Messages

46

David's Dothraki blog / Re: Dothra Ma Khalasaroon - words

« on: March 30, 2013, 06:20:17 am »

Seems like the site is over capacity which isn't helping.

BTW, I added a few new words from a quick glance at Davids dictionary in this video 'Game of Thrones': What To Expect in Season 3

47

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 27, 2013, 12:33:45 pm »

That system seems similar to what the site Memrise uses. Someone created a small Dothraki vocabulary on that site: http://www.memrise.com/course/10040/dothraki-vocabulary/

If you're already making flash cards and if you're up for it you could perhaps create the cards on that site instead so that we all could take advantage of it.

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Announcements / Re: IRC chats among ourselves

« on: March 18, 2013, 02:42:51 pm »

David sends a message that he won't make the chat tonight since he will be at a Game of Thrones premiere.

49

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 17, 2013, 11:28:31 pm »

Why is graddakh graddakh!?

Dunno. AFAIK we don't have any other words from the same root.

I think what Jasi is referring to is that when you type the word s.h.i.t. on the forum it comes out as graddakh. That's just a profanity filter on the forum that I had a little fun with. graddakh is basically the Dothraki word for s.h.i.t.

50

Beginners / Re: Help needed for a senior thesis

« on: March 17, 2013, 12:11:51 pm »

Sorry for the double post. I have a question about vekhat: there's a specific reason why it assignes the genitive to the subject or it's just an irregularity?

We think it's just an irregularity but there is probably some historical reason for it. I don't think we've gotten an explanation for why it does that and so far I it's the only verb that works that way.

51

Beginners / Re: Translating a short (Seinfeld-Dothraki) comedy sketch

« on: March 15, 2013, 04:49:40 pm »

Wow, seems the rewriting never ends.  A friend really wanted to jump in and do a scene at the very end.  He wants to be Kramer and pop in.  He flippantly says hi to Jorgo and then offers Jerry some of the game he apparently caught. The scene goes as follows. 
----------
Kramer barges in holding a bloody piece of meat.

KRAMER
Hey Jorgo.
(to Jerro)
Hey Buddy, you want some?

Any chance I could get a translation on those dialogue lines?  Sorry, this will be the last.  Also, I'd like to get your names or whatever handles you'd prefer for a thank you in the credits.

How about this:

M'ath zhey Jorgo  - Hello, Jorgo

Hale zhey okeo, yer zali lekh?  - Hey friend, do you want a taste?

You could of course use either M'ath or hale in both cases if you wish. M'ath is just a simple greeting while hale is more of an exclamation with a little more emphasis and attention grabbing.

"ingsve" is fine for the credits.

52

Beginners / Re: Help needed for a senior thesis

« on: March 15, 2013, 06:52:26 am »

I was looking at the syntax page, and while reading the questions section I noticed that Fin shafka okki? it's translated with which will you choose?

Can you explain  to me why there's no future tense's prefix?

It may be a stupid question, but I'm trying to understand how things work xD

That seems to be a mistake or simply just an imperfect translation of the English. In English you can often hear people using the future tense of choose even in situations where the choice is clearly in the present. For example, someone picks up an apple from the table and says "I choose this apple" or they might in the same situation say "I will choose this apple". These both examples in the given scenario have the exact same practical meaning eventhough the future tense is used in one example.

It would probably be more clear on the syntax page to change the English part to "Which do you choose?" to avoid confusion.

53

Beginners / Re: Translating a short (Seinfeld-Dothraki) comedy sketch

« on: March 14, 2013, 02:51:44 pm »

I think the translitteration of Seinfeld would be something like Saynfeld perhaps. I'm not really sure though and Saynfeld looks a bit weird so that might just be confusing as a title I think. I would just call it something generic like "If Seinfeld was Dothraki"

54

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 14, 2013, 02:46:12 pm »

So for a word like Akkelenat (to decide, to judge), would the root word be akkelen?  And if it was, would you say Anha akkelenak? And the negative would then be Anha vos akkelenot?

The root is actually kelen which means "patterned" or "orderly" and akkelenat uses the causative construction (The real one this time, I hope). The person deciding is the one who makes things orderly in a sense. Like Hrakkar already pointed out the negative for first person would be akkelenok. If you are unsure you can check this page in the wiki: http://wiki.dothraki.org/dothraki/Verb_Conjugation#Conjugation_Table

55

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 14, 2013, 02:40:09 pm »

This is true for most verb conjugations in the negative but not all. For example in the present tense in the third person (he, she, it) when the verb stem ends in a consonant the conjugation would be -i in both positive and negative grade. Me adakhi "She is eating" and Me vos adakhi "She is not eating"

Nope. You have managed to totally confuse yourself. It's Me adakha and Me vos adakho. The first person forms and third person singular are the conjunctions in which the negative grade is visible even with consonant ending stems. Others, however: Yer adakhi, Yer vos adakhi; Yeri adakhi, Yeri vos adakhi; Mori adakhi, Mori vos adakhi.

