Learn Dothraki and Valyrian

Learn Dothraki => Beginners => Topic started by: Ifak on February 01, 2014, 09:54:51 am

Title: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 01, 2014, 09:54:51 am
I was excited to see that recently two Dothraki courses have sprung up on Memrise. I registered to Memrise right away and I am very satisfied with how the site helps you remember words. But I have a problem with the courses. The words that I am learning are words that I will never use or at least they are not something that I think I should be learning right at the beginning. Also, I want to learn so I can speak Dothraki with my girlfriend and words like gorat(charge), ildo(sword strike) and irvosa(distance of approximately one fourth mile) are of little use to me.

For this reason I was thinking of starting my own course on Memrise. A course that starts you out with useful words that you might want to learn in the beginning. Words like "yes", "no", "maybe", "hi", ...
I was wondering what your guys think and also if anyone would want to join me, since I'm a beginner and definitely not an authority on the Dothraki language.


EDIT: The Dothraki for Beginners course (http://www.memrise.com/course/219796/dothraki-for-beginners) in now live!
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Hrakkar on February 01, 2014, 11:42:19 am
The idea has considerable merit, but you will have to generate your own word list and maintain it. Luckily for you, we are not getting a lot of new vocabulary right now, so this might be easier than it sounds.

My biggest beef with Memrise is its tendency to begin at the beginning of the alphabet where all the confusing /A/ words are!
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 01, 2014, 02:26:05 pm
I don't have much interest in Dothraki memrise courses myself, because I'm more into framework than into being able to use the language. I'm good at being a grammar nazi, but not so good at remembering words or managing the pronunciation, and that suits me fine. I've good experience on Memrise course on Toki Pona, though. Memrise is in my experience good for a really limited thing, for expanding vocabulary, but that at least it does relatively well.

Go for it. I'll help, if you have something to ask about. Our knowledge of conversational Dothraki is limited, as is our knowledge of Dothraki in general, but we do know some stuff.

Hear me on this, though: I don't know, how hardcore you are planning to get on grammatical side (or on phonetical side for that matter), but leave room at least. Dothraki words are not generally just unmutable units. Knowing that "dog" is jano or "to wait" is ayolat is almost useless, if you don't also know that jano is inanimate and in ayolat the stem ends in consonant and the infinite suffix is just the /-at/.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 01, 2014, 02:57:56 pm
I don't think Memrise is a good tool for learning a language but I do think that it's an exceptional tool for learning words. With that in mind, the intention of the course would be to help people learn a bunch of words easily, and they can later use this knowledge to learn to speak with the help of the wiki and other lessons.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 03, 2014, 01:53:12 pm
Quote
I don't think Memrise is a good tool for learning a language but I do think that it's an exceptional tool for learning words.
Ya. That's what I was trying to say.

I think we're on a same page, but let me make sure:
Words are not just one sequence of sounds, they can have metadata. In English this is only relevant in irregularities (to know the word mouse you need to know that the plural is mice; to know the word bite you need to know that the past simple is bit and past participle is bitten), but on many languages the metadata is much more crucial. This is not about grammar, really, this is about what the words are.
How words have multiple meanings and none of them are usually exactly same as the meanings in other language is yet another big kettle of fish, but when it comes to memrise course, I'd waive that away as much as possible.

How about this:
For nouns all else can IMO be waived, but animacy should be indicated. You'll need to learn some irregular accusatives later, but knowing animacy you'll be able to use the words at least almost correctly. Since you need to be able to submit correct Dothraki words, it's inconvenient to attach metadata on Dothraki words, but it should be fine to add that to English, like:
jano - dog (inanimate)

For verbs the problem is the infinite ending, and infinitive is unuseful conjugation anyway. The past singular we use to accompany infinite isn't good either, because of epenthesis issues (it's good when accompanied with infinite precisely because of epethesis issues it shows, but won't stand on it's own). You might offer the verbs in third person singular - that's informative and useful. I would however suggest dealing with bare stems:
ayol - wait (verb stem)
There's one really cool advantage to this: you can offer all adjectives as verb stems and thus sneak-feed one cool characteristic of Dothraki language to your brain right from beginning:
thelis - blue (verb stem)
This would offer very few problems - considering all the other issues that must be waived, practically no issues at all - and would feel very streamlined.

For pronouns I'd just ask all declinations individually:
anni - me (I in accusative)
anhoon - from me (I in ablative)
yerea - to you (you in plural allative)
Though I don't much like using declined English pronouns, so I'd be tempted to go:
anni - 1SG accusative
anhoon - 1SG ablative
yerea - 2PL allative
because of course the cases do not correspond that well to English cases, but using techical terms is unappealing.

What do you think? Are you already building the course?
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 03, 2014, 02:30:57 pm
Okay quick reply, it's really late, so I'll get into details tomorrow.

I know how words change when you actually use the language more than in English. I'm Slovenian (watch this youtube video if you're into languages and stuff http://bit.ly/1nK4KFY (http://bit.ly/1nK4KFY)).

I know that it would be impossible to teach people how to use the language with this course, the idea is just to familiarize people with some common words. But I would sure love to get advice on how to make it easier to transition into learning the "rules" of the language, like adding info whether the noun is animate or not (whats the word for "rules" of the language again?).

So far I've made a couple of lists of words:
Everyday words like yes, no, maybe, nothing, why, ...
common deeds like to sleep, to eat, to drink, ...
common adjectives like beautiful, dry, wet, dirty, ...
common animals,
colors
and
numbers 0 - 10

I'll try to figure out what you wrote in the second half of your message tomorrow after I get some sleep.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 04, 2014, 04:08:51 am
Allright here's the rest of it...

I too was thinking of adding information about animacy to the nouns. I think it's useful to know and people who don't want to learn it can still easily ignore it. I was going to do it with (an) and (in) next to the words to avoid clutter but I like your idea with the full word better, it's more fluent and I think easier for the brain to remember if the full word (animate)/(inanimate) is next to the noun.

I see what your trying to say when it comes to verbs, but it makes me just a tiny bit anxious to deviate from the norm and teach them in anything but the infinitive form. I'm not familiar with anything but the present time conjugations (that's as far is I've gotten in my learning), but I see how teaching the stem only would be better, because I know sometimes with werbs that end with -lat you can't know if the ending is actually -lat or just -at. But that's all I know about that.

