Teach yourself Dothraki with the Game of Thrones language course
The creator of the fantasy language is releasing a course in October for anyone who wants to take their GoT obsession to a new level
- Alicia Tan
Published: Wednesday, 4 June 2014 at 11:18 am
Khaleesi zheanae. That means, “The queen is beautiful” in Dothraki – in case you didn’t know. The Mother of Dragons managed to learn the language of the nomadic horse-mounted warriors in the space of a few short episodes of Game of Thrones, and starting 7 October, you and your GoT fan club can try doing the same.
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David J Peterson, the linguist who created the language for the HBO fantasy series from a few of the phrases in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books, has teamed up with Living Language to design a course for anyone else who wants to master the language (there are already 150 self-identified Dothraki speakers on the “Tongues of Ice and Fire” Wiki, apparently).
The course will include more than 500 words and phrases and “never-before-heard material and words coined exclusively for the Living Language Dothraki course” and is billed as being just like learning a language in the classroom where the curriculum includes vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and cultural notes.
Just to be safe, the lessons will also include the derogatory terms you shouldn’t use: “Whatever you do, never call a Dothraki warrior an ifak (walker): the ultimate insult since it implies he can no longer ride his horse.”
The course will be narrated by Peterson himself and is available in three packages: a book and CD, an expanded online course and a companion mobile app. If you can’t wait until the autumn to place your order, you can pre-order now and also download a sample lesson on adjectives. Maybe it’ll be davra for the next episode.
To quickly satisfy your nerdy needs, here's a crash course from the sample lesson:
Adjectives:
davra - useful/good
dik - fast
fish - cold
haj - strong
naqis - small
zheana - beautiful
zhokwa - big
Here are a few sentences with the adjectives working with nouns:
Arakh davrae.
The arakh is good.
Arakh davra vos oflecha.
A good arakh will not be dull.
Hrazef dik adavrae.
The fast horse will be good.
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Khaleesi zheanae.
The queen is beautiful.
Authors
Alicia Tan
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