The Grammar

[isil]

So, when do we get it?

[ingsve]

We are figuring out the grammar bit by bit through conversations with the creator of the language David Peterson. If you look through the wiki (wiki.dothraki.org) you'll find summaries of what we know so far about the grammar.

[isil]

Sure, but isn't there going to be an official publication? Any idea when that is due?

[ingsve]

Sure, but isn't there going to be an official publication? Any idea when that is due?

There are no real plans in the works as far as I know but there might be if interest is high for it. There was some mixed responses from fans of the books regarding the Dothraki posts on the making of game of thrones blog it seems. Some people see conlangs as a bit too geeky even for them but we'll see what happens when there is more Dothraki spoken in the show itself. HBO owns the rights to the language but David Peterson is still able to provide steady info and if HBO won't do anything themselves then perhaps they'll let David do even more himself with it.

[isil]

Thanks.

I'm glad I got the chance to tell that prissy douchebag Matthew to graddakh off.

[Hrakkar]

At last month's 'Linguists in Hollywood' event in Boisie, ID, Marc Okrand spent much of his talk time discussing the 'gray arwas' that exist around the copyright of a language, if there can ever be such a thing. It seems that the protection is more on how words are used, rather than on the words themselves. I'm Sure David Peterson is trying to be careful he doesn't cross any 'lines in the sand', but he seems interested in seeing the language grow. A lot of conlangs are being made by a lot of people these days, but few ever grow to any extent, probably mainly due to lack of exposure. Hopefully, Dothraki will get the exposure it needs to become 'common' because it is part of a primetime TV series.

[ingsve]

At last month's 'Linguists in Hollywood' event in Boisie, ID, Marc Okrand spent much of his talk time discussing the 'gray arwas' that exist around the copyright of a language, if there can ever be such a thing. It seems that the protection is more on how words are used, rather than on the words themselves. I'm Sure David Peterson is trying to be careful he doesn't cross any 'lines in the sand', but he seems interested in seeing the language grow. A lot of conlangs are being made by a lot of people these days, but few ever grow to any extent, probably mainly due to lack of exposure. Hopefully, Dothraki will get the exposure it needs to become 'common' because it is part of a primetime TV series.

Ya, the legality surrounding the language might be tricky but David is probably still under contract with HBO and that itself can probably cover a lot of the legal issues for them. I think what Okrand is talking about more applies to how people can use the language ones it is known. They probably can't stop anyone from translating whatever they want into Dothraki and publish it etc but first we need to know the language and that aspect can probably be controlled.

[Hrakkar]

Points well taken. Like most conlangs, the creator or a small committee is the 'gateleeper' that approves new words. David is holding words back for some reason, and the major reason might be a legal one (I'm not faulting DP in any way for doing this). But if you look how Klingon and Na`vi have grown, it is because there is a community that actively uses and extends both languages. This, in turn benefits the people who make the films, etc., as the community has helped stabilize the base for the language, and as a result, the language takes a more prominent place in the ongoing story.

I certainly hope that David will continue to leak out details about Dothraki as he can, like Paul Frommer did with Na`vi.

I had revisited this thread before starting a new one, to see if a little more information was out there regarding the grammar, phonotactics, etc. I'd like to try building a few sample sentences, but have doubts that would be even remotely grammatical at this time.

[ingsve]

Points well taken. Like most conlangs, the creator or a small committee is the 'gateleeper' that approves new words. David is holding words back for some reason, and the major reason might be a legal one (I'm not faulting DP in any way for doing this). But if you look how Klingon and Na`vi have grown, it is because there is a community that actively uses and extends both languages. This, in turn benefits the people who make the films, etc., as the community has helped stabilize the base for the language, and as a result, the language takes a more prominent place in the ongoing story.

I certainly hope that David will continue to leak out details about Dothraki as he can, like Paul Frommer did with Na`vi.

I had revisited this thread before starting a new one, to see if a little more information was out there regarding the grammar, phonotactics, etc. I'd like to try building a few sample sentences, but have doubts that would be even remotely grammatical at this time.

I think it's mainly HBO that is holding back a bit at releasing things. David told me that everything about the series that is released has to go through some committees before it can be released which was the case for the blog posts they were putting up at www.makinggameofthrones.com". There were a couple more posts that were planned to go up but there was so much stuff they wanted to release so it got bumped it seems.

They do have free reigns in what they can release during talks and presentations however so next weekend during the Language Creation Conference in the Netherlands David will be giving a talk about Dothraki that will probably involve grammar.

Also with there being more and more Dothraki spoken on the show the vocabulary will probably grow quite a bit in the next few weeks as long as we can get confirmation on some of the transcriptions I've tried to do.