The part with the adjectives I didn't really understand. I'm sorry, here's where the fact that I'm a total beginner becomes a problem I guess.

About the pronouns, not sure if I want to go into all that, because the course is going to teach the basic and common words only. But I see how teaching the nominative declination only isn't very helpful. So I'm not sure if I should teach everything or nothing (course would have no pronouns). That wouldn't be a tragedy since this course will be made with the other lessons in mind (you need to combine the course with other lessons in order to learn anything). Maybe using all of those declinations would overcomplicate a course that's trying to teach the simplest beginner words.

While writing this, I had an idea of maybe making a separate level (courses are devided into levels) that teaches animacy only. So in a few levels you learn a bunch of words and they have animacy in the brackets next to it as we said before, but then in a separate course you get a word and you have to choose if it's animate or inanimate. Sou you would have two chances to learn and improve the knowledge of this, in my mind, most tedious part of the Dothraki language.

Another thing. This course is just an idea that I've come up with. If anyone with more experience or knowledge wants to take over I'd be perfectly fine with that, since as I've said before, I'm not really an authority on the Dothraki language and I'm also only a beginner learner. I don't want to withold any rights from other eager individuals.

To sum up, I'd like to maybe see what other people think about the stems only idea, and what you think about evading the pronouns completely. Maybe you could also give me a more detailed explanation on the adjectives thing. Sorry for the wall of text.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 04, 2014, 01:32:19 pm
Quote
I'm Slovenian (watch this youtube video if you're into languages and stuff http://bit.ly/1nK4KFY (http://bit.ly/1nK4KFY)).
Har! Crazy enough :P Dual is a nice feature. I gotta say, though, that the video slightly over-emphasizes the issue. Even in English you'd get from single "Have you eaten?" to three or four options "Has she/he[/it] eaten?", "Have they eaten?" by simply changing to third person.

Quote
Another thing. This course is just an idea that I've come up with. If anyone with more experience or knowledge wants to take over I'd be perfectly fine with that, since as I've said before, I'm not really an authority on the Dothraki language and I'm also only a beginner learner. I don't want to withold any rights from other eager individuals.
Go forth. More/better Memrise courses would be cool, but since noone yet has done them, you are the most promising candidate. This is a small group of people, us active/semiactive Dothraki connoseurs. Your contribution will be appriciated. And you seem to be having a good grasp of things.

Quote
I'm not familiar with anything but the present time conjugations (that's as far is I've gotten in my learning), but I see how teaching the stem only would be better, because I know sometimes with werbs that end with -lat you can't know if the ending is actually -lat or just -at. But that's all I know about that.
The /-lat/ versus /-at/ confusion is all there is to that, really, but it's a nasty little issue.
If you know present tense conjugation, you know pretty much the whole conjugation. Past is super simple (Dothraki basically just flaunt the whole business of conjugating there, only marking plurals) and future is even simpler (it's not an independent scheme, just prefix addition to present tense scheme).

Quote
About the pronouns, not sure if I want to go into all that, because the course is going to teach the basic and common words only. But I see how teaching the nominative declination only isn't very helpful. So I'm not sure if I should teach everything or nothing (course would have no pronouns).
You could add a limited selection of pronouns/cases. If you give only singular pronouns and only nominative, accusative and genitive, that's mere nine words and fairly useful set. I was thinking you wanted to give a nice starting packet, and pronouns are usually one of the first things people want to learn.
Slovene (as I'm just reading from Wikipedia) and my own Finnish are both pro-drop languages. We can say simple stuff like "I kissed a girl" or "You are beautiful" without using pronouns, trusting the verb conjugation to convey the subject. Dothraki does not generally allow this, even when the verb conjugation marks the subject - they like the redundancy, you might say. So knowing pronouns is a little more important in Dothraki than it is in our native languages.

Quote
Maybe you could also give me a more detailed explanation on the adjectives thing. Sorry for the wall of text.
Wall of text! Let me tell you about adjectives and show what a real wall of text looks like! ... well, hopefully not :P

There are many ways to categorize verbs, but one is this: Some verbs are momentary acts, some are sustained actions. But some aren't about doing anything at all, just about being in some state, like sitting, lying, sleeping, living. We call these stative verbs. All Dothraki adjectives have also stative verb forms (all true adjectives, that is - not participles).

One might even take this further and say that speaking of adjectives as a separate category of words is not the best analysis of Dothraki at all. One might instead postulate that some stative verbs in Dothraki are simply adjectival. Those adjectival verbs can be integrated into noun phrases, and if they are, they lose their verb inflection pattern and adapt a simpler inflection pattern dependent on the noun they modify.

So, in this analysis we have eg. an adjectival verb zhokwalat, to be big. Thus we can say "Jano zhokwae." - "The dog is big." But it's cumbersome to say "Jano fini zhokwae osta anni." - "The dog which is big bites me." or "Anha tihak jan fini zhokwae." - "I see the dog which is big," so it comes as no surprise that we can integrate the adjectival verb into the noun phrase and say "Jano zhokwa osta anni." - "The big dog bites me." or "Anha tihak jan zhokwa." - "I see the big dog." If you really wanted to run with this idea, you might probably call this adjective a strong participle or somesuch.

