Languages in the Series

[SergioCQH]

How are they going to handle the languages? The easy solution is for everyone to speak the same language, but that will make certain scenes and characters obsolete. Missandei won't have a role or the same role, and the exchange between Dany and the slavers would lose its meaning. Also, Dany's early relationship with Drogo would be fundamentally changed.

If they keep the different languages, then they'll have to go through the trouble of inventing whole languages. That'll probably mean a bit of work that George would have to do. And we'd have to deal with subtitles, which could turn off television audiences.

[Northwest]

We will hear common language mostly...which will be English of course...Dany is the problem...I guess they could just have one language and thats it...or have the actors talk some stupid lines...berdil ford urghu...that would be Dothraki i think...with subtitles underneath...

The more I think about the more problems I see around this pilot...lets hope they do a good job...

[Aoede]

I'm sure there's any number of extremely obscure languages out there that only linguists and missionaries know about. You know, the sort that's only spoken by maybe a hundred people, but that linguists will learn for knowledge and missionaries will learn in order to proselytize. If one of those languages is chosen, all that's needed is for a linguist to translate the lines and for the actors to memorize them phonetically.

[Moshe Goldberg Rubinshteyn]

[quote name='Aoede' post='1615558' date='Dec 10 2008, 20.47']I'm sure there's any number of extremely obscure languages out there that only linguists and missionaries know about. You know, the sort that's only spoken by maybe a hundred people, but that linguists will learn for knowledge and missionaries will learn in order to proselytize. If one of those languages is chosen, all that's needed is for a linguist to translate the lines and for the actors to memorize them phonetically.[/quote]
Or it will be all English with fake foreign accents.

[Aoede]

[quote name='Cobblestones' post='1615573' date='Dec 10 2008, 21.00']Or it will be all English with fake foreign accents.[/quote]

D:

Eww.

[Brude]

They would mostly only need Dothraki and the decendant langauges of Valyrian (probably just use one for all of them). We only hear a few snippets of High Valyrian in the books, so we only need what we've read, I guess. There are snippets of the Summer Isles argot in the 4th book, if I remember correctly but that's season 4 so I don't think we need to worry about that too much.

[Venardhi]

If we aren't mean to understand, or if the scene includes multiple languages, have them speak scripted jibberish. If we are, do it with accented english.

[Auburn Dragon]

[quote name='Venardhi' post='1615899' date='Dec 11 2008, 07.01']If we aren't mean to understand, or if the scene includes multiple languages, have them speak scripted jibberish. If we are, do it with accented english.[/quote]


I agree. Subtitles are only ever necessary when 2 people are having [i]a conversation[/i] in a language the audience doesn't understand. Dany and Drogo do not speak the same language (when he speaks at all)... so any scenes between them we experience from her point of view (not understanding). When she is in Mereen she has a translator-- so we hear what it means when she does.

The fifth element has a good example of an un-subtitled made up language... if what was said was important someone who understands both languages seems to be around to translate, or you can figure out the meaning by the gesture.

[SergioCQH]

None of your suggestions would work for the negotiation scene in Astapor where Dany is pretending she didn't understand the slavers. If everyone is speaking English, then the scene doesn't make any sense. If the slavers are speaking gibberish, then there would have to be subtitles so that the audience understood the scene.

[Venardhi]

Like I said, if there are multiple languages, then have them obviously speaking different languages. If we are still supposed to know what they're saying, then subtitles are only natural to include.

[The Anti-Targ]

Well if Westerosi is gonna be English (which it has to be of course) then why not make the other languages real languages too? There are plenty of languages to choose from and it's as hard to learn lines of gibberish as it is to learn lines in another real language.

I don't really want accented English 'Allo 'Allo style as a pretend foreign language.

[Rinso]

Well, non-Westerosi characters who try to speak Westerosi, must have an accented English, I think.

[Ninepenny]

I'm expecting it to be similar to the audio books - all in English except for a few phrases, but with different accents for the different lands.

[SergioCQH]

There isn't much difference between a printed book and an audio book. There is quite a bit of difference between a book and a TV show.

[PhoenixFlame]

Dany and Drogo wouldn't be a problem. You can convey their barriers in other ways than language. He's a taciturn character--it's only natural they'd talk more after they got to know each other. I don't see the language as relevant. Maybe a slightly different cadence. In Rome, Cleopatra managed to sound very subtly foreign without having a silly accent.

As for the merchant scene...really, does the entire series hinge on that one scene?

[Horza]

Making up fake languages is easy and fun, and there are metric tonnes of linguistics geeks who would do it for (almost) free. There's only going to be a couple of scenes where it'll be neccesary and I don't get the handwringing. Subtitles are not ultimate poison death.

[Onion Knight]

hmmmm
it will be more simply if valyrian could be latin, and dothraki, mongol. for obvious reasons <:

[red snow]

It's an interesting dilemna but i think they should just go for accents, if it means certain characters would have to be subtitled all the time. In the book it is usually translated for us anyhow. Just play up the common tongue more so that everyone speaks it, alongside their native one.
As for the Dany and the slavers scene, I think that scene can be sacrficed if it makes the rest of the show easier to follow. I do like the idea of using real languages rather than invent some if they do go for different languages though.

[Venardhi]

[quote name='red snow' post='1621054' date='Dec 16 2008, 06.25']It's an interesting dilemna but i think they should just go for accents, if it means certain characters would have to be subtitled all the time. In the book it is usually translated for us anyhow. Just play up the common tongue more so that everyone speaks it, alongside their native one.
As for the Dany and the slavers scene, I think that scene can be sacrficed if it makes the rest of the show easier to follow. I do like the idea of using real languages rather than invent some if they do go for different languages though.[/quote]
For the english major who knows Latin, or the Chinese immigrant who knows mongolian or whatever other language you pick; someone is going to recognize it being used in place of something that is supposed to be of a fictional culture and that would immediately break their suspension of disbelief. You don't have Klingons come down and start speaking Swahili just because it sounds different enough to the average American. Once the free peoples start breaking out Hungarian and Farsi you immediately remind us that these are just actors on Earth.

Fake languages or nothing. If Star Trek and just about every other sci-fi series can do a fake language, so can these guys.

[El-ahrairah]

My ideas for the three major languages.

Common Tongue: English, rather obviously. Suitable regional accents should be found for different parts of Westeros.

High Valyrian: This language does not appear very often, and GRRM has provided translations for some of it. For the rest it can be extrapolated from the known text, as was done in the LOTR films for Elvish.

Drothraki: This is a much larger tongue, and would be hard to make from scratch, unless you are a Tolkien. Later in the series, when Dany becomes fluent, it can be shown with a simple accent. But in the beginning, to emphasize that she is in a alien environment, it should be subtitled. Perhaps a real world language played backwards, as was done in Star Wars, would be suitable for this.