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David Peterson's new book on language creation is now available online or at your favorite bookseller. I suspect this book will become a classic on the subject of language creation!

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#21
David Peterson and Sai have been interviewed by TV Guide about the Dothraki language: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Game-Thrones-Dothraki-Language-1033377.aspx

There are a few new words here for us:

choyo - joke word for someones ass.

graddakh - refure or waste. Used as a non-targeting swear word.

affesat - to make (someone) itch

moon - ablative of he, she, it. Compare with me and mae.

gorat - to charge
#22
We have started assigning which nouns are animate and which are inanimate but there are still a lot of nouns where we don't know if it's animate or not. This thread will be a place to try and figure this out.

David has provided some general phonetic rules that determine animacy:

animate:
-ak
-asar, -eser, -isir, -osor
infinitive

inanimate:
-i (diminutive)
-(s)of (augmentative)
ath-(z)ar
-(i)kh
-eyya
compounds

Having removed all words that fall into any of these categories we are left with the following list:

vizhad   silver   
addo ajjalani   midnight   
ador   chair   
ahesh   snow   
asavva   sky   
ase   word   
ave   father   
ayena   bell   
azhasavva   blessing   
azho   gift   
chare   ear   
chiftik   cricket   
chiori   woman   
dorvi   goat   
dosh khaleen   group of widowed khaleesi   
dothraki   The dothraki people "the riders"   
esshey   roof   
eveth   water   
fire   ring   
foth   throat   
gamiz   rice   
gende   rip   
gizikhven   candy   
hadaen   food   
haesh   spawn   
hatif   face   
havazh   sea   
heth   rim   
hrakka   white lion   
hranna   a type of grass   
hrazef   horse   
idrik   leader of the hunt
jalan   moon   
jalan qoyi   harvest moon   
jano   dog   
jaqqa rhan   "mercy men" not litteral   
jesh   ice   
jorok   corn   
khal   leader, king   
khalakka   prince, son of khal   
khaleesi   queen   
khas   group of bodyguards, protectors   
kher   flesh   
loqam   arrow   
maegi   wise, sorceress of black magic   
mawizzi   rabbit   
mithri   rest   
nhare   head   
noreth   hair   
orvik   whip   
qazer   apple   
qeso   basket   
qosar   spider   
rakh   boy, lamb   
rhae mhar   Sore-foot   
rhaesh   land, country   
rhaggat   cart   
riv   tip   
rizh   son   
sajo   steed   
san   heap, pile, much   
shierak qiya   comet, bleeding star   
shiqeth   iron   
shor   garment mainly worn by women   
tih   eye
tikkheya   verb   
vado   turnip   
vaes   city   
vezh   stallion   
vikeesi   slang for annoying woman.   
voji   people   
vort   tooth   
zande   satchel, sack   
zhaqe   bass   
zhavvorsi   of the dragon   
zir   bird   

What we need to do now is find out some way to determine which of these are inanimate or animate. One way to do this is to look at example sentences. The easiest way is to find a sentence where the word is used as the object of a sentence. If the noun ends in -es or -is it will be animate otherwise it's inanimate. Also the genitive ending for words that end in a vowel is also a clue. Inanimate nouns will only have -i even after a vowel but animate nouns will instead have -si. Animate nouns also have various declensions for plurals of the ablative and allative so any word ending with a vowel that ends in -saan or soon rather than just -aan or -oon will be animate. Also any instance of the endings -(s)oa or -(s)ea will also be animate.


#23
There is now video available from David Petersons talk at the Language Creation Conference.

Right now there is only the unedited ustream footage available but I think ultimately they will get chopped up and hosted somewhere else.

For now the talk can be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14695942

The talk starts at around 11:50 into the video. The slides are hard to see so it's easier to just follow along with the slides on PDF: http://conference.conlang.org/lcc4/speakers/djplcc4.pdf

Later on I'll summarize all the information that is given in the talk.
#24
HBO: Game of Thrones / Dothraki on Thronecast
May 10, 2011, 09:17:56 AM
There was a quick Dothraki lesson the latest episode of Thronecast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFe3oB25NBI&feature=player_detailpage#t=556s

While they should be commended for featuring the language I think we should also point out that they are doing more mistakes than Daenerys in there. They do a classic mistake people do with conlangs which is to simply look at the dictionary and string words together without any regard for grammar. They use nouns as if they were verbs, use verbs without conjugating etc.