But yeah, the gist of the rambling is that verbs and adjectives aren't as separate as they are in most languages. You need to be able to use adjectives as verbs to speak proper Dothraki, and those stative verbs derived from adjectives are only a small fraction more separate words than different conjugations. So it makes little difference if you learn the words as adjectives or in their verb form. If you learn verbs by their stem, then it makes even less difference.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 04, 2014, 02:07:12 pm
Thanks. That really cleared things up. I like this idea a lot and I was thinking that instead of deviating from the norm and teaching verbs with stems only, what if I would teach the adjectives first, and then in another level the same words in their verb (and infinitive) forms. With this, the people would learn both the verbs and adjectives and how they are connected and they would already know the words so it wouldn't really be extra work. But I notice that not all adjectives have a verb form, like the adjective ath (dry). There is no athat in the dictionary.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 04, 2014, 02:44:04 pm
Quote
But I notice that not all adjectives have a verb form, like the adjective ath (dry). There is no athat in the dictionary.
That's just because the dictionary is incomplete. The verb form is usually listed if we have run into it specifically, and certainly listed, if it seems there might be some extensions past the adjectival meaning (eg. davralat can be used transitively with allative, which goes past the straightforward derivation from adjective). But most of the stuff that can be inferred (even with extreme certainity) is not listed. So there's no real doubt that there is a word athat and it means to be dry.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 04, 2014, 02:59:25 pm
Good to know. If you agree with the current plan, I'll try to assemble the words in the next few days and I'll just post the whole list here or send it to you for approval if I may.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 04, 2014, 07:27:06 pm
Sure :)
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Hrakkar on February 05, 2014, 02:05:38 pm
I've been really busy with work the past few days (and will continue to be for several more), so I have missed what is going on here. I like very much the ideas that are being considered here. Having a number of different memory courses might be a really useful thing, especially for people (like myself) who are not natively multilingual.

I think the 'rules of the language' word you are looking for is 'grammar' :)
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 09, 2014, 02:41:45 am
Okay I've assembled it or most of it at least. I'm just gonna post the whole list here. The items are divided into levels, so please feel free to offer advice on the order of the words, the levels, and the names of the levels and well... anything that you think could be improved. I also encountered some problems and dilemmas, so I wrote them all down as I went along. I'll put those at the bottom.

I also didn't add any pronouns because I don't know a whole lot about all those conjugations and declinations and whatnot. So I was hoping that one of you guys could add a list of pronouns that are used very often. Thanks!

Everyday words
sek - yes
vos - no :-X
ishish - maybe :-X
chek - good
m'ath - hi
m’athchomaroon - with respect (greeting)

Family
rhojosor - family (animate) :-X
mai - mother (animate)
ave - father (animate) :-X
simonof - grandfather (animate) :-X
kristasof - grandmother (inanimate) :-X
gaezo - brother (/) :-X
inavva - sister (/) :-X
rizh - son (animate) :-X
ohara - daughter (inanimate) :-X

Outside
gache - place, environs (inanimate) :-X
feshith - tree (/) :-X
halah - flower (animate) :-X
qevir - forest (/) :-X
ashefa - river (animate) :-X
tozara - lake (animate) :-X
olta - hill (inanimate) :-X

Adjectives
davra - good, useful :-X
edavrasa - useless, of poor quality :-X
zhokwa - big :-X
naqis - small :-X
neak - long :-X
fitte - short :-X
ohazh - heavy :-X
imesh - young :-X
foz - old :-X
diwe - wet :-X
ath - dry

Verbs
davralat - to be useful :-X
edavrasalat - to be useless :-X
zhokwalat - to be large :-X
naqisat - to be small :-X
neakat - to be long :-X
fittelat - to be short :-X
ohazhat - to become heavy :-X
imeshat - to be young :-X
fozat - to be old :-X
diwelat - to be wet :-X
athat - to be dry :-X

Pronouns
anha - I
anni - of mine
anna - me :-X
yer - you
me - he, she, it
kisha - we :-X
yeri - you (plural)
mori - they :-X
eyak - everyone :-X

Home
okrenegwin - stone house (inanimate) :-X
okre - tent (/) :-X
gref - wall (/) :-X
davrakh - useful thing, app (inanimate) :-X
emrakh - gate (inanimate) :-X
ador - chair (inanimate) :-X
az - blade (inanimate) :-X
heffof - jug (inanimate) :-X
jolino - cooking pot (inanimate) :-X
khogar - word for one's apparel, clothes (inanimate) :-X
khogari - box, trunk, chest, cask (inanimate) :-X

Adjectives 2
reddi - skinny :-X
oiro - fat :-X
dik - fast :-X
vroz - slow :-X
erin - kind, good
mel - bad, evil :-X
toki - dumb :-X
ville - wise :-X
yofi - mad, crazy :-X
haj - strong
fish - cold :-X
afazh - hot :-X
afazhi - warm :-X

Verbs 2
reddilat - to be skinny :-X
oirolat - to be fat :-X
dikat - to be fast :-X
vrozat - to be slow :-X
erinat - to be kind, to be good :-X
melat - to be evil :-X
tokilat - to be dumb :-X
villat - to be wise :-X
yofilat - to be mad, to be crazy :-X
hajat - to be strong :-X
fishat - to be cold :-X
afazhat - to be hot :-X
afazhilat - to be warm :-X

Animals
rhoa - animal (/) :-X
jano - dog (inanimate) :-X
havzi - cat (/) :-X
dalfe - cow (inanimate) :-X
noah - bull (animate) :-X
dorvi - goat (inanimate) :-X
oqet - sheep (inanimate) :-X
qifo - boar / pig (inanimate) :-X
hrazef - horse (inanimate) :-X
jiz - chicken (animate) :-X
alegra - duck (inanimate) :-X

Conjunctions and Determiners
ma - and
ven - like, as
ei - all, every :-X
che - either, or :-X
loy - some, few, any, a bit of :-X
san - much, many :-X
zhille - any :-X

Adjectives 3
driv - dead :-X
thir - alive :-X
achra - smelly :-X
sorf - dirty :-X
gizikhven - sweet :-X
jelaven - sour :-X
zhifven - salty :-X
havziven - lazy :-X
ataki - first :-X
remek - asleep :-X
samva - broken :-X

Verbs 3
drivolat - to die :-X
drivat - to be dead :-X
thirat - to live :-X
achralat - to be smelly, to give of a smell :-X
sorfat - to be dirty :-X
gizikhvenat - to be sweet :-X
jelavenat - to be sour :-X
zhifvenat - to be salty :-X
havzivenat - to be lazy :-X
atakilat - to be first :-X
remekat - to sleep :-X
samvalat - to be broken ?
samvat - to be broken :-X
samvolat - to break :-X

Animals 2
gimi - mouse (/) :-X
afis - fly (/) :-X
giz - bee (/) :-X
hlizif - bear (animate) :-X
leqse - rat (inanimate) :-X
qosar - spider (/) :-X
ver - wolf (/) :-X
yetto - frog (inanimate) :-X
zir - bird (/) :-X
mawizzi - rabbit (inanimate) :-X
eshina - fish (/) :-X
gezri - snake (animate) :-X

