How many languages can Dany speak? Part II

[Rosetta Stone]

I posted part I two years ago.  We came to an agreement of three languages.  High Valyrian, the Common Tongue, and Dothraki.  Ghiscari will be the fourth soon.  Jorah is not bad with languages.  He knows at least two.  The Common Tongue and Dothraki.  Missandei holds the honor of speaking the most.  Who else is multilingual?  Does anyone recall what language Belwas speaks?  

[SeanF]

33 minutes ago, Rosetta Stone said:

I posted part I two years ago.  We came to an agreement of three languages.  High Valyrian, the Common Tongue, and Dothraki.  Ghiscari will be the fourth soon.  Jorah is not bad with languages.  He knows at least two.  The Common Tongue and Dothraki.  Missandei holds the honor of speaking the most.  Who else is multilingual?  Does anyone recall what language Belwas speaks?  

IIRC Tyrion knows High Valyrian.  I expect that quite a few of the upper classes of Westeros would know it, as it would be like learning Latin in the Middle Ages. It's a tongue that people from different countries can communicate in.

[Lady Dacey]

3 hours ago, Rosetta Stone said:

Who else is multilingual?

Arya. She speaks the Common Tongue and some High Valyrian at the start of the novels, but in her training at the House of Black and White she has lessons in many languages. This is in the Blind Girl, her first chapter in Dance: 

Quote

Supper was for language lessons. The blind girl understood Braavosi and could speak it passably, she had even lost most of her barbaric accent, but the kindly man was not content. He was insisting that she improve her High Valyrian and learn the tongues of Lys and Pentos too.

We don't know exactly how much time has elapsed, but by Winds she speaks Braavosi well enough to pass for a native - it's really hard to be that good. Like really really hard. Takes some serious skill.

[TheLastWolf]

In how many languages can you bear to hear (rhymes nicely, hmm) her full title? 

Queen Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, Lady of Dragonstone, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.

Spoiler

But u can call her Dany! Pfft

 

[SeanF]

57 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

In how many languages can you bear to hear (rhymes nicely, hmm) her full title? 

Queen Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, Lady of Dragonstone, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.

  Hide contents

But u can call her Dany! Pfft

 

That’s nothing.

Imagine reciting “His most Catholic Majesty, Charles, by the Grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, Lord of the Indies, King of Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Bohemia, Naples, Sicily, Jerusalem, Hungary, Slavonia, and Croatia, Archduke of Austria, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Milan, Silesia, Carinthia, Carniola, Styria, Margrave of Moravia, Upper Lusatia, and Lower Lusatia,  Count of the Tyrol, Flanders, Holland, Guelders, Zealand, Charolais, Hainault, Artois, Rousillon, Sire de Neufchâtel” in Latin, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Sicilian,Hungarian, and Serbo-Croat.

[H Wadsworth Longfellow]

On pages 663-666 Clash of Kings we are given a delightful exchange between Daenerys, Arstan, and Belwas.  For sure, Belwas can speak Valyrian.  At least what is left of Valyrian.  Arstan spoke Valyrian and his Common Tongue.  Belwas speaks broken Common Tongue.  His natural language has to be the same as that spoken in Meereen, Ghiscari-Valyrian hybrid.  Close enough to High Valyrian for communication to work.

This exchange actually has good information and settled the question of exactly what Illyrio wants from Daenerys.  Here it is.

 

"

Dany gave him a smile to take a bit of the sting from the rebuke.  "Now tell me, what would Magister Illyrio have of me, that he would send you all the way from Pentos?"

"He would have dragons," said Belwas gruffly, "and the girl who makes them.  He would have you."

"

I know that was a deviation from the topic but it seemed worth the mention. 

 

[TedBear]

According to the Wiki she speaks five languages, common Tongue, bastard valyrian, high valyrian, Dothraki, and Ghiscari. Is the High Valyrian very different from the Valyrian spoken in the free cities, enough to be considered another language?

[Lady Dacey]

50 minutes ago, TedBear said:

High Valyrian very different from the Valyrian spoken in the free cities, enough to be considered another language?

It is, most definetly. And each of these cities has it's own language, as well, even if there are similarities. If we could compare High Valyrian to Latin, then the languages of Braavos, Lys, Tyrosh, Volantis and so on to our own Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, French, Italian and Romanian. They are not mutually undertandable. 

