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David J. Peterson Creating Valyrian Language


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Yes, indeed he is under 'radio silence', we only have the High Valyrian word for "thank you" which is 'kirimvose' or 'kirimvos' for short and is pronounced as you would expect it to if it were a Dothraki word, except the stress is on the second 'i'.

Aside from that we have the video. What I can tell you is that once, a long time ago, before even being charged with creating the language he mentioned that to him Braavosi would have to be more 'italianish'. I mean, he could have changed his mind or whatever, but at the time that was his speculation, maybe he went that way. Oh, and that High Valyrian has a long-short vowel distinction akin to Latin or Greek.

I don't think he can answer anything else about it until the language gets used in the show. I hope we'll have lots of material then :)

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  • 1 month later...

Yes, indeed he is under 'radio silence',...

Aside from that we have the video.

I don't think he can answer anything else about it until the language gets used in the show. I hope we'll have lots of material then :)

I think the reason why they're keeping the language under wraps so much is because Daenarys isn't supposed to understand it until the reveal. Perhaps they want to keep as many details as they can in the dark.
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I think the reason why they're keeping the language under wraps so much is because Daenarys isn't supposed to understand it until the reveal. Perhaps they want to keep as many details as they can in the dark.

I think in the books , not sure of GOT, but I think, I think?, it is noted , at least once, maybe more, that she does speak Valyrian. It could be deduced since , after all, she is Valyrian, if not pure blood, by heritage. High Valyrian was probably her puppy language. She would know it better that most of the characters around her. It's only in SoS when she is advised not to let on she understands the slave traders to take advantage of their ignorance of her ability. Clever plot ploy by Geroge , am glad they are keeping it.

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I think in the books , not sure of GOT, but I think, I think?, it is noted , at least once, maybe more, that she does speak Valyrian. It could be deduced since , after all, she is Valyrian, if not pure blood, by heritage. High Valyrian was probably her puppy language. She would know it better that most of the characters around her. It's only in SoS when she is advised not to let on she understands the slave traders to take advantage of their ignorance of her ability. Clever plot ploy by Geroge , am glad they are keeping it.

It was explicitly stated in the books, but not on the show. It makes it more plausible to keep up the ruse to the audience so that it might seem more of a revelation. Hell, most viewers barely even know that the language exists in the series.
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  • 2 weeks later...

You don't seem to understand how it works. HBO is not paying per language, HBO is paying him as consultant... so he can do whatever he wants, he already has different dialects of Dothraki that HBO has not used, so I don't see why there won't be various Valyrian dialects, specially when those ARE really needed for the story.

In fact, judging by his own twitter account, he states: "Just heard my first bit of Astapori Valyrian. Extraordinarily pleased.

So I think this hints that there will be different dialects of Valyrian, this being the Astapori Valyrian.

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In fact, judging by his own twitter account, he states: "Just heard my first bit of Astapori Valyrian. Extraordinarily pleased.

So I think this hints that there will be different dialects of Valyrian, this being the Astapori Valyrian.

Well, each of the free cities and Slaver's bay has their own Valyrian dialect, he must be already working on Braavosi and Volanteen (sp?) for the upcoming seasons.

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Here is a blog update by David Peterson, about the premiere party last night, which he attended:

http://www.dothraki....premiere-event/

He can't say much, but he does drop some hints about Valyrian. At least we know that episode 1 will feature Missandrei speaking Valyrian - and she apparently does a great job. And she speaks an 'Astapori Valyrian' dialect:

"Anyway, one thing I was extremely glad of is I got to meet both Nathalie Emmanuel (who plays Missandei) and Dan Hildebrand (who plays Kraznys) at the after party. I saw their work for the first time tonight, and, as I told that, I was extraordinarily impressed. They’re both new to the show and new to working with a constructed language, and the language itself is brand new, so, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Their performances far exceeded my expectations. I could barely sit still in my seat, thinking to myself, “My god! They’re nailing it!” I’ll have some more specific details after the official premiere, but suffice it say they both put a lot of effort into getting the Astapori Valyrian down (for which I’m grateful), and their hard work more than paid off. I couldn’t have hoped for anything better."
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  • 2 weeks later...