Home 2
orzi - shoe (inanimate) :-X
timvir - book (/) :-X
yot - fruit (inanimate) :-X
thom - juice (inanimate) :-X
hadaen - food (inanimate) :-X
gavat - meat (inanimate) :-X
vinte - portion of meat (inanimate) :-X
jelli - cheese (inanimate) :-X
nindi - sausage (inanimate) :-X
qazer - apple (inanimate) :-X
zhif - salt (inanimate) :-X

Outside 2
krazaaj - mountain (inanimate) :-X
eyel - rain (inanimate) :-X
asavva - sky (animate)
shekh - sun (inanimate) :-X
jalan - moon (animate) :-X
shierak - star (animate) :-X
vaes - city (inanimate) :-X
os - path, road (inanimate) :-X
rhaesh - land, country (animate)

Numbers 0 - 10
som - zero (0) :-X
at - one (1)
akat - two (2)
sen - three (3)
tor - four (4)
mek - five (5)
zhinda - six (6)
fekh - seven (7)
ori - eight (8 )
qazat - nine (9)
thi - ten (10)

People
voj - person (animate) :-X
okeo - friend, trustee (animate) :-X
mahrazh - man (animate)
rakh - boy, lamb (/) :-X
rakhi - boy (insult) (/) :-X
chiori - woman (animate) :-X
nayat - girl (inanimate) :-X
yalli - child (animate) :-X
enta - baby, infant (/) :-X
tokik - fool (animate) :-X

Elements
sorfo - dirt (inanimate) :-X
vorsa - fire (animate)
chaf - wind (animate) :-X
eveth - water (inanimate) :-X
jesh - ice (inanimate) :-X

Verbs 4
tat - to do :-X
elat - to go :-X
adakhat - to eat :-X
ammemat - to play a musical instrument :-X
astolat - to speak :-X
astat - to say :-X
dirgat - to think :-X
emat - to smile :-X
ezhirat - to dance :-X

Body
khado - body (animate)
nhare - head (animate) :-X
lenta - neck (/) :-X
elme - shoulder (inanimate)
qora - hand, arm (animate) :-X
tir - finger (inanimate) :-X
gango - belly (inanimate) :-X
khaor - waist (inanimate) :-X
rhae - foot, leg (/) :-X
hlofa - wrist, ankle
vem - knee, elbow (/) :-X
vemish - heel of the hand or foot (inanimate)
irge - back (/) :-X
ilek - skin (/) :-X

Phrases
Athdavrazar(!) - Excellent!
Me nem nesa - It is known
Vosecchi(!) - No way! :-X
Hash yer dothrae chek? - How are you?
Anha garvok(!) - I’m hungry!
I’m hungry(!) - I'm thirsty!
Yer zheanae (sekke) - You’re (very) beautiful
San athchomari yeraan(!) - Thank you! (a lot of honor to you) :-X
Fonas chek(!) - goodbye (Hunt well! - Farewell)

Body 2
noreth - hair (inanimate) :-X
vish - forehead (/) :-X
hatif - face (/) :-X
tih - eye (animate) :-X
riv - nose, tip (/) :-X
dech - cheek (inanimate) :-X
gomma - mouth of a human (/) :-X
heth - lips, rim (inanimate)
lekh - tongue (inanimate) :-X
chare - ear (inanimate) :-X
vik - chin (inanimate)
shirane - beard (inanimate) :-X

Verbs 5
ezolat - to learn :-X
ezzolat - to teach :-X
fejat - to hate :-X
frakhat - to touch, to reach to touch :-X
frakholat - to feel :-X
garvolat - to grow hungry, to hunger :-X
fevelat - to thirst :-X
ifat - to walk :-X
layafat - to be happy :-X

Seasons
vorsaska - summer (inanimate) :-X
eyelke - spring (inanimate) :-X
chafka - autumn (inanimate) :-X
aheshke - winter (inanimate) :-X

Other Nouns
vosi - nothing (inanimate) :-X
atthirar - life (inanimate) :-X
athdrivar - death (inanimate) :-X
athfiezar - love (inanimate) :-X
eme - smile (inanimate) :-X
zoqwa - kiss (/) :-X
lekh - language (animate) :-X
athjerizar - discussion (inanimate) :-X
ato - one, something (inanimate) :-X
vekhikh - object, thing (inanimate) :-X

Verbs 6
hoyalat - to sing :-X
ifat - to walk :-X
indelat - to drink :-X
jasat - to laugh :-X
khezhat - to be sad :-X
zhilat - to love someone :-X
jolinat - to cook :-X
lommat - to bathe :-X
lanat - to run :-X

Colors
vishiya - color :-X
dahaan - green :-X
kazga - black :-X
nozhoven - brown :-X
reaven - purple :-X
shiqeth - grey :-X
veltor - yellow :-X
vishiya - color :-X
zasqa - white :-X
thelis - blue :-X
theyaven - pink :-X
virzeth - red :-X

Other Nouns 2
athvilajerar - war (inanimate) :-X
qoy - blood (inanimate) :-X
athrokhar - fear (inanimate) :-X
athvillar - wisdom (inanimate)
atthirarido - dream (inanimate) :-X
dirge - thought, idea (inanimate) :-X
hake - name (animate)
ase - word, command (animate) :-X

Verbs 7
laqat - to cry :-X
nesolat - to learn :-X
nevalat - to sit :-X
nevasolat - to sit down :-X
chilayat - to lie (body position)
chilat - to lie down :-X
qafat - to ask
tihat - to look, to see :-X
zoqwat - to kiss :-X

________________________________________

Problems
ershe and foz both mean "old"

ohazhat - to become heavy, not to be heavy ??
what baout ville - wise (ajd) and the verb villat - to be wise. Looks liek an exception. How do we know the other unrecorded verbs that come from adjectives
aren't exceptions too?

haj - strong (adj); hajolat - to grow strong. Is hajat - to be strong?

afazh (adj.) - hot; affazhat - to warm, to give warmth, to make hot. Is afazhat, to be hot? and afazhilat to be warm?

samva - broken
samvolat - to break
is samvalat - to be broken?

chilay (adj) - laying
chilat - to lie down
can we conclude that chilayat means to lie?

what is verb transitivity?

is irge - "back" meant as a part of the human body?

lenta - stem, neck; can this be the neck of a human?