[Lady Dacey]

There is much textual evidence to that, but I'm on my phone now. Shall return later. 

[Megorova]

Other people in the series that speak/know many languages (more than Dany) - Shiera Seastar (she probably knows all languages of Planetos), Mance Raider (different tribes beyond the Wall use different languages, + as a bard he knows languages used at 7K and Essos), Varys (he knows High Valyrian, 7K's Common Tongue; he lived in Lys, Myr and Pentos; he was apprenticing as a traveling mummer, so he probably learned many languages of Essos, while he was doing that), Jon Connington, Tattered Prince, Brown Ben Plumm, and any other intelligent leader of a big sellsword company (it's a part of their trade to be able to speak many languages); Euron Greyjoy.

Dany lived in Pentos for six months, it's likely that she learned at least a bit of local language. Most likely, she's also able to speak language of Braavos. She lived there first five years of her life, and while Willem Darry was still alive, she probably was receiving proper education including learning language of the city where she lived. Furthermore, during her travels with Viserys, they did at least once returned to Braavos. So it's logical that she should be able to speak Braavosi. And she was speaking Bastard Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent, so either her language teacher was a Tyroshi, or Tyroshi language was one of her prime languages, and thus even when she was speaking low Valyrian her Tyroshi accent was coming thru (even if she was doing it on purpose, it only means that she does know Tyroshi language. Because to be able to fake a Tyroshi accent, she should be able to speak Tyroshi language pretty well).

Bastard Valyrian, High Valyrian, Common Tongue, Tyroshi (maybe), Braavosi (maybe), Pentoshi (maybe), Dothraki, Ghiskari.

[James Fenimore Cooper XXII]

4 hours ago, TedBear said:

According to the Wiki she speaks five languages, common Tongue, bastard valyrian, high valyrian, Dothraki, and Ghiscari. Is the High Valyrian very different from the Valyrian spoken in the free cities, enough to be considered another language?

She has travelled far and wide.  It is not surprising for a bright youngster to acquire the language of those places.  High Valyrian is the language of the ancient empire.  The language of those who have the luxury of learning the finer points of grammar today.

[Shierak Qiya]

Quaithe

[TheLastWolf]

14 hours ago, SeanF said:

That’s nothing.

Imagine reciting “His most Catholic Majesty, Charles, by the Grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, Lord of the Indies, King of Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Bohemia, Naples, Sicily, Jerusalem, Hungary, Slavonia, and Croatia, Archduke of Austria, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Milan, Silesia, Carinthia, Carniola, Styria, Margrave of Moravia, Upper Lusatia, and Lower Lusatia,  Count of the Tyrol, Flanders, Holland, Guelders, Zealand, Charolais, Hainault, Artois, Rousillon, Sire de Neufchâtel” in Latin, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Sicilian,Hungarian, and Serbo-Croat.

The brave knight in shining armor (Dany fan) to the damsel in distress's (Dany) rescue, I see

I would be more impressed if I didn't think you googled "monarch with longest title(s)". Not judging. I just copied Dany's whole title (didn't know the right order) from Quora myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Ignore the above text, just friendly jabs. The issue is that half of Dany's titles are empty vanities. She doesn't rule over Westeros, 7K, Andals, Rhoynar and First Men now. She may be the rightful heir, but she isn't in power now. Just like Stannis's titles. Just like that string of titles for Charles blah blah blah you put, (surely he wasn't ruling all of those without resistance in pockets!?)

We call Dany Dany coz the author does in her POVs and it's conveniently short for lazy-to-type guys like me. Did anyone call that guy Charlie?
 

[SeanF]

4 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

The brave knight in shining armor (Dany fan) to the damsel in distress's (Dany) rescue, I see

I would be more impressed if I didn't think you googled "monarch with longest title(s)". Not judging. I just copied Dany's whole title (didn't know the right order) from Quora myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Ignore the above text, just friendly jabs. The issue is that half of Dany's titles are empty vanities. She doesn't rule over Westeros, 7K, Andals, Rhoynar and First Men now. She may be the rightful heir, but she isn't in power now. Just like Stannis's titles. Just like that string of titles for Charles blah blah blah you put, (surely he wasn't ruling all of those without resistance in pockets!?)