David Peterson wrote this special article to CNN:

http://whatsnext.blo...ame-of-thrones/

During my first interview on the morning of twelfth, the "Next List" producer asked me if I'd be working on the Valyrian language for the show's upcoming season. Immediately alarm bells went off, as I started to think back and wonder, "Did I accidentally say anything?"

Though there had been no discussions, I and many assumed that some form of the Valyrian language would make an appearance in season three, but at that stage, any such discussion would have been premature, and certainly would have been covered by a non-disclosure agreement. Trying not to look too perturbed, I asked why she would ask that, and she told me that when she'd interviewed executive producers Dan Weiss and David Benioff earlier, they'd said I'd be working on Valyrian this season.

And that's how I learned I'd be creating a new language for season three of "Game of Thrones."

For those tuning in to the "Game of Thrones" premiere this Sunday, you'll still have to suffer through a few subtitles, but the audio will sound a bit different from seasons past. Though there are a number of Dothraki speakers yet alive on the show, there's surprisingly little Dothraki this season. In its place is quite a bit of dialogue in two related languages: High and Low Valyrian.
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Sounds fantastic! I guess now we can start endlessly analyzing the language, or somesuch? There were bits of romance-ish stuff in Astapori Valyrian: chevali for knight. We saw murhor or something like that for death -- and of course mhysa, which we must presume is a Ghiscari admixture into their dialect of low Valyrian, which also makes sense. The tone / feel of the language was a bit like Greek to me -- that is, modern Greek, or also a bit like a semitic language.

If there's High Valyrian upcoming, I am hugely looking forward to it, especially if it has Greek/Latin vowel quantity. I hope we get a documentary about Valyrian in the season 3 special features.

edit: "This season, I worked on two of the Valyrian languages: High Valyrian (the oldest form of the language) and the Low Valyrian spoken in and around Slaver's Bay. To translate sentences into the latter variety of Valyrian, I would first translate them into High Valyrian, and then apply a series of phonological, semantic and grammatical changes to the text. The resulting language is approximately as different from High Valyrian as Old Spanish is from Classical Latin."

Man, that's so awesome.

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Well actually "knight" must probably be azanty/azantys, I think you meant "ji vali" for "chevali", which probably is "the men", that is article plus "man" in the plural, cf. "valar". And "death" is probably "murgho" in this variety and "morghot" in High Valyrian, but probably in the accusative case.

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Well actually "knight" must probably be azanty/azantys, I think you meant "ji vali" for "chevali", which probably is "the men", that is article plus "man" in the plural, cf. "valar". And "death" is probably "murgho" in this variety and "morghot" in High Valyrian, but probably in the accusative case.

Hm, interesting. Where do you get morghot from?

If Astapori Valyrian has articles, I wonder if High Valyrian does (like Greek) or if it makes do with declension alone to denote function (as in Latin).

And hm -- I was transcribing just from what I could hear. Does your recording of the episode come with subtitles for the Valyrian, too?

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No, David Peterson has transcribed one of the lines both in the Astapori Valyrian of the episode and also into High Valyrian.

To give you an example, here’s a line from last night’s episode (one of Missandei’s):

  • J’azanty ivetras ji vali nedhinki sizi zughilis vi murgho.
  • “The knight says that even the brave men fear death.”

And here’s what that sentence looks like in High Valyrian:

  • Morghot nēdyssy sesīr zūgusy azantys vestras.

So I would say, no, High Valyrian doesn't seem to use articles, just like Latin. The articles in Astapori Valyrian seem to be "ji" in both cases, with "j'azanty" being "the knight" and "ji vali nedhinki" being "the brave men".

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Yeah, awesome link. J'azanty/azantys is definitely knight, ivetras/vestras is "to say," ji vali is "men," nedhinki/nedyssy is "brave / brave men", size/sesi is "even", zughilis/zugusy is "to fear," and vi murgho / "morghot" is "death."

I wonder if morghot / vi murgho are objective genitives or accusatives (to the extent that low Valyrian even preserves any declensions at all, that is).

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