Learn Dothraki and Valyrian

Learn Dothraki => Dothraki Language Updates => Topic started by: ingsve on April 05, 2011, 07:26:42 am

Title: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on April 05, 2011, 07:26:42 am
As mentioned in one of the IRC chats, David Peterson was recently interviewed by The Daily Beast. An article has now appeared that among other things feature material from that interview. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-04/game-of-thrones-10-secrets-about-hbos-adaptation-of-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-by-george-rr-martin/ (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-04/game-of-thrones-10-secrets-about-hbos-adaptation-of-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-by-george-rr-martin/)

David talks about some of his inspirations for the language and also gives us a new phrase from the books:

Vizhadi vizhadaan norethi shafki

Silver for the silver of your hair.

This obviously gives us two new words:

vizhad=silver 
noreth=hair

Title: Re: New article that features some dothraki.
Post by: Jenny on April 05, 2011, 07:50:05 am
Good find!

I love the word for hair  :D
Title: Re: New article that features some dothraki.
Post by: ingsve on April 05, 2011, 07:51:44 am
Good find!

I love the word for hair  :D

Well, I can't take too much credit for finding it. Just following links on twitter really.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on April 26, 2011, 08:57:57 am
There is an article about dothraki in the current issue of Wired magazine (at least in the UK). You would probably need to find the paper copy of the magazine to read it.

In that article David Peterson goes through various steps of how to create your own language and there are several new words presented in it:

Moves lekhes zhorre shafki which means "invent your own language".
vado - turnip
lanat - to run
alana - will run, gives us more info on how to conjugate verbs that end in a consonant.
athhayozar ahhaqe lajasares The waiting frustrated the army.
riv loqami - the tip of the arrow
asavva - sky

There was also a list of all the pronouns:
anha - I
yer - you
me - he, she, it
kisha - we
yeri - you
mori - they

Finally he said that the idiom that means "now or never" literally translates as "the stew is colling in the air" but there was no dothraki translation for that phrase.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on May 31, 2011, 04:47:32 am
David Peterson has a new blogpost up that features some new words:

http://dedalvs.livejournal.com/48259.html (http://dedalvs.livejournal.com/48259.html)

First of all we get a translation of one of the first Dothraki sentences we saw:

Anha tih mahrazhes fin kash chakat karlin. I once saw a man that lasted twenty miles.

This gives us a few new words:

kashat - to last
chakat - twenty
karlina - mile, distance gallopped in one leshitof

He then goes on to discuss some of the ways he decided that the Dothraki measure time and distance. Their time measurement is based on taking a long breath and distances are then based on how long a horse can more using various gaits during that time period. This gave us even more new words:

leshitat - to breathe
leshitof - "a great big breath", time period equivalent to two minutes
chetira - half mile, distance cantered in one leshitof.

Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on May 31, 2011, 04:58:12 am
Hehe. The language censor on the forum changed leshitat to les**tat. That's not really intended I guess. I changed it now though...And added a twist to the censor.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 13, 2011, 01:37:03 pm
David just posted a string of Dothraki insults on GRRMs liveblog...

This in response to the news that some scripts that David and Dan had sent to GRRM to auction off in Reno was stolen in the mail:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/234472.html (http://grrm.livejournal.com/234472.html)

Anyway, the post is as follows:

Quote
This has happened to me before (on a much smaller scale). My stepdad would always send me a birthday card with $5 in it when I was a kid. One year I received a card with an envelope that had been torn to shreds and then taped back together with the card inside. Only the money was missing. Obviously the value doesn't compare, but I remember the feeling.

At such times, a Dothraki threat seems most appropriate:

Goshas, zhey filkak: Anha vezak yera. Anha arissak foth ma vidrik qoraes anhoon memras ma vassok ven yera ven yallish. (Me vemma anna, jini.) Majin anha vanneva khadokh she sorfosor majin jano laz vosti chenoon ma jadro laz anasi tihoa. Yer otihi Rhaeshis Ajjalani avvos! Anha astak asqoy ki jini. Hethkas!

