38 replies to this topic

[Language Creation Society]

Peggy Leef, on 19 April 2010 - 04:36 AM, said:

Just to express my own preference, I'd love to be able to get all of the Dothraki news in one place. (Ideally from somewhere that has an RSS feed, so that I can add it to my RSS reader.) Expanding publicity by using Facebook, a blog, a Livejournal, this forum, it's all fantastic, but please make sure that people can get information even if they follow you in only one location.

This is dothraki.conlang.org (which has a prominently linked RSS feed). Everything else is secondary to that as a news source, and used more for social interaction, discussion, etc.

We can't answer the rest for now, though the tor.com interview addresses some of your questions re. the creation process.

The LCS, as a non-profit educational organization, definitely has an interest in helping our Dothraki audience learn about conlanging and how to get into it themselves. We hope to have regular posts on the blog in the future that discuss the creation process in more detail, etc. But for now, we have to hold off until the production team decides what's happening on publicity.

Of course, that only applies to our work on Dothraki, not to our independent non-profit work. We still have a podcast (http://podcast.conlang.org), conference (http://conference.conlang.org), online "library", (http://library.conlang.org), and other resources for anyone interested in learning how to make a language. And we can point you to many more - very active fora, books, tutorials, etc. It'll take a while before you get to pro level skill , but it's a very enjoyable hobby that's not really that hard to start, and the community is generally very supportive of newbies.

[Brude]

I found this article/open letter about Dothraki in Scientific American from a Harvard grad student in psychology, who is also a fan of the books. He was hoping that you guys could do some experiments with the language to help them test some theories about the ability of humans to learn languages.

[Language Creation Society]

Brude, on 26 April 2010 - 05:52 PM, said:

I found this article/open letter about Dothraki in Scientific American from a Harvard grad student in psychology, who is also a fan of the books. He was hoping that you guys could do some experiments with the language to help them test some theories about the ability of humans to learn languages.

We'll be talking with him about this. Thanks for the link.

[kuronin]

Hello, I'm the fellow responsible for the interminable monologue in the above article's comment section. Can't wait to learn more about Dothraki!

[lynxx]

Suggestions for Dothraki--easily understandable in context, can be used often so that viewers can pick them up as well as us nerdy fans.

Give us a general word of approval or admiration for a good feast, a good fight, or a good horse.

Need a general word of scorn and contempt for sissies, dishonorable behavior, or a substandard weapon.


Now to the "it is known" phrase:

From the dictionary "hash yer ray nesi" did you know?
If "nesi" corresponds to know, then "nesat" is probably to know.
So, might be "ath-nesat-ar"  or maybe even "Zhey ath-nesat".   I like that one.

[ingsve]

lynxx, on 25 August 2010 - 02:04 PM, said:

Now to the "it is known" phrase:

From the dictionary "hash yer ray nesi" did you know?
If "nesi" corresponds to know, then "nesat" is probably to know.
So, might be "ath-nesat-ar"  or maybe even "Zhey ath-nesat".   I like that one.

It might not be and probably isn't that straight forward. With an expression like that it doesn't have to be a simple word for word translation. It could be something seemingly diffrent that simply translates as "did you know"

What we do know however is that "zhey" is a vocative particle that is used in front of the name etc of that which you are adressing.

[Blizzard]

How the Dothraki would pronounce the words of the westerosi houses? Or "Where is my horse?"

[Aedan Stormrage]

lynxx, on 25 August 2010 - 02:04 PM, said:

Suggestions for Dothraki--easily understandable in context, can be used often so that viewers can pick them up as well as us nerdy fans.

Give us a general word of approval or admiration for a good feast, a good fight, or a good horse.

Need a general word of scorn and contempt for sissies, dishonorable behavior, or a substandard weapon.


Now to the "it is known" phrase:

From the dictionary "hash yer ray nesi" did you know?
If "nesi" corresponds to know, then "nesat" is probably to know.
So, might be "ath-nesat-ar"  or maybe even "Zhey ath-nesat".   I like that one.

