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Dotrakhi is Turkish


Nudu

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My partner is of turkish descent and therefore I often hear turkish in daily life. In my opinion it does sound somewhat turkish from time to time.



His mother always explains to me the greatness of the turkish people, while at the same time disliking the strong nationalistic emotions of many turks. I just have to say, I know the legends of the turkish being led by a wolf into the new country and therefore many parts of the worlds being actually turkish. But I really beg to differ between reality and nationalistic propaganda/legends. I don´t see the point in discussing the descent of people in a thread about a fantasy language...



If you want to know this bad, please have a look at what the actual inventer of the language say.


Wiki-quote: "Peterson drew inspiration from George R. R. Martin’s description of the language, as well as from such languages as Turkish, Russian, Estonian, Inuktut and Swahili."



So if you are able to hear some turkish influence I guess you´ve heard it right. :)


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I personally think it sounds very barbaric like so would suit a very barbaric type of people, certainly not sounding like any modern language. As Westeros is based on medieval Britain (and looks like Britain in my opinion) I would certainly say the Dothraki are based on the huns of medieval Europe.


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I can speak fluent Turkish and I can clearly say it doesn't sound like Turkish at all. Dotrakhi always sounds like Arabic to me. Btw, their life style definitely very close to Turks & Mongols.



Note: Life style similar to Ancient Turks of Central Asia not Anatolian Turks.


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Everyone who is turkish obviously doesn't think that Dothraki sounds anything like Turkish. But for people who are not from there, Turkish and Arabic sound quite similar. If you're turkish then of course Turkish and Arabic are very very different for you. But for a person from Japan for example I guess Dutch and German sound very similar. See what I mean?


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@Mleh: I can't watch youtube videos here at the office. But I know what you mean. And you're right I guess. It was a bad example from me. But my point was a different one... as a native speaker you can't imagine how someone who knows nothing about your language would compare it to another language. For me German and Dutch sound absolutly super totally different. But someone from Peru would probably think they sound quite similar. You get my point? Italian and Spanish are different too, but they're somewhat of the some "category" I'd say. Like maybe for us Japanese and Korean sound quite similar, but a japanese person would tell you the two langages are totally diffrent.



As a german I'm of course quite familiar with the turkish langage, and yes you're right, Arabic sounds different. Although I honestly don't know much Arabic to be really able to compare them (Only one character on the Lost TV show and some music). But I'd still put both langages in the same category though. Maybe it's wrong that I do that.


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I got your point sir. But German and Dutch are both Germanic Languages. So, of course they sounds similar to each other to people who have no idea about those languages. But Turkish is an Altaic language (sister of Mongolian, Tungusic, Japanese and Korean languages) and Arabic is a Semitic language (sister of Hebrew and Aramaic languages)



So, if anyone really think that Turkish and Arabic sounds similar, he/she probably haven't heard one of those languages.



Regards.


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I think the general answers are all correct.



Dothraki are definitely inspired by the Steppe Peoples (not the Arabic peoples). Steppe Peoples include:



- Scythians (Indo-Iranians, Sarmatians, Alans, etc.)


- Turkic groups (ancestors of the Ottomans)


- Mongolian tribes



The Dothraki are definitely not influenced by the Arabs - and if those influences are there, they are from HBO specialists (probably by mistake/ignorance).



The confusion would come from the fact that the Khans and Turks adopted Islam.



At the end of the day, Dothraki is its own thing, in its own world. Elves are not Swedes and Khal Drogo is not Genghis Khan.



and P.S. Turks and Arabs are completely different ethnic and linguistic groups.


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I think the general answers are all correct.

Dothraki are definitely inspired by the Steppe Peoples (not the Arabic peoples). Steppe Peoples include:

- Scythians (Indo-Iranians, Sarmatians, Alans, etc.)

- Turkic groups (ancestors of the Ottomans)

- Mongolian tribes

The Dothraki are definitely not influenced by the Arabs - and if those influences are there, they are from HBO specialists (probably by mistake/ignorance).

The confusion would come from the fact that the Khans and Turks adopted Islam.

At the end of the day, Dothraki is its own thing, in its own world. Elves are not Swedes and Khal Drogo is not Genghis Khan.

and P.S. Turks and Arabs are completely different ethnic and linguistic groups.

Well said Starspear. I haven't been to this thread in a long time but laughed when I saw that it was still alive and thriving. It seems like it keeps coming back to the same points over time, but you summed it up with your post perfectly.

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I think the general answers are all correct.

Dothraki are definitely inspired by the Steppe Peoples (not the Arabic peoples). Steppe Peoples include:

- Scythians (Indo-Iranians, Sarmatians, Alans, etc.)

- Turkic groups (ancestors of the Ottomans)

- Mongolian tribes

The Dothraki are definitely not influenced by the Arabs - and if those influences are there, they are from HBO specialists (probably by mistake/ignorance).

The confusion would come from the fact that the Khans and Turks adopted Islam.

At the end of the day, Dothraki is its own thing, in its own world. Elves are not Swedes and Khal Drogo is not Genghis Khan.

and P.S. Turks and Arabs are completely different ethnic and linguistic groups.

QFT, with the exception it's a bit more muddled than all that.

Most present-day "Turks" are genetically Greek/Phrygian/Armenian/Arab/whathaveyou who adopted the language of their conquerors who adopted the sedentary lifestyle of their captives. The Dothraki Sea is based on the great nomad highway but it wouldn't be surprising in the least to see some areas on its periphery fallen to a khalasar who "fall" into "decadence": it's essentially what will happen to any Dothraki who join Dany.

(If you haven't heard of the Khazars, you can check 'em out: some of the steppe people adopted Judaism instead of Islam, Tibetan Buddhism, or Tengriism.)

Similarly, any discussion of the languages has to realize there's a world of difference between what GRRM came up with (essentially Valyrian=Latin and Dothraki=Turkic, with some handwavian respellings) and what Peterson did to them for the show. For his part, Peterson goes out of his way to ignore real-life parallels (so far as claiming that breaking down dracarys as its obviously-intended "dragon fire" is beneath contempt) except where they amuse him ("chain"=belmon=Belmont=Castlevania). At this point, GRRM will send passages to him for translation on occasion, but it's still obviously not where the languages were originally sourced from or headed for.

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