Still nice to get some exposure and hopefully people get interested in finding out more.
#25
David Peterson has posted a blogpost about how he would suggest translitterating Dothraki words into the Cyrillic alphabet.

http://dedalvs.livejournal.com/47647.html
#26
This thread is ment to be a collection of all dialogue from the show. Things in [brackets] are added by me when a word is left out by the actor that should have been there for the sentence to make sense gramatically or stylistically or just when making an editorial comment within a sentence. Since most of this will at least initially be based on guesses of the transcription I will put all guesses in (parenthesis) until the actual dialogue can be confirmed.



Episode 1
The first dothraki we hear is spoken by Illyrio Mopatis when Dany and Viserys are first introduced to Khal Drogo.

-Illyrio: Athchomar chomakaan, [zhey] khal vezhven. Respect to one that is respectful, great khal.

Next he says a longer sentence that starts with:

-Illyrio: Azha anhaan asshilat... The whole sentence is a translation of what he had just said in english which was:

May I present my honored guests, Viserys of house Targaryen, the third of his name, the rightful king of the Andals and the First Men. And his sister, Daenerys of house Targaryen.

During the Dothraki wedding Khal Drogo says something as well:

-Drogo: (iteo akkah) XXX Noone knows what this line is.

-Drogo: Jadi, zhey Jorah Andahli Come, Jorah the Andal.

-Jorah Mormont: Khal vezhven. Great khal.




Episode 2
In the second episode there is only one line of Dothraki. When Drogo comes in to the tent once more to have sex with Daenerys she says:

-Daenerys: Ajjalan anha zalat vitiherat yer hatif Tonight I would look upon your face. The line is not grammatical but that was done intentionally since Daenerys is a novice at this point.




Episode 3
Episode three has a lot of Dothraki. First when the khalasar rides through a willow field a random Dothraki whips a slave and says:

-Random Dothraki:  Kash qoy qoyi thira disse. Only while blood of my blood lives..

When the khalasar stops and Daenerys takes off into the willows we hear Ser Jorah say:

-Jorah Mormont: Annakhas dozgosores Stop the horde

When Rakharo has his whip around Viserys neck he says:

-Rakharo: Hash shafka zali addrivat mae, zhey Khaleesi?? Do you want him dead khaleesi?

-Rakharo: Ishish chare acharoe hash me nem ejervae nharesoon. Maybe the ear will listen if it is removed from the head.

-Irri: Khaleesi vos zalo meme nem azisa Khaleesi, does not want him harmed.

-Rakharo: Chiftik Cricket

Next we move to a camp that has been set up.

-Irri: Athjahakar pride, prowess

-Irri: Me azhasavva vezhofoon. It's a blessing from the great stallion.

-Jorah Mormont: It's a good blade for a dothrakaan (for a rider) but a man in full plate, shori tawakof (steel dress)...

-Rakharo: Dothraki vos ondeo shoris tawakofi. Dothraki don't wear steel dresses.

-Rakharo: Vroz? Slow

-Rakharo: Ave anni ezzo anhaan os lajataan. Me ezzo anhaan m'athdikar assie athzhokwazar.) My father taught me how to fight. He taught me that speed defeats size.

-Jorah Mormont: Anha ray char m'ave yeri lajakoon hakeso. I heard that your father was a famous warrior.

-Rakharo: Me dothrakhqoyoon torga Khali Bharbo. He was bloodrider to Khal Bharbo.

-Rakharo: Majin ave yeri Jorah Andahli? Hash me lajakoon akka? And your father, Jorah the Andal? He was a warrior also?

-Irri: Khaleesi zala meme adakha esinakh ajjalan. Ogi loy mawizzi. The khaleesi wants to eat something different tonight. Kill some rabbits.

-Rakharo: Vo mawizzi vekho jinne  There are no rabbits.

-Irri: Ezas loy alegri h'anhaan. Mori allayafi mae, jin alegra. Find some ducks for me. She likes ducks.

-Rakharo: Hash yer ray tih loy alegra zhey vikeesi? Vo mawizzi, vo alegri. Hash tihi vekhi she nhare yeroon? Hash tih? Have you seen any ducks, woman? No rabbits, no ducks. Do you have eyes in your head? Do you? The final added expression "Hash tih?" does not make sense. It was added by the production in the belief that it means "Do you?". It instead means something like "Do eyes?"

-Irri: Majin jano. Anha ray tih san jani.Dogs then. I have seen many dogs.

-Rakharo Azhasavva vezhofoon A blessing from the great stallion.

Later Dany and Drogo are in bed talking:

-Daenerys: Me rakh. It's a boy.

-Drogo: Kifinosi yer nesi? How do you know?