Change log

14.2.2014
 - Added a Phrases level
 - Moved sky from Elements to Outside 2
 - Marked words that still lack an audio file
 - Added a Conjunctions and Determiners level
 - Added a Pronouns level

20.2.2014
 - Removed exclamation mark from chek in Everyday Words

5.5.2014
 - Removed nonexistent word from Conjunctions and Determiners
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 09, 2014, 06:18:50 am
I'll try to comment more later, hopefully, but some stuff to keep the discussion going...

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ershe and foz both mean "old"
Seems so. As far as we know, they are synonyms. Might be there is some difference in meaning, but we don't know it. Then again, a language without synonyms would be strange. We should expect more of them if and when the vocab grows.

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lenta - stem, neck; can this be the neck of a human?
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is irge - "back" meant as a part of the human body?
We've got a fair amount of our words with practically no context to go with. My guess would be that these are applicable to human body parts, but I can't say I have any proof.

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chilay (adj) - laying
chilat - to lie down
can we conclude that chilayat means to lie?
No. Remember how I said "All Dothraki adjectives have also stative verb forms (all true adjectives, that is - not participles)." Well, this chilay is participle, not a true verb. The -y ending is a dead giveaway. Chilat is not in dynamic form (I'll come to that later), so the most accurate translation is probably a stative to lie.

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ohazhat - to become heavy, not to be heavy ??
no, no. Ohazholat is "to become heavy", ohazat should be "to be heavy". You see, that -o- there is a bit tricky suffix-thingy, but at least almost always it's used to indicate that a verb is about a change and specifically abut a beginning of a change. So eg. chilat is probably about being lying, because simple Dothraki verbs tend to be by their core meaning stative. Then if you need to clearly use the verb to mark change, you derive the -o- form, which would be... chisolat, I think. This is not universal conjugation level stuff, but very common, productive derivation pattern.

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what is verb transitivity?
Transitivity tells you if the verb takes an object. It's kinda short extra hint on what a verb means. If the verb is intransitive, it does not take (straight) object, so if you have eg. intransitive to burn (virsalat), you'll know that "the house burned" ("okre virsa") is good use and "I burned the house" (*"anha virsa okre") won't work. Useful, eh.

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haj - strong (adj); hajolat - to grow strong. Is hajat - to be strong?
afazh (adj.) - hot; affazhat - to warm, to give warmth, to make hot. Is afazhat, to be hot? and afazhilat to be warm?
Ya. Should be.

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what baout ville - wise (ajd) and the verb villat - to be wise. Looks liek an exception. How do we know the other unrecorded verbs that come from adjectives aren't exceptions too?
samva - broken
samvolat - to break
is samvalat - to be broken?
Argh, yes. Sorry. I tried to dodge this issue with some muddling "usually" and "probably" and "practically" type of words. Maybe it's a bit bigger issue than I'd like to think.
There are always some complications, as Dothraki does not try to be nice-to-learn artificial-like language; it tries to be warts-and-all natural-like language. You should always expect some nasty details, and with Dothraki you should expect the complications to be about epenthesis more often than not.
In this case it goes like this: You have an adjective/verb stem. If the stem is nice one like ath, you'll have an adjective ath and stative verb athat. But if the stem is eg. samv, Dothraki don't want to use it as is as an adjective, because the ending consonant cluster is too cumbersome. Then they jam an epenthetic vowel in the end, a vowel that is usually e, but is sometimes rarely something else, like in samva. But the ending vowel isn't part of stem, so it's just forgotten from verb form. Past singular of course has the same problem, but it always takes -e, never something else, AFAIK.
So, yeah, "to be broken samvat, assamvat proves that beyond any reasonable doubt, and I'm pretty sure we've discussed samva specifically with Peterson, even though surprisingly we apparently haven't added samvat to the vocab.
Damn it's good to have someone asking these questions. Thanks for the patience, hopefully you'll have it in spades.
I'd suggest you to not worry about this much, though. Some words, like fittelat may be wrong (could be fittat), but it's too frustrating to refrain from saying things like "I am short" just because we're not entirely sure about the whole scheme of fittat.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 10, 2014, 12:32:48 pm
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no, no. Ohazholat is "to become heavy", ohazat should be "to be heavy".
So let me get this straight...
Ohazh - heavy (adjective)
Ohazhat - to become heavy (intransitive verb)
Ohazholat - to become heavy (transitive verb)
Ohazat - to be heavy (but we don't know yet)
Did I get that right?

Quote
Transitivity tells you if the verb takes an object. It's kinda short extra hint on what a verb means. If the verb is intransitive, it does not take (straight) object, so if you have eg. intransitive to burn (virsalat), you'll know that "the house burned" ("okre virsa") is good use and "I burned the house" (*"anha virsa okre") won't work. Useful, eh.
So if I understand this correctly, because virsalat (to burn) is intransitive, we know it can mean "to be on fire" but not "to burn something"?
What about Ohazhat - to become heavy (intransitive) and Ohazholat - to become heavy (transitive)? Does this mean you could say "Chiori ohazh(e)" The woman became heavy? But how would you even use the verb in a transitive sense? I made something (become) heavy? I don't know :D

Some words, like fittelat may be wrong (could be fittat), but it's too frustrating to refrain from saying things like "I am short" just because we're not entirely sure about the whole scheme of fittat.
Yes. This is exactly what I had in mind with this course, while making it. Even though we may not know if a lot of these words even exist, the goal is to be able to speak the language. So I think we need to compensate, and if we see that we've made incorrect assumptions we should fix them as new data comes along. That's my take on it at least.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 10, 2014, 03:42:55 pm
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So let me get this straight...
Ohazh - heavy (adjective)
Ohazhat - to become heavy (intransitive verb)
Ohazholat - to become heavy (transitive verb)
Ohazat - to be heavy (but we don't know yet)
Did I get that right?
fukken shite, no. The lack of h is simply a typo. Even if I spend a lot of time correcting others' mistakes, I'm more than capable making my own - read critically, please. Both ohazhat (to be heavy) and ohazholat (to become heavy) are intransitive, I'm quite sure. Where did you get the idea ohazholat should be transitive? On our vocab page vtr. means transitive, vin. means intransitive and v. means that we do not take any stand on transitivity, which is silly on this case, I'll give you that. It's silly not to mark ohazholat as intransitive, 'cause it being transitive would be strange, but people who add words are not always willing to make educated guesses. Saying just v. can't go wrong even if it's less informative.

