- Dothraki language
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Dothraki Pronunciation ˈd̪o.θɾa.ki Created by George R. R. Martin, David J. Peterson Date created from 2009 Setting and usage A Song of Ice and Fire, 2011 series Game of Thrones Users Fictional language, zero speakers. (no date) Category (purpose) Category (sources) constructed languages
a priori languagesLanguage codes ISO 639-2 art ISO 639-3 – This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. The Dothraki language is the constructed language of the Dothraki, the indigenous inhabitants of the Dothraki Sea in the series A Song of Ice and Fire written by George R. R. Martin. It was created by David J. Peterson, a member of the Language Creation Society, for HBO's television series Game of Thrones. Dothraki was designed to fit George R. R. Martin's original conception of the language, based upon the few extant phrases and words in his original books.
As of 21 September 2011[update], there were 3,163 created words in the lexicon, [1] though far from all words are known to the public. However, there is a growing community of Dothraki language fans, with websites like "Learn Dothraki" [2] offering information on the state of the language.
Contents
Development
The Dothraki vocabulary was created by Peterson well in advance of the adaptation. HBO hired the Language Creation Society to create the language, and after an application process involving over thirty conlangers, David Peterson was chosen to develop the Dothraki language. He delivered over 1700 words to HBO before the initial shooting. Peterson drew inspiration from George R.R. Martin’s description of the language, as well as from such languages as Russian, Turkish, Estonian, Inuktitut and Swahili.[3]
Language constraints
The Dothraki language was developed under two significant constraints. First, the language had to match the uses already put down in the books. Secondly, it had to be easily pronounceable or learnable by the actors. These two constraints influenced the grammar and phonology of the language: for instance, voiceless stops can be aspirated or unaspirated, as in English.
Phonology and romanization
In Dothraki the consonants d, t, s, n are dental, which sets it apart from many languages. David Peterson has said that "You know, most people probably don’t really know what Arabic actually sounds like, so to an untrained ear, it might sound like Arabic. To someone who knows Arabic, it doesn’t. I tend to think of the sound as a mix between Arabic (minus the distinctive pharyngeals) and Spanish, due to the dental consonants." [4]
Regarding the orthography, the Dothraki themselves don't have a writing system—nor do many of the surrounding peoples (e.g. the Lhazareen). If there were to be any written examples of Dothraki in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe, it would be in a writing system developed in the Free Cities and adapted to Dothraki, or in some place like Ghis or Qarth, which do have writing systems.[5]
Consonants
There are twenty-three consonant phonemes in the Dothraki language. Here the romanized form is given on the left, and the IPA in brackets.
Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular Glottal Plosive t [t̪] k [k] q [q] Voiced plosive d [d̪] g [ɡ] Affricate ch [tʃ] Voiced affricate j [dʒ] Voiceless fricative f [f] th [θ] s [s] sh [ʃ] kh [x] h [h] Voiced fricative v [v] z [z] zh [ʒ] Nasal m [m] n [n̪] Lateral l [l̪] Trill r [r] Tap r [ɾ] Glide w [w] y [j] The digraphs kh, sh, th and zh are all fricatives, while ch and j are affricates.
The letters c and x never appear in Dothraki, although c appears in the digraph ch, pronounced like 'check'. b and p seem to appear only in names, as in Bharbo and Pono.
Voiceless stops may be aspirated. This does not change word meaning.
Vowels
Dothraki has a four vowel system shown below:
Vowels Diphthongs i [i] iy [ij] e [e] ey [ej] o [o] oy [oj] a [a] ay [aj] In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, u never occurs as a vowel, appearing only after "q", and only in names, as in Jhiqui and Quaro.
In sequence of multiple vowels, each such vowel represents a separate syllable. Examples: shierak [ʃi.e.'ɾak] star, rhaesh [ɾha.'eʃ] country, khaleesi ['xa.l̪e.e.si] queen.