Which is roughly:

"Be certain, coward: I will find you. A will slice your throat and shove my hand inside it and make you talk like a small child. (This will amuse me.) And then I leave your corpse on the ground and the dogs will bite at your liver and the vultures will peck at your eyes. You will never see the Night Lands! I swear this. Be prepared!"

Lots of new words here.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Qvaak on August 13, 2011, 06:16:37 pm
The reason of the post notwithstanding, that's very nice and educational. At first read-through at least most of the grammar in sentences seems familiar, and not that many words are completely unfamiliar either. Pretty understandable, when read with a translation.

New words, I think: filkak (~coward), memra(s) (~inside; probably me+mra, but /me-/ doesn't seem to serve it's usual role, so I'd guess this is a word in it's own right, not mra with a suffix), yallish (~small child; is /-sh/ perhaps another diminutive suffix?), emmat (~to amuse; dunno, if this should be considered a new word, we knew emmat would almost certanly mean "to make smile", so this is only a minor clarification on the tone), khadokh (~corpse; I'm a bit surprised this is a new word), jadro (~vulture), nasat (~to peck), hethkat or hethkalat (~to be prepaired)

Notes:
 - Is it that dothraki aren't that much on straight out profanities and swear words, or is it that David doesn't like to use them, or that he rather translates the swearing by literal meaning than by tone? Not that I'd be surprised if they didn't swear on daily basis. Many peoples don't, for many reasons. You don't need to be potty-mouthy to be baddy-assy. Still, interesting.
 - In dothraki throat is just a throat, body just a body and liver just a liver, where english marks these things for an owner, "you". Good to notice. This surprised me a bit.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 13, 2011, 06:35:32 pm
- In dothraki throat is just a throat, body just a body and liver just a liver, where english marks these things for an owner, "you". Good to notice. This surprised me a bit.

I asked David about this on twitter and he responded that inalienable possession is assumed. You only mark it with a possessor if there is a chance for confusion or as an emphasis. It's like saying "I'm getting a tattoo on the arm" rather than "...on my arm".
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Hrakkar on August 17, 2011, 11:40:33 pm
David gave me a new word at Worldcon today. The word is havzi, which means 'cat' (of the domestic variety, I am assuming). David did not know for certain whether this was an animate or an inanimate noun, but leaned towards inanimate. (I am beginning to wonder if 'animate' means 'able to use language', as in the Klingon language.)
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 19, 2011, 02:16:39 pm
David just posted the slides from his talk in Reno:

http://dedalvs.com/dothraki/dothrakireno.pdf (http://dedalvs.com/dothraki/dothrakireno.pdf)

Several new words in there.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Hrakkar on August 22, 2011, 01:51:22 pm
Even though I heard David's presentation live, I picked up a lot more when I looked at ht powerpoint slides. One thing for sure: I need to memorize a number of the lines given there, as they are the most basic of conversational Dothraki. (I saw zhey veraki vichomeri somewhere as a greeting, but that didn't work too well.)

What are the new words that you saw?
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 22, 2011, 04:59:29 pm
What are the new words that you saw?

In the presentation? Gaezo, yamori, geshah, mredi, choo, kolver, gango awazat (new meaning), rekke, aresak, fitte. And several from the dialogue that we don't have a translation for yet.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Hrakkar on August 22, 2011, 08:41:14 pm
What are the new words that you saw?

In the presentation? Gaezo, yamori, geshah, mredi, choo, kolver, gango awazat (new meaning), rekke, aresak, fitte. And several from the dialogue that we don't have a translation for yet.

Wow! Shows how much I have to learn! I really hope there were others in that panel besides my self, who are anxious to learn. David is such a good (and challenging!) teacher. I'll have to post somewhere about the language construction workshop he did at the con. It was really excellent, plus it 'stretched' your thinking about language more than a little!
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 22, 2011, 08:47:28 pm
What are the new words that you saw?