We call Dany Dany coz the author does in her POVs and it's conveniently short for lazy-to-type guys like me. Did anyone call that guy Charlie?
 

I gave the abbreviated version of Charles V's list of titles.  The Ottomans and Tsars had lists that ran for pages.

 I think the coolest title of all belongs to the Mongol Khagans:-

"By the Power of Eternal Heaven, Ruler of All Lands, from the Sunrise to the Sunset."  Succinct, to the point, and no empty boast, c.1270 or so.

[James West]

Xaro, I believe he speaks at least two languages.  Most certainly The Unsullied who were taken from places which speak another language.  Only the strongest survive the training.  Those who have adapted to the language of their trainers very quickly.  

Dany is a quick study.  She may yet pick up more languages if she circles east to get to westeros.  I wish George had not decided to avoid Asshai altogether.  That would have been an interesting adventure to read about.

[Fool Stands On Giant’s Toe]

23 hours ago, Megorova said:

Other people in the series that speak/know many languages (more than Dany) - Shiera Seastar (she probably knows all languages of Planetos), Mance Raider (different tribes beyond the Wall use different languages, + as a bard he knows languages used at 7K and Essos), Varys (he knows High Valyrian, 7K's Common Tongue; he lived in Lys, Myr and Pentos; he was apprenticing as a traveling mummer, so he probably learned many languages of Essos, while he was doing that), Jon Connington, Tattered Prince, Brown Ben Plumm, and any other intelligent leader of a big sellsword company (it's a part of their trade to be able to speak many languages); Euron Greyjoy.

Dany lived in Pentos for six months, it's likely that she learned at least a bit of local language. Most likely, she's also able to speak language of Braavos. She lived there first five years of her life, and while Willem Darry was still alive, she probably was receiving proper education including learning language of the city where she lived. Furthermore, during her travels with Viserys, they did at least once returned to Braavos. So it's logical that she should be able to speak Braavosi. And she was speaking Bastard Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent, so either her language teacher was a Tyroshi, or Tyroshi language was one of her prime languages, and thus even when she was speaking low Valyrian her Tyroshi accent was coming thru (even if she was doing it on purpose, it only means that she does know Tyroshi language. Because to be able to fake a Tyroshi accent, she should be able to speak Tyroshi language pretty well).

Bastard Valyrian, High Valyrian, Common Tongue, Tyroshi (maybe), Braavosi (maybe), Pentoshi (maybe), Dothraki, Ghiskari.

Nice catch with the Tyroshi

[Texas Hold Em]

On 9/27/2020 at 6:29 AM, Rosetta Stone said:

I posted part I two years ago.  We came to an agreement of three languages.  High Valyrian, the Common Tongue, and Dothraki.  Ghiscari will be the fourth soon.  Jorah is not bad with languages.  He knows at least two.  The Common Tongue and Dothraki.  Missandei holds the honor of speaking the most.  Who else is multilingual?  Does anyone recall what language Belwas speaks?  

Belwas speaks bastardized Valyrian. 

[Texas Hold Em]

11 hours ago, James West said:

Dany is a quick study.  She may yet pick up more languages if she circles east to get to westeros.  I wish George had not decided to avoid Asshai altogether.  That would have been an interesting adventure to read about.

[TedBear]

Young Griff also speaks several languages.

 

[Alexis-something-Rose]

15 hours ago, TedBear said:

Young Griff also speaks several languages.

Yes, he does. He speaks the Common Tongue, fluent in High Valyrian, speaks the low dialects of Pentos, Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys and the trade talk of sailors. He just started to learn the Volantene dialect and Meereenese. So he's up to about 7 plus the 2 he has just started learning.

I imagine that Haldon Halfmaester speaks even more than this since he is the one teaching him. Maester Kedry (RIP) was fluent in the languages of the Free Cities and Ghiscari.

Arya is improving her High Valyrian (interesting that noble children are still learning High Valyrian even after the fall of the Targaryens), learning Braavosi, the languages of Lys and Pentos. She also knows the trade talk from being Cat of the Canals. And she obviously has the Common Tongue. So she's up to 6 right now.