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Yes. This is exactly what I had in mind with this course, while making it. Even though we may not know if a lot of these words even exist, the goal is to be able to speak the language. So I think we need to compensate, and if we see that we've made incorrect assumptions we should fix them as new data comes along. That's my take on it at least.
And I agree, at least to some extent. It's good to learn relatively early, where we are on sure footing, and what's iffy, but right in the beginning it does not matter so much.

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simonof - grandfather (animate)
kristasof - grandmother (inanimate)
This, by the way is so strange I suspect there's an error. It's likely both animacies have been deduced by us, very likely that at least one has. Words for human beings are almost always animate (and they are pretty much the only words where you can tell with any confidence from what they denote to that they are animate - animals, body parts etc. go which way ever; uncountables on the other hand seem to be inanimate wihout a fail), though I think ohara really is inanimate, because I see no reasonable way to mistake that. So it generally it should be a reasonably surefooted guess that words for grandfather and grandmother are animate. But usually derivational animacy assignment seems to trump, and all /-of/ words should be inanimate. I think we'll ask mr. Peterson about that.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 11, 2014, 01:38:38 am
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fukken shite, no.
I'm getting my info from the dictionary. Ver 3.083 is the latest version right?

(https://forum.dothraki.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FaJZtJmz.png&hash=0c647c851ed1213787ec07a84dfd2fe62dc75067)

According to the dictionary both ohazhat and ohazholat mean to become heavy and ohazhat is marked as intransitive. Ohazholat on the other hand is not transitive, my bad.

The grandma and grandpa animacy also comes from the dictionary.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 11, 2014, 09:41:32 am
On a side note, I tested what happens when you change words in the memrise course and found out that memrise doesn't warn the users that there have been changes made or anything. But thankfully each course has it's own forum, so I will be able to warn users about the changes in the words that they might already have learned. Also, do we have any kind of collection of spoken word audio? Would be great for the course.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Hrakkar on February 11, 2014, 12:43:38 pm
On a side note, I tested what happens when you change words in the memrise course and found out that memrise doesn't warn the users that there have been changes made or anything. But thankfully each course has it's own forum, so I will be able to warn users about the changes in the words that they might already have learned. Also, do we have any kind of collection of spoken word audio? Would be great for the course.

Very good. Luckily, things don't change much here. 3.083 is indeed the current version of the dictionary, but there are about half a dozen words, etc. waiting to be added (They are keeping me so busy at work and with Na'vi that I have been a little slow in updating). As for spoken examples, look at David Peterson's blog at Dothraki.com He has lots of spoken examples there, and I would use his examples above anything else. When he speaks Dothraki, his voice is totally different than when he speaks English.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 12, 2014, 04:13:19 am
Yah. I recommend using the wiki's vocab page (http://wiki.dothraki.org/Vocabulary (http://wiki.dothraki.org/Vocabulary)), if you are conveniently connected to interwebs. It's kinda sorta less official, but easier to update, so it's ever so slightly more up to date. And it's a bit more versatile too, so there's some extra info like some quotes (needs more) and past singulars on verbs and accusatives on nouns to help pintpoint irregularities. And you can edit it, so when errors or shortcomings are found, you can correct them. And we can undo your edits, so if you make errors, we'll catch them and edit the wiki back to how it was. In the case of ohazhat, though, the error seems to be in the transition from wiki vocab to pdf dictionary. And the simonof/kristasof strangeness won't be resolved without asking DJP.

By the way, have you checked the word group page
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http://wiki.dothraki.org/Dothraki_Word_Groups
Daenerys maintains?
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 13, 2014, 01:39:43 am
I didn't know about the word group page, it seems to be a bit outdated though. Anyway, I received permission from mr. Peterson to use his audio for pronunciation examples. Today I'll try to stuff all the words into the Memrise course and scavenge through some audio. Is one of you guys going to help me with a list of pronouns? I'm sure anna and anha could be in there. Maybe all the pronouns for the present tense conjugation table?
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 13, 2014, 03:09:37 am
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I didn't know about the word group page, it seems to be a bit outdated though.
More a work in progress, I think. The latest update is from this year: vik was added.

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Today I'll try to stuff all the words into the Memrise course and scavenge through some audio
Are you planning on extracting words? ... Are you planning on putting them up on the wiki?

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Is one of you guys going to help me with a list of pronouns? I'm sure anna and anha could be in there. Maybe all the pronouns for the present tense conjugation table?
Pronouns work as irregular nouns (as they usually do), so no present tense conjugation (that would be verb stuff), just the five cases and plurals. You have checked http://wiki.dothraki.org/Pronouns (http://wiki.dothraki.org/Pronouns)? Person pronoun list gives the full 35 (28 unique) scheme, but if you want to start with fewer, shafka is easy to leave for later, ablative and allative are less fundamental than nominative, accusative and genitive, so they can be skipped too if need be, and plurals are little less useful too.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 13, 2014, 07:21:42 am
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Are you planning on extracting words? ... Are you planning on putting them up on the wiki?
I'm extracting words from Mr. Petersons audio files as we speak. Wasn't planing to put them on the wiki. Do you want me to? I can give you the whole package when I'm done. I'll have a look at the pronouns later, today I really dug deep into this audio stuff, so I want to finish this first.
Also I kinda forgot about a whole bunch of useful words that I think I should add like conjunctions, determiners and maybe some prepositions.

I added was going to add the word chek (good) to the everyday words level, after I have seen it being used on Petersons blog, but now I double checked the meaning on the wiki and see that it says "well". But that can also be good right? For instance if my Dothraki wife says she made some pancakes for breakfast, my reply would be chek as in "good". Is that correct? And if it is, can I put it into the course as such (chek - good, well)?

