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David J. Peterson Creating Valyrian Language


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David J. Peterson, creator of the Dothraki language for HBO’s Game of Thrones, has now indirectly revealed that he’s working on creating the Valyrian language for the production thanks to an interview with PRI’s The World. At the 2:05 mark, the interviewer in the piece reads some of the names of languages that Peterson is working on as displayed on his computer, and Valyrian is among them (another one mentioned, Skroth, is the name for the “language” that Peterson invented for the Others as briefly heard in the opening of the first episode).

Thanks to the success and popularity of Game of Thrones, as well as the Na’vi language in James Cameron’s Avatar, a number of TV and film productions are hiring language creators and linguists like Peterson to invent languages. Besides working on the Game of Thrones languages, Peterson’s also working on alien languages for Syfy’s new cross-media series, Dominion.

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  • 2 months later...

You expect them to be making 3 versions of the same language?? No way....

Hahaha, you don't think? You forget that David created a proto-dothraki I think he calls it "proto-steeps" or something like that and he already said he derived this version of Dothraki but has other versions ready to use too!! So why not creating High Valyrian and a couple of bastard versions? He is more than likely to already have it done, I wouldn't be surprised to see 5 or 7 different Valyrian vulgars, and maybe even some ghiscari mongrels too! They don't have to pay for the "nuisances" that's just how David works

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Hahaha, you don't think? You forget that David created a proto-dothraki I think he calls it "proto-steeps" or something like that and he already said he derived this version of Dothraki but has other versions ready to use too!! So why not creating High Valyrian and a couple of bastard versions? He is more than likely to already have it done, I wouldn't be surprised to see 5 or 7 different Valyrian vulgars, and maybe even some ghiscari mongrels too! They don't have to pay for the "nuisances" that's just how David works

Don't get me wrong, he would like to create the versions as they should be... but I don't think that HBO would pay for more then 1 :)

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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.

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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.

I will second that.

Well I think that Peterson comes at a reasonable price so HBO probably could pay him , but I am sure D&D have their hands full with just the teleplay as it is. I am almost sure they would not complicate things with more than just one new language. The vast majority of the audience does not care, they only like the charm it adds to the narrative.

David and his friends at the LCS just have fun doing the other variations as a hobby.

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I will second that.

Well I think that Peterson comes at a reasonable price so HBO probably could pay him , but I am sure D&D have their hands full with just the teleplay as it is. I am almost sure they would not complicate things with more than just one new language. The vast majority of the audience does not care, they only like the charm it adds to the narrative.

David and his friends at the LCS just have fun doing the other variations as a hobby.

What's the difference? They ask "David, how do you say bla bla bla in X?" and he says "ok, this:"

D&D don't even have to know or care about what language is or what its relation is to the others, that's entirely David's job. D&D just focus on providing the lines, David translates them. But we'll know soon enough. David is a great linguist, he will make sure to make the difference between valyrian and the vulgar versions, you'll see.

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While having the bastard offshoots of Valyrian would be nice, they`re not necessary. All we need to know is that they speak something that isn`t Dorthraki of the Common Tongue, Dany can speak it too but is pretending she can`t. The whole "I only half understand what they`re saying" in some parts is unnecessary for the TV show.

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Look... if they call her "mhysa" then they can't say they are speaking Valyrian, because it is established that that's not High Valyrian. Don't worry, there will be a couple of Valyrian languages, no doubts about it.

How will these be identified?

Extra subtitles?

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I will second that.

Well I think that Peterson comes at a reasonable price so HBO probably could pay him , but I am sure D&D have their hands full with just the teleplay as it is. I am almost sure they would not complicate things with more than just one new language. The vast majority of the audience does not care, they only like the charm it adds to the narrative.

David and his friends at the LCS just have fun doing the other variations as a hobby.

Whatever they pay him, he's going to get something on the back end anyway due to the hits that his website now gets, Dothraki and Valyrian books he may co-publish with HBO and other opportunities. I believe that David does this for fun too, but he's getting paid one way or the other.
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They don't have to be identified... why do you think they should be? When in a movie you see people speaking Spanish and then French do the subtitles tell you "hey, this is Spanish"? No, they just subtitle it.

First, 99% of the audience won't care what they are speaking.

(It's subtitled.)

For even you , the 1%, how will you know when they are speaking High Valyrian or some variant?

Sure it may sound different , but how will you know which variant it is?

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"Okay, Emilia. I know last time when you said "Mumbo jumbo est blah foo something mumble" you said it with that funny accent. This time, you're going to say it a little differently. What? No, your last take was great. No, no. GREAT. Perfect. You totally nailed it. You see, this time it's in a different dialect of Valyrian, it's the mongrel tongue of Ghi- what? What do you mean "for god's sake, who is going to notice that the fake language you're speaking sounds different from the first time you said the line?"

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First, 99% of the audience won't care what they are speaking.

(It's subtitled.)

For even you , the 1%, how will you know when they are speaking High Valyrian or some variant?

Sure it may sound different , but how will you know which variant it is?

I repeat... why do you have to know? I'm saying he will probably make dialects, not that HBO is interested in all its viewers to notice that fact. Did you know Mirri Maz Dur sings in Asshai'i at one point? Did the subtitles tell you? No. That's exactly what one expects, they won't tell you, sorry. But we'll know eventually, specially with his blogs and stuff.

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It would be awesome if he makes up dialects. Seeing as how attentive to detail the fanbase is, there's a chance that we'll figure out which is High Valyrian and which is Ghiscari because one of the two sounds more graceful, or barbaric, or rough. It wouldn't surprise me.

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It would be awesome if he makes up dialects. Seeing as how attentive to detail the fanbase is, there's a chance that we'll figure out which is High Valyrian and which is Ghiscari because one of the two sounds more graceful, or barbaric, or rough. It wouldn't surprise me.

Reading Peterson's blog since season one , info not heavy, but apparently he was aware that he would get the assignment to create Valyrian. Even tho he worked some on Season 2 ... he mentions that Season 3 has been the most work he has done for the for show. (I don't know if that means season 1 too.)

Also, tho he is one who gets paid and had the burden, apparently his friends at the LCS have also , just for fun, worked deviants of Valyrian. The question will be if these are used in the show now or later.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Reading Peterson's blog since season one , info not heavy, but apparently he was aware that he would get the assignment to create Valyrian. Even tho he worked some on Season 2 ... he mentions that Season 3 has been the most work he has done for the for show. (I don't know if that means season 1 too.)

Also, tho he is one who gets paid and had the burden, apparently his friends at the LCS have also , just for fun, worked deviants of Valyrian. The question will be if these are used in the show now or later.

Where are you getting this from? I asked David and he answered: "No. Not sure where that info came from."

So I guess that's not the case...

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Where are you getting this from? I asked David and he answered: "No. Not sure where that info came from."

So I guess that's not the case...

I am guessing you mean the last sentence?

I know the part about how hard he worked on 'something' for season 3 because he mentions it in an interview or blog somewhere.

We know he did create High Valerian for season 3.

(We hear Dany speaking it on that weird guerrilla video.)

As to the LCS people working on variants , I concede I only got that from reading between the lines on the LCS site and Peterson's blog.

If you got to ask him about that , then I am wrong.

Wow you got to speak to him?

Did he say anything about High Valyrian for the show?

I guess he is still under 'radio silence' about that.

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