Dothraki Writing

[thalescosta]

Hi guys! I'm new here and i need a little help!

I'm going to do a tattoo with a Dothraki Quote from the series:

"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."

But, this is where I got stuck. I want to do a proper writing of these saying, but using a nice writing, something like the One Ring Inscription from Lord of the Rings: http://home.student.uu.se/jowi4905/fonts/ashnazg.png

Can you help me in this? What's the best way to transcribe Dothraki?

[Najahho]

Well, let's see, I know quite a bit about Tengwar and you would need to adapt them, because Dothraki has many sounds that the elvish writing doesn't. It seems the English mode offers better values than the Black Speech mode, because the latter fuses "sh" and "ch" and we could assume that it would do the same with "j" and "zh". So I suggest to use the normal English mode with the addition of fusing k + kh (that is the same tengwar with both over bar and down bar à la "sh" in Black Speech) as the uvular "q". That'd be as close as one could get.

More or less I got:

[ingsve]

Since the Dothraki aren't literate there is no Dothraki official writing system but there are a couple versions created by fans.

This one is my favourite since it doesn't require you to learn a new alphabet to read it:
http://www.dothraki.com/2011/09/dothraki-writing-system/


Another example is found here:
http://www.dothraki.com/2012/07/a-dothraki-alphabet/

[Hrakkar]

I very much like what Niqqo has suggested. But with the hundreds of thousands of available English/Roman fonts out there, I would look around to see if you can find something that looks good to you and has all the requisite letters.

[Najahho]

Lol! Well of course we could probably come up with something else, but I just wanted to address the idea of using tengwar for Dothraki. Merely as a mental exercise. We could also stylize the mock-letters Peter uses in his blog :p

[thalescosta]

Using Tengwar crossed my mind. The first exemple, that looks like a Arabic writing is really good!

Thank you guys!

When my tattoo gets ready, i'll post here to show u!

[ratzae]

I'm thinking on doing something similar with the phrase: "Not Today"

actually, I'm looking for this:

in High Valyrian:
Valar Morghulis
(written in English Tengwar)

and the phrase "but Not Today" in Dothraki.  Not sure if the "but" will be added or not yet, but I think it would have more sense that way.
This part I'm thinking on using dwarven runes.  Still working on the details.

Is "not today" translated "vo asshekh"?

Please help

[Najahho]

I would suggest vos asshekh for "not today" and probably vosma vos asshekh for the complete phrase "but not today".

[Najahho]

This was addressed by David Peterson himself: http://dedalvs.tumblr.com/post/38902141023/how-do-you-say-not-today-in-dothraki

So it seems "not today" is Vos h’asshekhaan and "but not today" would be vosma vos h’asshekhaan.

[ratzae]

Yes I asked him myself using tumblr

Thank you!

And regarding pronunciation, how is the H pronounced in "h’asshekhaan"

[Najahho]

Like the h in "have"

[Qvaak]

The apostrophe (') has the same role as it has in English, marking things that are elided, so it does not affect the pronunciation. "H'assekhaan" is pronounced the same as "hasshekhaan" would be.