Grammar
Basic word order is SVO: subject comes first, then verb and lastly object. In a noun phrase demonstratives come first, but adjectives, possessor and prepositional phrases all follow the noun. Though prepositions are also sometimes employed, the language is foremost inflectional. Prefixes, suffixes and circumfixes are all used. Verbs conjugate in infinite, past, present, future, two imperatives and (archaic) participle; they also agree with person, number and polarity. Nouns divide into two classes, inanimate and animate. They decline in five cases, nominative, accusative, genitive, allative and ablative. Animate nouns also decline according to number.[6][7]
Word Order
In a basic sentence, the order of these elements (when all three are present) is as in English: First comes the Subject (S), then comes the Verb (V), then comes the Object (O). Here's an example:
- Khal ahhas arakh.
- The Khal (S) sharpened (V) the arakh (O).
When only a subject is a present, the subject precedes the verb, as it does in English:
- Arakh hasa.
- The arakh (S) is sharp (V).
In noun phrases there is a specific order as well. The order is as follows: demonstrative, noun, adverb, adjective, genitive noun, prepositional phrase. Prepositions always precede their noun complements.
- jin ave sekke verven anni m'orvikoon
- this father very violent of.mine with.a.whip
- this very violent father of mine with a whip
Adverbs normally are sentence final, but they can also immediately follow the verb. Modal particles precede the verb.[6]
Sentence Examples
- Nevakhi vekha ha maan: Rekke, m'aresakea norethi fitte. ['n̪e.va.xi 've.xa ha ma.'an̪ 'rek.ke 'ma.ɾe.sa.ke.a 'n̪o.ɾe.θi 'fit̪.t̪e]
- seat-GEN exist-3SG.PRES for 3SG.ALL there-ACC with-coward-ALL.PL hair-GEN short
- There is a place for him: There, with the short haired cowards.[8]
References
- ^ "The Header Script". 2011-09-21. Retrieved 2011-10-03. http://www.dothraki.com/2011/09/the-header-script/.
- ^ "Lekh". Dothraki. 2011-04-05. http://www.dothraki.org. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
- ^ "Official HBO Press Release". April 12, 2010. http://dothraki.conlang.org/official-hbo-press-release/.
- ^ "Creating Dothraki - An Interview with David J Peterson and Sai Emrys". April 22, 2010. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/04/creating-dothraki-an-interview-with-david-j-peterson-and-sai-emrys.
- ^ "Westeros.Ru interview". June 24, 2010. http://westeros.ru/?p=3779.
- ^ a b "Dothraki 101 post on HBO's Making Game of Throne's blog". December 15, 2010. http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/2010/12/15/dothraki-101.html.
- ^ "Dothraki presentation at Language Creation Conference 4". August 22, 2011. http://conference.conlang.org/lcc4/speakers/djplcc4.pdf.
- ^ "Dothraki Presentation at WorldCon 2011". August 21, 2011. http://dedalvs.com/dothraki/dothrakireno.pdf.
External links
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin Novels A Game of Thrones (1996) · A Clash of Kings (1998) · A Storm of Swords (2000) · A Feast for Crows (2005) · A Dance with Dragons (2011) · The Winds of Winter (forthcoming) · A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)Novellas The Hedge Knight · The Sworn Sword · The Mystery KnightCharacters TV series Other adaptations Overview · Comic book series · Card game · Board game · Role-playing games · A Game of Thrones: Genesis · Role-playing video gameMiscellaneous Constructed languages (conlangs) Types and concepts Conlangs Blissymbols · Brithenig · Damin · Dothraki · Enochian · Esperanto · Glosa · Ido · Interlingua · Ithkuil · Kēlen · Klingon · Láadan · Lingua Franca Nova · Lingua Ignota · Loglan · Lojban · Na'vi · Nadsat · Novial · Occidental · Quenya · Ro · Sambahsa · Sindarin · Slovianski · Solresol · Teonaht · Toki Pona · Tsolyáni · Volapük · WenedykComparisons Resources Conlanger · Conlang X-SAMPA · Langmaker · Language Creation Conference · Language Creation Society · Translation relay · Zompist.com · List of constructed languagesPortal · WikiProject Categories:- Language articles with undated speaker data
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