-Daenerys: Anha sekke nesa. I very knows. This is another deliberate mistake.




Episode 6

After a couple episodes without any Dothraki dialogue there is again lots in episode 6.

First we have the scene with the horse heart ceremony.

-Crowd: Rakh! Rakh! Rakh haj! A boy! A boy! A strong boy!

-Crone: Khalakka dothrae! The prince rides.

The crone also says: I've heard the thunder of his hoofs. Swift as the win he rides. His enemies will cower before him. And their wives will weap tears of blood. This is very hard to make out however. Hopefully David might be able to help out with this.

-Crone: Vezh fin saja rhaesheseres! The stallion that mounts the world!

-Daenerys: Khalakka dothrae mr'anha A prince rides inside me. There is something fishy about Emilias line read but this is what she is suppose to be saying.

-Daenerys: Ma me nem ahakee ma Rhaego! And he shall be called Rhaego.

Then later at the feast:

-Qotho: Khal rhae mhar. Me ifa. The sore-foot king. He walks.

-Drogo: Nevakhi vekha ha maan. There is a place for you. Lit. A sitting-spot exists for him.

-Irri: Ifak asta meme zala firikhnharen, meme zala rek meme nem jer ki mae...che me vesazhae khaleesies The foreigner says that he wants a crown, that he wants that which was traded to him...or he will take back the khaleesi.

-Irri: Me asta meme vos vesazhao khalakkaes. Me asta meme azirissee khalakkaes khaleesisoon ma vannevae mae shafkea. He says that he will not take back the prince. He says that he will cut the prince out of the khaleesi and leave him for you.

-Drogo: Anha vazhak maan rek me zala. I will give to him what he wants.

-Drogo: Anha vazhak maan firikhnharen hoshora ma mahrazhi aqovi affin mori atihi mae. I will give to him a golden crown and men will tremble when they will see it.

-Drogo: Qora mae! Seize him!

-Drogo: Ammeni haz jolin! Empty that pot.




Episode 7

-Drogo: Vezh fin saja rhaesheseres vo zigereo adoroon shiqethi. The stallion that mounts the world has no need for iron chairs.

-Daenerys: K'asi assikhqoyisiri vezh adothrae nakhaan rhaesheseri. According to the prophecy the stallion will ride to the ends of the world.

-Drogo: Sorfosor nakha she Havazzhifi Kazga. Vo hrazef laz yoma evethiz. The earth ends at The Black Salt Sea. No horse can cross the poison water.

-Daenerys: Sorfosor nakho vosecchi [she havazh]. Sani sorfi vekha yomme [havash]. Sorfo athyolari anni. The Earth never ends [at the sea]. There are many dirts across [the sea]. The dirts of my birth.

-Drogo: Vo sorfo. Rhaeshi. Not dirt. Lands

-Daenerys:Rhaeshi, sek. Lands, yes.

-Daenerys: Dalen rhaggat eveth ma ale [vekhi she Vaes Seris]: [Hrazef] ido fini ovethi yomme [havazh].  There are thousands of ships [in the free cities]. Wooden [horses] that fly across [the sea.]

-Drogo: Kisha vastoki vos alikh hrazefi ido m'adori shiqethi Let's speak no more about wooden horses or iron chairs.

-Daenerys: Me vos ador. Me...me...throne. It's not a chair. It's...it's...throne.

-Drogo: Throne?

-Daenerys: Ador finaan khal nevasoe...che khaleesi. A chair for a king to sit upon...or a queen.

-Drogo: Khal vos zigereo adoroon anevasoe maan. Me zigeree sojasoon disse. A khal doesn't need a chair to sit on. He only needs a steed.

-Wine Merchant: Virzetha gizikhven! Mra qora! Mra qora! Sweet reds. I have it. I have it.

-Wine Merchant: Virzetha gizikhven! Virzetha gizikhven vekha m'anhoon, Lysoon, Volantisoon, ma Halahisiroon. Sweet reds! I have sweet reds from Lys, Volantis and the Arbor.

-Wine Merchant: Sovikh Tirosh! Jelavena Andahloa. Mra qora! Mra qora! Tyroshi pear brandy. Andhalish sours! I have them! I have them!

-Wine Merchant: Lekhi ha khaleesisaan? M'anhoon vekha virzethi gizkhvena Dornoon, zhey erinak A taste for the khaleesi? I have a sweet red from Dorne, my lady.

-Wine Merchant: At lekhi ma shafka ahakee yal hakesoon anni. One taste and you'll name your first child after me.

-Jorah: Rakharo, azzohi haz khogare. Rakharo, put down that cask.

