pronunciation of "Khaleesi" and that you won't be calling her "Calisi" from now on.

What if it really is "Kelly C"?