Well, actually the phrase in Dothraki is: Me nem nesa.

Blizzard, on 19 September 2011 - 02:36 PM, said:

How the Dothraki would pronounce the words of the westerosi houses? Or "Where is my horse?"

Well... there are many words in Dothraki for "horse", but using the most common one, I would think:

Finne hrazef anni?

But you could also go for: Finne sajo? or Finne sajo anni?

Edited by Aethan Stormrage, 20 March 2012 - 03:29 PM.

[boojam]

Language Creation Society, on 15 April 2010 - 02:11 AM, said:

To make it easy for us to track... just post a response here if you have any requests or suggestions for stuff that the LCS or HBO should do w/ Dothraki.

Thanks!

Say , been meaning to ask this. In the CNN Dothraki creation profile, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss mentioned they wanted High Valyrian for the show. Is this going to happen?
I mentioned on another thread  because Dany's natural knowledge of it plays as a plot pivot in Storm of Swords.

Edited by boojam, 22 April 2012 - 11:43 AM.

[Aedan Stormrage]

boojam, on 22 April 2012 - 11:42 AM, said:

Say , been meaning to ask this. In the CNN Dothraki creation profile, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss mentioned they wanted High Valyrian for the show. Is this going to happen?
I mentioned on another thread  because Dany's natural knowledge of it plays as a plot pivot in Storm of Swords.

Yes, in fact Dothraki's creator is going to handle the creation of High Valyrian as well. So we have invented languages for the future too!

[Cora Stark]

I think it would be great if the Dothraki said more, since their speech is close to the old tongue (simple, descriptive, and short)
Also if more of their history came out into the show.

[Adogs]

Aethan Stormrage, on 09 July 2012 - 08:23 PM, said:

Yes, in fact Dothraki's creator is going to handle the creation of High Valyrian as well. So we have invented languages for the future too!

That's great news if true!  Do you have confirmation of it, a link or something?

[gussvenin]

Adogs, on 07 August 2012 - 04:46 AM, said:

That's great news if true!  Do you have confirmation of it, a link or something?

There isn't any official confirmation. In the profile on David on CNN's The Next List (Seen at the bottom of this page http://www.spoilertv...ist-to-air.html) David and Dan mentioned that there are other languages in GRRMs world and that they are hoping David would create those as well. David later repeated that information in an interview on Stupid For Game of Thrones (http://www.youtube.c...h?v=tqa5q_Avshk) but that was before they agreed about any details or signed any contracts or whatever. What has happened since then is not known since they are keeping a close lid on things for season 3. What we do know is that David has work on 5 episodes in the coming season and that in total the word count is greater than it was in season 2. So the question is whether we believe that is just Dothraki work or whether it's more likely that it also means work on some other language.

[Aedan Stormrage]

Yes, that's all true. But I seriously think that David would be their first choice should they decide to give a green light to other languages being created. I would love to see that happen.

[gussvenin]

Aethan Stormrage, on 05 September 2012 - 05:21 PM, said:

Yes, that's all true. But I seriously think that David would be their first choice should they decide to give a green light to other languages being created. I would love to see that happen.

There has since been a confirmation that David is creating Valyrian. Of course David would be their first choice. The uncertainty was more in regard to whether they would create another language or not rather than who would do it.

[Aedan Stormrage]

They will. They must... as new languages gain more importance.

[Sheyria]

"when the sun rises in the west
and sets in the east
then you shall
return to me
my sun and stars"

Edited by Sheyria, 29 September 2012 - 01:06 PM.

[KingAlanI]

How can you avoid the impression that using fictional-story conlangs in real life is embarassingly nerdy? (Are you worried about that impression to begin with?) (See Klingon, Elvish, et cetera)

[Aedan Stormrage]

From David Peterson's twitter account: "Just heard my first bit of Astapori Valyrian. Extraordinarily pleased.

So he referred to it as "Astapori Valyrian", hinting that in fact there will be different kinds of Valyrian!!