Later we have Drogos speech:

-Drogo: Zhey jalan atthirari anni. Hash azisi? Moon of my live. Are you hurt?

-Drogo: Jora Andahli, okki zhille hrazef fin allayafa shafka drogikhoon anni. Me shafki. Jorah the Andal, [I heard what you did] choose any horse you wish [from my herd]. It's yours.

-Drogo: Anha asshilak jin azh shafkea haji rekoon et shafka. I make this gift to you for what you did.

-Drogo: Ma rizhaan anni, vezh fin asaja rhaesheseres,  maan anha valloshak azh akka. And to my son, the stallion who will mount the world, I will also pledge a gift.

-Drogo: Maan anha vazhak jin ador shiqethi finaan neva ave maisi mae. I will give him the iron chair that his mothers father sat upon.

-Drogo: Anha vazhak maan Rhaeshis Andahli. Anha, zhey Drogo, atak jin. I will give The Lands of the Andals. I, Drogo, will do this.

-Drogo: Anha vidrik khalasares anni jim, finaan nakhoe rhaesheser, majin adothrak hrazef ido yomme Havazzhifi Kazga ven et vo khal avvos.I will take my khalasar west to where the world ends and ride wooden horses across the black salt sea as no khal has done before.

-Drogo: Anha vaddrivak mahrazhis fini ondee khogar shiqethi ma vohharak okrenegwin mori. I will kill the men in iron suits and tear down their stone houses.

-Drogo: Anha aqorisok chiories mori, vazzafrok yal mori, ma afichak vojjor samva Vaesaan Dothrak. I will rape their women, take their children as slaves and bring their broken gods back to Vaes Dothrak.

-Drogo: Ki jini anha astak asqoy, anha, Drogo ki Bharbosi. This i vow Drogo son of Bharbo.

-Drogo: Ki jini anha astak asqoy hatif Maisi Krazaaji kash shieraki vitihiri asavvasoon. Asavvasoon! Asavvasoon! I swear before the mother of mountains as the stars look down in witness. As the stars look down in witness.




Episode 8

Rakharo: Haesh rakhi davrae zafraan. Khal Drogo vazhoe mora azzafrokea, majin azzafroki vazhi kishaan ma hoshor ma tasokh ma tawakof. Lamb men make good salves. Khal Drogo will make a gift of them to the slavers, and the slavers will give us gold and silk and steel.

Rakharo: Me vafik, zhey khaleesi. Dothraki chomoe mae. Hash athlaqar mae zireyesee khaleesies hash anha afichak shafkea lekh moon.) She's a lamb girl, Khaleesi. The riders do her honor. If her wailing offends the Khaleesi, I will bring you her tongue.

Daenerys: Ti mae k'asi, che Khal Drogo anesa valzerikh. Do as I command or Khal Drogo will know the reason why.

Rakharo: Mago! Kash qoy qoyi thira disse. Mago! Only while blood of my blood still lives.
Mago: Me qorasokh anni! Anha afichak mae m'arakhoon! She is my prize. I will take her with an arakh.

We move to the where Drogo is at the Lhazareen village:

Mago: Me Fati! Khaleesi vazha anhaan qorasokh anni, ch'anha afichak mae m'arakhoon anni! It's an insult! Khaleesi will give me my prize or I will take it with my arakh.
Drogo: Me vastoe hatif anni; ahhazaan yer nemo vacchaki. She will speak before me; until then you will keep yourself quite.
Drogo: Zhey jalan atthirari anni, Mago asta meshafka fich qorasokh mae,ohara haeshi rakhi fin qoraso me asaja mae. Asti anhaan hash jini jila. Moon of my life, Mago says you have taken his spoils, a daughter of the lamb man who was his to mount. Tell me the truth of this.
Daenerys:  Mago asta k'athjilari, zhey shekh ma shieraki anni. Anha ray qoraso san ohari asshekh majin mori nem vos osaji. Mago speaks the truth, my sun and stars. I have claimed many daughters this day so they cannot be mounted.
Drogo: Jini athvilajerar. Jin chiorisi zafra ajjin, majin kisha ataki morea ven me vallayafa kisha. This is the way of war. These women are slaves now to do with as we please.
Daenerys: Anha nem allayafak vassandik mora. Hash dothraki shafki'th saji mora hash mori jif kemoe ma moroa. It pleases me to keep them safe. If your riders would mount them, let them take them as wives.
Qotho: Hash hrazef gova vaf? Does the horse mate with the lamb?
Daenerys: Zhavvorsa vadakhera ma hrazef ma vaf akkate. The dragon feeds on horse and lamb alike.
Mago: Yer ifak. Yer assoo anna vosecchi. ) You're a foreigner. You do not command me.
Daenerys: Anha Khaleesi. Anha assok yera sekosshi.) I am Khaleesi. I do command you.
Drogo: Tihi kifinosi me ivezhofoe? Hazak rizh anni mra me: Vezh fini Asaja Rhaesheseres, fini nirra mae vorsasoon mae. See how fierce she grows? That's my son inside her, the stallion that will mount the world, filling her with his fire.
Drogo: Anha acharak vos ale. Zhey Mago, anha acharak vos ale. Ezas eshna gech ahilee. I will hear no more. Mago, find somewhere else to stick your cock.
Mago: Khal fines assoe mezhah jahakmeni vos khal. A Khal who takes orders from a foreign whore is no Khal.
Drogo: Ohos! Os! Be Still. Don't move.
Drogo: Anha vazhok khadoes yeroon virsalat. Anha ochomok yeraan kijinosi. I will not have you body burned. I will not give you that honor.
Drogo: Inte vadakhie tihoa ma khewo afilki vi gadimaan. The beetles will feed on your eyes. The worms will crawl through your lungs.
Drogo: Eyel varthasoe she ilekaan rikhoya arrekaan vekha vosi yeroon vosma tolorro! The rain will fall on your rotting skin until nothing is left of you but bones.
Mago: Atte yer eth addrivi anna. First you have to kill me.
Drogo: Jin anha ray et. I already have.
Daenerys: Shekh ma shieraki anni zisa. My sun and stars is hurt.
Drogo: Me zisosh, zhey jalan atthirari anni. A scratch, moon of my life.
Daenerys: Finne koalaki? Where are the healers.
Drogo: Jini osto afisi. This is the bite of a fly.
Mirri Maaz Duur: Anha laz rhelak dothrakes vezhvena ha zisoshaan mae.) I can help the great rider with his cut.
Qotho: Khal zigeree vo rhellay ha zafroon fini govi oqet. The Khal needs no help from slaves who lie with sheep.
Daenerys: Me anni. Me vastoe. She's mine. Let her speak.
Qotho: Maegi. Witch.
Qotho: Ase sekke. Ase maegi izzi char. Too many words. The witch's words poison the ears.
Daenerys: Azhas maan affisat zis yeri, shekh ma shieraki anni. Me azzisa anna jin tihat meyer qiyae. Let her clean your wound my sun and stars. It makes me hurt to see you bleed.




Episode 9

Daenerys: Khal anni...Shekh ma shieraki [anni]...Drogo. My lord...My sun and stars...Drogo.
Drogo: Sajo anni. Sajo...anni. My steed...My...steed.
Haggo: Qoy qoyi. Blood of my blood.
Drogo: Vos, anha'th dothrak. No, I must ride.
Qotho: Me arthas hrazefoon mae. He fell from his horse.
Qotho: Khal fini laz vos dothrao, vos khal. A Khal who cannor ride is no khal.
Daenerys: Me haqa, vos ale. Me zigeree mithrat. He's tired, that's all. He needs to rest.
Daenerys: Kisha ray hezhahish chek asshekh. Kisha avimithreraki jinne. We have ridden far enough. We will camp here.
Qotho: Jinne vos gache vimithrerat. Chiori vos assoo kisha. Vos Khaleesi akka. This is no place to camp. A woman does not give us orders. Not even a Khaleesi.
Daenerys: Kisha avimithreraki jinne. Asti morea me Khal Drogo asso moon. Zhey Qotho...) We will camp here. Tell them Khal Drogo commanded it. Qotho...
Qotho: Shafka vos assoo anna [zhey] Khaleesi. You do not command me.
Daenerys: Ezi Mirri Maaz Duur. Fichi mae anhaan. Find Mirri Maaz Duur. Bring her to me.
Qotho: Maegi? Anha afichak shafkea nharees [zhey] Khaleesi.) The witch? I will bring you her head khaleesi.
Daenerys: (Fichi mae anhaan ozisa che Khal Drogo achara kifindirgi yer ziganeso anhaan. Bring her to me unharmed or Khal Drogo will hear you defied me.