EDIT: Silly me, as I was writing the above, I forgot where I saw the word chek but as I went back I saw that it was a direct translation from Mr. Peterson: Chek! - Good! But I'm still not sure if that exclamation point changes anything.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 13, 2014, 08:46:12 am
I think the course has evolved enough of an outline for me to be able to post the link here if you want to check it out. This is a work in progress and it's not yet available to find by searching on Memrise and it shouldn't be used for learning just yet. Take a look: http://www.memrise.com/course/219796/dothraki-for-beginners/ (http://www.memrise.com/course/219796/dothraki-for-beginners/)
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Hrakkar on February 13, 2014, 12:53:31 pm
VEry good! When you think this is ready, you can start a thread for it that can be stickied.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 15, 2014, 12:42:47 am
Allright here's the latest update. I contacted Sunquan8094 on the forums, via email and via youtube and asked permission to link to his videos and to use his audio in the course.

I've made the post where I put all the words (on page 1 of this thread) my main list. I added an update log to the post.

Qvaak this is where I will need your help in order to finish this. Memrise has an option to add multimedia levels in between the other levels. I decided to use this in order to explain things with text. For instance, the first level is just a text explaining in more detail what the course is about and that users should also be learning grammar along side it. Following is the first level - Everyday words. After that is another text level that explains what noun animacy is. Then the users learn some nouns, and some adjectives. And after the adjectives there is a level with verbs that come from the previously learned adjectives. Before this I need to put in another text level with an explanation why adjectives can be used as verbs. I cannot for the life of me put this together as I have no real idea how this is used and what the actual rules are. I really need someone to put this together. It needs to look like a short text explaining that this exists and then an example that shows how it works.
Pretty please with sugar on top!

EDIT:
Wait... I might have just figured it out :D
so.. if you have the adjective davra - useful and the noun jolino - cooking pot., you could say:
Useful cooking pot: Jolino davra. And we used the adjective from of davra.
The cooking pot is useful: Jolino davrae. And we used the verb davralat.

Is that correct?
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 15, 2014, 03:50:10 am
I think your idea of how to use chek is right. You can use it as a response "good", and probably not just in adverbial sense ("How are you doing?" "Good.") but most likely also in interjection way ("I made pancakes." "Good."). I'm not absolutely sure about that latter though, because you can respond to "I made pancakes." with "Athdavrazar," and basically chek should be strictly adverbial. English isn't typically very restricting about these things, but to make the difference clearer, you might compare chek to "nicely". So if "chek!" works for pancakes, it's probably more a contraction from something in the vain of "Nicely done!" or "Things are going nicely!" than from adjective or noun sense of "good".

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EDIT:
Wait... I might have just figured it out :D
so.. if you have the adjective davra - useful and the noun jolino - cooking pot., you could say:
Useful cooking pot: Jolino davra. And we used the adjective from of davra.
The cooking pot is useful: Jolino davrae. And we used the verb davralat.

Is that correct?
Yep. Looks right to me. Can you manage now or do you still need me to write some kind of explanation for something, 'cause I'm not sure if I understand too clearly what kind of explanation you need? I can fix up something, but there's a good chance that it won't be exactly what you are looking for. Basically all I understand with any clarity is explained under wiki's learning pages. We know a lot more in scraps, but I've found it hard to update the wiki in any coherent way further than it is now. Some day soonish I gotta get back to updating and sqeeze some more sense from all half-knows, but that ain't easy (and I like to repeat: you can help. I'm just a student too, even if a bit more advanced than most. The wiki is not my project, it's a project I participate alongside with other people and more the merrier).

I'm checking through the course. Love the audio. You bring so much extra value with that. Only complaint so far is that "chek!" should not have the exclamation mark. The other interjections like m'ath have as much reason to come with an exclamation mark as chek, so it's inconsistent and IMO should just be dropped (rather than adding to other possible interjections, which just would bring more problems). It also sticks out in multiple choice thingies, which slightly defeats the game element, and the game element is a part of the learning process.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 16, 2014, 01:30:31 pm
Yeah.. the chek thing is a good point. I got it from Mr. Peterson's blog when I was looking for audio here: http://www.dothraki.com/2012/07/comic-con-again-off-again/ (http://www.dothraki.com/2012/07/comic-con-again-off-again/)

So what if I moved it to the phrases level and kept the exclamation mark? Let me know what you think.
Also, I've been giving the good vs well a thought and I figured, what if chek, even if it means well or "nicely" as you said, could also be used as a response to "I made some pancakes". The question is, what does the English "good" mean when we reply with it? And more importantly, what could a Dothraki chek mean? What if instead of "I made some pancakes" - "That is a good thing", we are actually saying "things are well" / "all is good", as in stating your current change in overall satisfaction. I think a word that means "well" could be used for that. I may be way off here and I'm not sure if I'm making any sense. Just a thought that passed my mind.


On to the adjectives that can be verbs explanation. I will try to write it myself. I'll put it right here for your comments and criticisms. So imagine, if you will, that you are a learner going through my course:

 - You've been told in a block of text that this is a course that teaches you Dothraki and that you should learn some grammar along side it. Also, before you start, have a look through sunquan's pronunciation video.

 - You have now started learning the Everyday words and after 3 days of practice you feel ready to advance to the next level.

 - Now you learn about noun animacy in another block of text.

 - You start learning the words for Family members.

 - You start learning words for things that you find Outside.

 - Now you come upon your first level of Adjectives

 - So after you learn some adjectives you stumble upon yet another block of text explaining how the adjectives you just learned can be used as verbs:

Adjectival Verbs

In Dothraki some verbs work as adjectives. In the following levels you will learn some words that are nothing more than verb forms of the adjectives that you have learned in the previous level. So let's take for example a noun and an adjective that you have already learned:

qevir - forest (noun)
zhokwa - big (adjective)

Now if you've been learning any grammar yet you might have already learned that adjectives come after the words that they describe. Let's put our two words together and from a sentence. There are two ways we can do this:

Qevir zhokwa - Big forest.
Qevir zhokwae - The forest is big.

In the first sentence we used the adjective zhokwa to describe the forest.
In the second sentence we used the word zhokwae which is a conjugated form of the verb zhokwalat - to be big.