In the presentation? Gaezo, yamori, geshah, mredi, choo, kolver, gango awazat (new meaning), rekke, aresak, fitte. And several from the dialogue that we don't have a translation for yet.

Wow! Shows how much I have to learn! I really hope there were others in that panel besides my self, who are anxious to learn. David is such a good (and challenging!) teacher. I'll have to post somewhere about the language construction workshop he did at the con. It was really excellent, plus it 'stretched' your thinking about language more than a little!

Well, I guess I have a pretty good handle on what words we have so I can tell pretty immediate when a word is new.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 29, 2011, 06:17:56 am
David has coined a bunch of new words based on the names of people who attended his talks and work shop in Reno.

http://dothraki.conlang.org/new-dothraki-words/ (http://dothraki.conlang.org/new-dothraki-words/)

Our fellow forumite Hrakkar also gets a shout out and a coined word.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Qvaak on August 29, 2011, 08:52:18 am
Fun.

I added the words to the wiki.

Is it that word Dave has coined from his own name at the middle of athastokhdeveshizar?
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 29, 2011, 09:08:14 am
Fun.

I added the words to the wiki.

Is it that word Dave has coined from his own name at the middle of athastokhdeveshizar?

Ah, you beat me too it. I was about to do it but got distracted by the Vuelta a EspaƱa.

Regarding dev: I would think that is very likely.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ValekLost on August 31, 2011, 04:31:42 am
The new words are really cool.
And I find that the idea to made them up from someones name it's really...uhm..engrossing (?) for the people that are trying to learn Dothraki or coming near to it.

Very funny :D

ps. is there something about that "class A" "class B" I've seen near the specification of the in/animacy of the nouns? 0.o
I don't know if I'm missing something or what :D
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on August 31, 2011, 05:18:52 am
The new words are really cool.
And I find that the idea to made them up from someones name it's really...uhm..engrossing (?) for the people that are trying to learn Dothraki or coming near to it.

Very funny :D

ps. is there something about that "class A" "class B" I've seen near the specification of the in/animacy of the nouns? 0.o
I don't know if I'm missing something or what :D

Class A and Class B has to do with whether the word declines regularly or not. If we take the word zanisshi for example. If it is Class A the accusative would be zinish but it's really class B so the accusative is zinisshe instead. (Unless I got them confused again).
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Qvaak on August 31, 2011, 06:33:21 am
Zanish and zanisshe you mean, I'm sure..
These irregularities rise from epenthesis issues (http://wiki.dothraki.org/dothraki/Epenthesis).

If were getting this right (I'm pretty confident we are), sondra is in accusative sondre, because r-ending consonant clusters cannot end words. It gets the /-e/ so it's class B like zanisshi. And ferri does not get the /-e/, but loses the gemination of r, so it is in class A instead. The way we categorize things right now, class A is for irregular nouns and class B for regular.

We're not using these class markings in our vocabulary, but instead we just offer the accusatives of the nouns as supporting cases. I added the accusative of zanisshi to the wiki, 'cause I trust ingsve knows what he's talking about :)
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on December 11, 2011, 03:18:25 pm
There is a new article in the NY Times about conlangs that features David and Dothraki which has several new words and some phrases read by David. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/arts/television/in-game-of-thrones-a-language-to-make-the-world-feel-real.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/arts/television/in-game-of-thrones-a-language-to-make-the-world-feel-real.html)
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: Hrakkar on December 12, 2011, 12:58:20 am
A very nice article indeed! Some of the comments are very interesting.
Title: Re: Things learnt from other sources.
Post by: ingsve on December 12, 2011, 02:27:34 am
A very nice article indeed! Some of the comments are very interesting.

Hehe, ya. The comments express a common snobbish view of languages citing dieing languages as something worth learning. This has always been the case though it seems. Conlangs were something that linguists did but never spoke about since it was their dirty little secret.Times have changed a bit but it's still something that's not really viewed as proper.