Later in the camp
Drogo: Doth...Dothrae...Ki ha...hammi...Ish nokitta...Qana'th... Rides...By a yak...might trample...the black stork must...
Qotho: Yer et jin zhey maegi. You did this, witch.
Daenerys: Nakhi! Anha vos zalok meme nem azzisa. Stop it. I don't want her hurt.
Qotho: Vos? Vos? Hash shafka vos zali meme nem azzisa? No? No? You don't want her hurt?
Qotho: Zali mekisha vos azzisaki shafka akka. Shafka azh jin maegaan frakhat khales kishi. Pray we don't hurt you too. You let this witch put her hands on out Khal.
Jorah: Javrathi lekh. Me zin Khaleesi shafki.) Rein in your tongue. She is still your Khaleesi.
Qotho: Kash qoy qoyi thira disse. Affin me drivoe, me vosi. Only while blood of my blood lives. When he dies, she is nothing.
Daenerys: Anha vosoon avvos. Anha qoy zhavvorsi. I have never been nothing. I am the blood of the dragon.
Qotho: Ei zhavvorsa drivi, zhey Khaleesi. The dragons are all dead, Khaleesi.

Qotho: Jini'th vos eo. Jini'th vos eo. This must not be. This must not be.
Daenerys:Jini vee This must be.
Qotho: Maegi. Witch.
Rakharo: Mra qothoon vosaan... Nothing good will come of this.
Daenerys: Vos! Yer laz vos. No. You can't.
Jorah: Vos alle, zhey vezhak. No further, horselord.




Episode 10

Daenerys: Shekh ma shieraki anni! My sun and stars.

Daenerys: Hash yer vineseri dothrakh ataki kishi, zhey shekh ma shieraki anni? Do you remember our first ride, my sun and stars?

Daenerys: Hash yer laz chari anna; hash yer ray vos o, attihas anna. If you are still in there, if you haven't gone away, show me.

Daenerys: Yer lajak. Yer ayyeyoon lajakoon. Anha zigerek yeroon lajat ajjin. You're a fighter. You've always been a fighter. I need you to fight now.

Daenerys: Affin shekh yola she jimma ma drivoe she titha...Arrek yer ajadi save, shekh ma shieraki anni. I know you're very far away. but come back to me, my sun and stars.




That's it for this season.
#27
Announcements / Language Creation Conference 4
April 23, 2011, 11:07:37 AM
The Language Creation Conference is a conference dedicated to constructed languages and is organized by the Language Creation Society. This years conference, which is the fourth one, will be held the 14th-15th of May in Groningen, Netherlands. http://conference.conlang.org/lcc4/

On the speakers list you can find a talk by the creator of the Dothraki language David J. Peterson. His talk is titled "Case Assignment and Verb Classes in Dothraki" The full schedule can be found here: http://conference.conlang.org/lcc4/schedule.php

The conference will be live streamed and recorded but more info on that will come when the conference approaches.
#29
David Peterson appears in an interview with the Fictional Fronteirs podcast. They talk mainly about how David got into language creation and then a bit about the process to determine who got the priviledge to create dothraki for HBO.

Davids part of the podcasts starts around the 43 minute mark.

http://www.fictionalfrontiers.podcastpeople.com/posts/42573
#30
This forum is just a temporary place to collect various information about the dothraki language. Everything posted here or otherwise found will be added to the dothraki language wikipage that can be found at wiki.dothraki.org.

That is the place to find more structured entries about the various grammatical topics. The wiki is under constant construction so if the information you are looking for isn't there already you can just check back regularly or why not help to build the wiki yourself.

Also make sure to visit @learndothraki on Twitter and why not stop by for a chat on the IRC: irc.dothraki.org/dothraki
#31
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/

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

#32
Dothraki Language Updates / Things learnt from IM.
April 04, 2011, 05:52:41 PM
I just chatted a bit with David Peterson over AIM to get some questions answered. Here is what was learnt.

First of all I asked about the relationship between verbs and certain mouns. We have for example the verb dothralat which mean to ride and dothrak that means rider. Since we have a lot of words that is some type of person that has the ending -ak I figured that they work the same way. I asked David about this and he confirmed that this is true. -ak is like an agentive suffix. This means two things. We have a bunch of nouns that we can now form verbs out of and we also have lots of verbs that we can form some type of agent nouns out of.  It won't always be straightforward what the new word will mean or how common it would be in the language etc but it wouldn't be wrong per se especially in the right context.

Some of the new words that have been derived in this way is:

fonat=to hunt
verat=to travel
vichomerat="to be respectful"

Another word, sajat, can also be formed but it's not known right now what it means. We also have the word ifak=foreigner but that meaning is only metaphorical. We already know the corresponding verb ifat to mean to walk so the literal translation of the word ifak is walker which of course is a good word to describe foreigners for the dothraki.

This also confirms a translation I had guess which was that awazak=screamer.

