Map translations

[Nittanian]

"The Lands of Ice and Fire" map collection adds quite a few Dothraki placenames to our knowledge of Essos, which I would like to incorporate into "A Wiki of Ice and Fire". I've translated most names using the Vocabulary link at Dothraki.org, but there are some I'm not sure of. Can the experts here verify or correct the following cities?

Krazaaj Has (AKA Ghardaq) - Sharp Mountain
Krazaaj Zasqa (mountain range) - White Mountains
Vaes Aresak (Ibbish) - City of Cowards
Vaes Athjikhari (Sallosh) - ?
Vaes Diaf (Hazdahn No) - City of Skulls
Vaes Dothrak - City of Riders
Vaes Efe - ?
Vaes Graddakh (Sarys) - City of Refuse
Vaes Jini (Yinishar) - City of (Female) Goats
Vaes Khadokh (Essaria) - City of Corpses
Vaes Khewo (Sarnath) - City of Worms
Vaes Leisi - City of Ghosts ?
Vaes Leqse (Gornath) - ?
Vaes Mejhah - ?
Vaes Orvik - City of Whips
Vaes Qosar - City of Spiders
Vaes Shirosi - City of Scorpions
Vaes Tolorro - City of Bones
Vojjor Samui (Kasath) - Broken God ?
Yalli Qamayi (Sathar) - Child ?

[ingsve]

I think you have gotten as far as we can with the known words. The translations you have done look correct to me. I would have called it "City of Waste" rather than "refuse" though simply because it's a more common day to day word.

I'll ask David about the unknown words.

[Nittanian]

Thank you!

[ingsve]

I got a response for David:

Vaes Efe - City of shackles
Vaes Leqse - City of rats
Vaes Mejhah - City of whores
Vojjor Samui - Yes this should be broken gods (Vojjor Samva)
Yalli Qamayi - wailing children

David did not recognize what Athjikhari was suppose to be. Are you sure you have spellt it correctly?

[Nittanian]

Excellent information, thank you! I just double-checked - VAES ATHJIKHARI (formerly SALLOSH) is a ruined city north of the Dothraki Sea and south of the Bay of Tusks (Shivering Sea). It's shown on "The Dothraki Sea" map of "The Lands of Ice and Fire". Near Vaes Athjikhari is Vaes Leqse.

Two more placenames of possible Dothraki origin are the northern Kingdoms of the Ifeqevron (which I have seen discussed at Westeros.org ) by the Shivering Sea and Adakhakileki, a ruined city by the Poison Sea and the Bone Mountains.

[ingsve]

Excellent information, thank you! I just double-checked - VAES ATHJIKHARI (formerly SALLOSH) is a ruined city north of the Dothraki Sea and south of the Bay of Tusks (Shivering Sea). It's shown on "The Dothraki Sea" map of "The Lands of Ice and Fire". Near Vaes Athjikhari is Vaes Leqse.

Two more placenames of possible Dothraki origin are the northern Kingdoms of the Ifeqevron (which I have seen discussed at Westeros.org ) by the Shivering Sea and Adakhakileki, a ruined city by the Poison Sea and the Bone Mountains.

Adakhakileki is definately Dothraki. It seems to be a compound word meaning "Eater of skins" or "Skineater" if you will.I'll ask David about the other one.

[ingsve]

OK, some more answers.

Athjikhar should actually be athjhikhar but one of the /h/ must have been lost by GRRM somewhere. It means sickness so the city would be the "city of sickness".

Ifeqevron is indeed a Dothraki word and it's the name of a deadly forrest spider.

Also Vojjor Samui should be Vojjor Samvi so that also seems like a typo introduced somewhere in the printing.

[Hrakkar]

It looks like we got some new vocabulary in the process Ifeqevron is especially interesting.

[Nittanian]

Thank you again for the clarifications! I will add the new information to AWOIAF.

[Nittanian]

Athjikhar should actually be athjhikhar but one of the /h/ must have been lost by GRRM somewhere. It means sickness so the city would be the "city of sickness".

What should the correct spelling of the city be then? (Vaes Athjhikhar,  Vaes Athjhikhari, etc.) The printed map has Vaes Athjikhari.

[ingsve]

Athjikhar should actually be athjhikhar but one of the /h/ must have been lost by GRRM somewhere. It means sickness so the city would be the "city of sickness".

What should the correct spelling of the city be then? (Vaes Athjhikhar,  Vaes Athjhikhari, etc.) The printed map has Vaes Athjikhari.

It should have been Vaes Athjhikhari. The /-i/ at the end is optional though in this type of construction. The /-i/ is a genitive decelnsion so that is what give the "of" in the English but with these cities the genitive ending can be left out and it would still translate the same way.

As for what is correct that is another question. The misspelling is what has been printed so that would perhaps make in canon in a way.

[Nittanian]

As for what is correct that is another question. The misspelling is what has been printed so that would perhaps make in canon in a way.

The wiki's articles are now titled with the printed names from the maps, but disclaimers are included for the proper spelling.

[Qvaak]

The athj(h)ikhar is made even more curious by the fact that in Peterson's standard ortography jh digraph is not used. In standard ortography this would be athzhikhar - and, indeed, zhikhat, from which athzhikar is derived, is already in our dictionary. For what ever reason names sometimes use non-standard writing form, like in Jhiqui. It's a bit of a challenge to think of in-world resonating explanation, as Dothraki have no literary tradition 

I'm pretty sure mejhah is also familiar to us as mezhah. It's not on the vocab, but that's probably because I have been reluctant to add it as I have suspected "whore" to be rather rough translation. Due to the culture's take on sex and trade, the concept of "whore" is probably rather culturally coloured.

Yalli Qamayi leaves me a bit puzzled too. I'm under an impression that we had yalli as inanimate and then corrected it to animate status due to some comment from David. Now here again, yalli should be yallisi, if animate. Of course it's a city name and does not necessarily fully conform to the modern Dothraki grammar. It would also be nice to know, if qamay is derived from qamat or qamalat. I added it as an adjective, but almost certainly the source verb still exists.

[ingsve]

David mentioned in the e-mail answer that /jh/ is simply GRRM:s orthography for that sound which is why he used that instead of /zh/.