Haha, I think I'm getting a bit rusty and too confident to double check the basics.

56

Beginners / Re: Help needed for a senior thesis

« on: March 14, 2013, 02:36:30 pm »

Me again

I was looking at comparative and superlative adjectives: would it be right to say that they uses circumfixes?

If I want to be more specific I mean, because Wiki just says

in Dothraki this is done by adding certain affixes to the adjective.

But if I take the stem out, wouldn't they be a(s)--(a)n for the comparison and a(s)---(a)naz for the superlative?

(With as- if the adjective starts with a vowel, I think)

Or they are just considered prefix + suffix?

Yes, I think they are properly identified as circumfixes. I guess you could perhaps argue that the superlative -az is a suffix to the comparative a(s)- -(a)n but I think that is just splitting hairs.

57

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 13, 2013, 11:07:09 pm »

It's really interesting that the drawn out form of these verbs begins with a v but isn't (to me, anyway) an obvious prefix.

It's actually a circumfix that looks like this v(i)- -(e)r. The vowels in parenthesis are only added if the original root starts or ends in a consonant.

The root of astat is ast so when you add the circumfix it becomes vaster and then the verbending -at is added to form vasterat.

If you look at the other example Qvaak gave then you have tihat "to see" where the root is tih. When you add the circumfix it becomes vitiher + at = vitiherat

That's neat. Does it work for all verbs, or only a select few (I imagine there's probably some it wouldn't work for)?

You guys are really helpful; I hope I'm not bothering anyone, fool that I am.

No bother. Just happy to be able to help. It helps us get better at the language as well.

I think it has to make some semantic sense at least so there are probably verbs where it doesn't work. Usually with things like this David might have to coin the exact meaning of the durative form. For example the verb jazat means "to block" while the durative vijazerat means "to protect". It's not immediately obvious that continually blocking would mean "protecting" rather than something else so some officially confirmed judgement is often needed.

58

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 13, 2013, 11:01:17 pm »

... I have no idea what a positive grade present tense third person singular is.  I know the tense and what person it's in, but what makes a sentence a positive grade versus a negative grade (and is it singular because there's only one subject, or what)?  I'm not coming at this from the perspective of someone who's familiar with the nuances of English grammar.

It's singular because the subject is a single entity rather than for example a group which would make it plural (we, they etc).

Positive grade is just the normal form where everything works just as expected. It's the negative grade that introduces some additional inflections. In Dothraki when a sentence is expressing the negative there is also a marking added to the verb. In English you don't see a difference in the verb between "I'm riding" and "I'm not riding" other than the added negator "not". In Dothraki you would also change the verb in the negative so Anha dothrak would become Anha vos dothrok. This is true for most verb conjugations in the negative but not all. For example in the present tense in the third person (he, she, it) when the verb stem ends in a consonant the conjugation would be -i in both positive and negative grade. Me adakhi "She is eating" and Me vos adakhi "She is not eating"

59

Beginners / Re: Jasi's Journal [The Riddle Game]

« on: March 13, 2013, 10:45:28 pm »

It's really interesting that the drawn out form of these verbs begins with a v but isn't (to me, anyway) an obvious prefix.

It's actually a circumfix that looks like this v(i)- -(e)r. The vowels in parenthesis are only added if the original root starts or ends in a consonant.

The root of astat is ast so when you add the circumfix it becomes vaster and then the verbending -at is added to form vasterat.

If you look at the other example Qvaak gave then you have tihat "to see" where the root is tih. When you add the circumfix it becomes vitiher + at = vitiherat

60

Beginners / Re: Help needed for a senior thesis

« on: March 13, 2013, 10:27:00 pm »

Trying to convey in Italian some English explanation of Dothraki, it's a little bit tricky, but I'll make it!

I had some issues with the irresultative (verb) class, but mostly because I had to change the examples, because the Italian meaning of to stab doesn't go well with fruit, imo.  (in the irresultative version)
 
So I change it in rakh vinde jan (the boy stabbed the dog) and rakh vinde janaan (the boy stabbed at the dog)... the allative case has the right declension?

Yes, that is correct. In the first example we know that the boy actually managed to stab the dog (that bastard) and in the second example we only know that the boy attempted to stab the dog but we don't know if he was successful or not.