I also oncfirmed another translation. We guessed that the word as means words which is true but it is the accusative form. The nominative is ase.
The accusative for inanimate nouns is formed by dropping the last vowel as long as the remaining word doesn't violate the rule of what consonants or clusters a word can end on.

There are two ways of saying "you" depending on who is listening. The common word to use is yer but when you want to be respectful you instead use the word shafka. Furthermore the word shafki means your and shafkea is the allative case.

-oon is the ablative suffix and -aan is the allative suffix.

The word vos=not

In sentences where there is a controlverb there is a complementizer that is added to the noun.

Example: Anha goshok mehrazef shafki athiroe.

I am.sure that.horse your will survive.

the prefix me- is the complementizer in this case. It can in this example be compared to the role that the word that has in the sentence "I'm sure that your horse will survive". It doesn't always work like the english that but in this case it works ok.

Also David says hi to everyone.
#33
Comcast has announced a new partnership with HBO where they are releasing lots of previews and interviews ahead of the Game of Thrones premiere. In their announcement they also mention that there will be a video about the creation of the Dothraki language. http://blog.comcast.com/2011/03/get-ready-for-game-of-thrones.html

We'll keep you posted about when this video will show up.
#34
There are some new featurette videos released on comcasts VOD site fancast and one of them features Khal Drogo who gives us the first example of spoken dothraki. It appears that the videos are georestricted to the US but they have also appeared on youtube.com already. Take a look fast because I don't know if they will be allowed to stay up since comcast apparently has a rather long exclusive on them.

Targaryen Portrait Khal Drogo

It's hard to make out what he's saying though. I can't really make out what syllables are part of a longer word or what words are just monosyllabic. If I were to venture a guess then the first word he says could be "ma" and in the middle I think I hear a "fin". The end could be "tih mae" though the "tih" could very easily just be the end of a longer word however. The rest I can't really make out what word he is using or if it even resembles anything we have seen yet.

#35
HBO: Game of Thrones / Momoa worked hard on Dothraki
March 13, 2011, 09:16:21 AM
In an interview with Jamie Sives who plays Jory Cassel in the series we learn that he spent a lot of time with Jason Momoa during the production:

QuoteI spent almost every day with a guy who has became a friend for life and that's Jason Mamoa [sic] (Khal Drogo). Our characters were not in contact but Jason had so much Dothraki prep to do he was around the whole time. He was in Malta the whole 8 weeks I was there and not shooting so we had a ball.

We see here that Momoa has had to put a lot of time into learning his dialogue which is a good sign considering the hopes we have that the dothraki in the series will be both correct and plentiful.
#36
Dothraki Language Updates / Dothraki pronounciation
February 13, 2011, 03:42:23 PM
From the IRC chat with David Peterson we got a little more info on dothraki pronounciation. (Transcript slightly edited to group things by context.)

<ingsve>   double ee's are pronounced like the spanish creer is that correct?
<ingsve>   as in khal-e-esi?
<DavidJPeterson>   Yep.
<DavidJPeterson>   It'll probably be pronounced differently at certain times by some in the series in various contexts. Nothing to be done about that.

<ingsve>   is there any instances where letters are pronounced diffrently than in the phonology? or are all letters pronounced the same no matter where in a word they come?
<DavidJPeterson>   I tried to make the romanization phonetic so as to avoid the need for that.
<DavidJPeterson>   However, there are instances.
<DavidJPeterson>   Should be slight.
<DavidJPeterson>   Or happen naturally.
<DavidJPeterson>   For example, vowels preceded by [q] are pronounced differently.
<ingsve>   as diffrent vowel sounds than the 4 we know about?
<DavidJPeterson>   Phonetic sounds, yes. The 4 vowel phonemes really float around.
<DavidJPeterson>   /i/ > [e]; /e/ > [E]; /o/ >
  • ; /a/ > [A] / q_ (if you know ling rules).
    <DavidJPeterson>   the sound with the least variability is probably /i/.
    <DavidJPeterson>   Both /o/ and /a/ travel around quite a bit in their respective areas (low for /a/; back [-low] for /o/).

    <ingsve>   you seem to like the kh phoneme
    <ingsve>   is that always pronouced

  • <DavidJPeterson>   Kh will float around.
    <DavidJPeterson>   Probably more palatal before front vowels.
    <DavidJPeterson>   The velar fricative will vary from a velar to a palatal fricative (always voiced).
    <DavidJPeterson>   Depending on the vowels.
    <DavidJPeterson>   Something like the ach-laut/ich-laut thing in German.
    <DavidJPeterson>   But both progressive and regressive.