To learn more about conjugation check out this youtube video: Dothraki Tutorial Lesson 1 - Pronouns and Present Tense (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA7ksIgiZKo#)



 - And then in the next level you learn the verbs which are basically all the same words as in the Adjectives level before that.

Was that correct and clear enough?

There is another thing. It has probably become apparent that English is not my native language. So I would really appreciate it if you guys corrected me on any awkward or incorrect sentences, descriptions or titles that I might have produced in the course. Thanks!
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 19, 2014, 03:40:54 am
Things that I need before I can publish this course:

 - A conclusion to the chek! dilemma.
 - A confirmation that the adjectival verb instructions are correct.



Other things that I am waiting for:

 - Sunquan8094's answer and permission to use his voice.


All I'm doing now is waiting for a bunch of replies and we're done. Thanks a bunch for all the help so far.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Qvaak on February 19, 2014, 11:07:29 am
Yeah. Sorry this took a moment. Sometimes it takes much longer than this, though, especially if a response can't be thrown in a short passing notion.

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Also, I've been giving the good vs well a thought and I figured, what if chek, even if it means well or "nicely" as you said, could also be used as a response to "I made some pancakes". The question is, what does the English "good" mean when we reply with it? And more importantly, what could a Dothraki chek mean? What if instead of "I made some pancakes" - "That is a good thing", we are actually saying "things are well" / "all is good", as in stating your current change in overall satisfaction. I think a word that means "well" could be used for that.
Yeah. That's pretty much what I was trying to say. In English That is good. is IMO the dominating interpretation, but that does not need to mean Dothraki would work in the same way. Chek might garner widened use just because it seems adjective/noun based alternatives seem to turn heavier.

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So what if I moved it to the phrases level and kept the exclamation mark? Let me know what you think.
Either way sounds good to me. Drop the exclamation mark and keep on the Everyday Words or add a capital letter start and move to Phrases.

Adjectival verbs:
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In Dothraki some verbs work as adjectives. In the following levels you will learn some words that are nothing more than verb forms of the adjectives that you have learned in the previous level.
I think the first sentence isn't right, and isn't needed either. Just start with "In the following [...]" and IMO you'll do good.

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Now if you've been learning any grammar yet you might have already learned that adjectives come after the words that they describe. Let's put our two words together and from a sentence. There are two ways we can do this:

Qevir zhokwa - Big forest.
Qevir zhokwae - The forest is big.

In the first sentence we used the adjective zhokwa to describe the forest.
In the second sentence we used the word zhokwae which is a conjugated form of the verb zhokwalat - to be big.
"Big forest" isn't a complete sentence - and qevir zhokwa is neither as far as this discussion goes. That's a major wrinkle in this explanation, but how to tackle it? My brain hurts. Maybe just vaguefy:
Let's put our two words together. There are two ways we can do this:

Qevir zhokwa - Big forest.
Qevir zhokwae - The forest is big.

In the first sentence we used the adjective zhokwa to describe the forest.
In the second sentence we used the word zhokwae which is a conjugated form of the verb zhokwalat - to be big.


Noun animacy:
Quote
Because Dothraki is not a finished language, animacy has not yet been determined for every noun. In this case the noun will have (/) next to it.
This isn't exactly right. I'm pretty sure mr. Peterson knows the animacy of every noun he has created. He just haven't told *us* animacy of every noun we have found.

There are roughly five kinds of words in Dothraki
1) Words we know fairly well, words that we have discussed with David at least in passing or that David has otherwise introduced to us properly. We know what ever crucial "meta data" is needed: animacy, stem, epenthesis etc. And we also know enough about the meaning to be confident at least about some core use of the word.
2) Words that we haven't met, really, but which can be derived through so stable productive pattern that they can be considered known, with only a small reservation.
3) Words that have cropped up in some text David has made, be it dialogue from the show or some external source like conlang relay. These words are often very narrowly understood. Sometimes some information like animacy can be inferred (eg. because of the case in which we met the word), but often not.
4) Words that David has created, but haven't intoruced to us at all and haven't used in any publicly available text (probably in no text at all).
5) Words that are in-world supposed to exist, but which David has not yet created.

Maybe you could say "Because Dothraki is not publicly available in it's entirety [...]"
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 20, 2014, 02:46:28 am
Okay. I fixed all of the above. The course is ready to be made public. I used a popular screenshot from the show as the course image. I hope that's not a problem. Mr. Peterson said that I should contact him so he can twitter about it when it's ready, and I will do that now.

Will you put a link to it on the wiki? I noticed that there are already three links to memrise courses on there, but neither of them exist anymore.
Thanks again for all the help.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Hrakkar on February 20, 2014, 07:36:41 pm
Ma Ifak, I stickied this thread for you. Could you edit your first post to have a link to your Memrise lessons?
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Ifak on February 21, 2014, 12:36:18 am
Wow. Thanks :D
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: marc765 on June 08, 2015, 07:20:52 am
Hi. I have no idea if you're still active on here, but I want to thank you for creating the course. It's been really helpful for me in my quest to learn Dothraki. One small quirk, I noticed, is in some of the multiple choice questions, some possible answers are 'test' or 'test2'. It's not a big deal, and should be an easy fix.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: Hrakkar on June 08, 2015, 01:19:30 pm
Marc,
    Thanks for the good words, and I am glad the Memrise course still works. I've played with it a little myself, but unfortunately do not have as much time these days for language learning as I would like. You may wish to try sending a PM to user Ifak and see if he/she responds.

The dictionary and wiki are also up to date, save 2 words. This is true, even though the dictionary is currently in 'Test mode'. I've had to turn my attention to urgent legislative matters, and digging an 80 foot long ditch on my property. By mid-June, I should be able to do some more work on these items.

You might also take a look at David Peterson's book on learning Dothraki. It is widely available. Use it with the online course for best results. Its a little different approach than Memrise, and I think, less confusing.
Title: Re: Dothraki memrise courses
Post by: marc765 on June 09, 2015, 07:00:56 pm
Hey Hrakkar, thanks for the reply. It looks like Ifak hasn't been on since last year, so I doubt they're visiting this forum anymore. The main gripe I have with Memrise is you have to use something else to learn things like grammar and pronunciation. However, for learning words, it's great. Thanks for the book on Dothraki; I think I'll order it soon.