#37
Dothraki Language Updates / Verb conjugation
February 09, 2011, 11:23:35 PM
Here is a quick look at what is known about verb conjugation




conjugationinfinitivetranslationcategories
fichitakeIMP Sing.
samvenosamvenolatsurpassed3rd p. Sing. PST.
samvosamvolatbroke3rd p. Sing. PST.
assamveassamvatbroke3rd p. Sing. PST.
ogeogatslaughtered3rd p. Sing. PST.
ahhasahhasatsharpened3rd p. Sing. PST.
kaffekaffatcrushed3rd p. Sing. PST.
dothraedothralatrides3rd p. Sing. PRES
vichiterashivers3rd p. Sing. PRES
zireyeseezireyeselatoffends3rd p. Sing. PRES
athiroewill survive3rd p. Sing. FUT
ofrakhiwill not touch2nd p. Sing. FUT, NEG

From this we can see that there isn't really a clear pattern connected to person or tense like in a lot of common languages. This possibly means that conjugation will be affected by other grammatical categories. There also seems to be diffrent types of conjugation. In one instance we see the infinitive ending -at change into -e (assamvat->assamve) but in another case the infinitive ending is simply dropped (samvolat->samvo). One diffrence between these verbs is that one is transitive and the other is intransitive and given what we know this seems to be an important distinction that will probably have impact on the grammar.

Another thing is that if the word ofrakhi is correctly translated it seems that taking the negative of a verb is buildt into the conjugation.

Finally, we have also seen the word laz which seems to mean both can and could.
#38
Dothraki Language Updates / Various affixes.
February 07, 2011, 09:29:59 PM
Dothraki will be full of various affixes. Here are some of the ones that we have seen so far.

First we have an example that was officially mentioned in one of the interviews with David Peterson.





as- -anpositive comparativeasafazhanhotter
os- -annegative comparativeosafazhanless hot
as- -an -azpositive superlativeasafazhanazhottest
as- -an -oznegative superlativeasafazhanozleast hot

Other circumfixes we have seen are:




ath- -zarunknownathastokhdeveshizaroonfrom nonsense
ath- -arderivation?athjahakarpride, prowess (formed from the stem jahak meaning hair-braid)

A couple of the identified suffixes are:




-oonablative casemahrazhoonfrom the man, by the man
-iplural, diminutive, genetivelajakiwarriors

They seem to be both rather common, especially -i. Another suffix is -aan as in arakhaan which is also not known yet. There are also several nouns that end in -asar like for example khalasar, ramasar, fonakasar which suggests that -asar might also be a suffix of some sort.

One thing to keep in mind is that Peterson mentioned in one interview that he has deliberately tried to avoid being straight forward and formulaic when it comes to forming words. He writes:
Quote"For example, in Dothraki, it's a simple matter to separate affixes from stems, but it's not always simple to attach a meaning to a given affix. // Looking at the forms above, the stem afazh ("hot") can be picked out fairly easily, but assigning a single meaning to each affix becomes either a very difficult process, or a trivial process (i.e. simply restating what's there). However, it would seem a mistake to treat each form as entirely unrelated to the rest (i.e. as if each one had an entirely different affix)"


#39
General Discussion / Issue with posting
February 06, 2011, 11:30:21 PM
Whenever I post in the forum I get an error message. I have tried it in both Firefox and in Chromium.

QuoteThis webpage has a redirect loop
The webpage at http://forum.dothraki.org/index.php/board,1.0.html has resulted in too many redirects. Clearing your cookies for this site or allowing third-party cookies may fix the problem. If not, it is possibly a server configuration issue and not a problem with your computer.

I don't think it's a cookie problem so it's probably some forum config problem.
#40
Introductions / Hello I'm Ingsve
February 06, 2011, 11:23:05 PM
Hi, my name is Ingemar and I'm a physicist from Gothenburg, Sweden.

I got into ASOIAF through the CCG A Game of Thrones where I was player and an active member of the online community for several years. It wasn't until after I had played hte game for a while that I read the books which meant that I have a slightly diffrent view of various houses in the books than most other fans. For instance the first house I played was Greyjoy so I have much more love for the Greyjoys than the common fan who only know them through a few chapters in the books while I relate to them in a diffrent way because of the cards.

Unlike other people here I have no background in linguistics at all but I'm interested in languages and I have learnt a lot in the past few months since got involved in the (yet tiny) dothraki community.
I have an idea of perhaps translating some of the CCG cards into Dothraki one day but we'll see how feasable something like that would be later on. First of all I tend to become as fluent as possible.