Dothraki language - wikipedia Dothraki language Dothraki Lekh Dothraki Pronunciation ( ˈd̪ɤ. θɾa. ki ) Created by George R.R. Martin, David J. Peterson Date From 2009 Setting and usage A Song of Ice and Fire, 2011 series Game of Thrones Purpose Constructed languages Artistic languages Fictional languages Dothraki Language codes ISO 639 - 3 None ( mis ) Glottolog None This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help : IPA. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help : IPA. The Dothraki language is a constructed fictional language in George R.R. Martin 's fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, where it is spoken by the Dothraki, nomadic inhabitants of the Dothraki Sea. The language was developed for the TV series by the linguist David J. Peterson based on the Dothraki words and phrases in Martin 's novels. As of September 2011, the language comprised 3163 words, not all of which have been made public. In 2012, 146 newborn girls in the United States were named `` Khaleesi '', the Dothraki term for the wife of a khal or ruler, and the title adopted in the series by Daenerys Targaryen. Dothraki, alongside Valyrian, has been described as `` the most convincing fictional tongues since Elvish ''. Contents 1 Development 1.1 Language constraints 2 Phonology and romanization 2.1 Consonants 2.2 Vowels 3 Grammar 3.1 Parts of speech 3.2 Word order 4 Sample 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links Development David J. Peterson, creator of the Dothraki spoken language for Game of Thrones The Dothraki vocabulary was created by David J. Peterson well in advance of the adaptation. HBO hired the Language Creation Society to create the language, and after an application process involving over thirty conlangers, David Peterson was chosen to develop the Dothraki language. He delivered over 1700 words to HBO before the initial shooting. Peterson drew inspiration from George R.R. Martin 's description of the language, as well as from such languages as Turkish, Russian, Estonian, Inuktitut and Swahili. David J. Peterson and his development of the Dothraki language were featured on an April 8, 2012 episode of CNN 's The Next List. He went on to create the Valyrian languages for season 3 of Game of Thrones. Peterson and his development of Dothraki were also featured on the January 8, 2017 episode of To Tell the Truth. Language constraints The Dothraki language was developed under two significant constraints. First, the language had to match the uses already put down in the books. Secondly, it had to be easily pronounceable or learnable by the actors. These two constraints influenced the grammar and phonology of the language : for instance, as in English, there is no contrast between aspirated and unaspirated stops. Phonology and Romanization See also : Help : IPA for Dothraki David Peterson has said, `` You know, most people probably do n't really know what Arabic actually sounds like, so to an untrained ear, it might sound like Arabic. To someone who knows Arabic, it does n't. I tend to think of the sound as a mix between Arabic ( minus the distinctive pharyngeals ) and Spanish, due to the dental consonants. '' Regarding the orthography, the Dothraki themselves do not have a writing system -- nor do many of the surrounding peoples ( e.g. the Lhazareen ). If there were to be any written examples of Dothraki in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe, it would be in a writing system developed in the Free Cities and adapted to Dothraki, or in some place like Ghis or Qarth, which do have writing systems. Consonants There are twenty - three consonant phonemes in the Dothraki language. Here the romanized form is given on the left, and the IPA in brackets. Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular Glottal Plosive voiceless t ( t̪ ) k ( k ) q ( q ) voiced d ( d̪ ) g ( ɡ ) Affricate voiceless ch ( tʃ ) voiced j ( dʒ ) Fricative voiceless f ( f ) th ( θ ) s ( s ) sh ( ʃ ) kh ( x ) h ( h ) voiced v ( v ) z ( z ) zh ( ʒ ) Nasal m ( m ) n ( n̪ ) Trill r ( r ) Tap r ( ɾ ) Approximant central w ( w ) y ( j ) lateral l ( l̪ ) The letters c and x never appear in Dothraki, although c appears in the digraph ch. b and p seem to appear only in names, as in Bharbo and Pono. These consonants were used in the past but have since developed into ( f ) and ( v ). They can still be used as variants of ( f ) and ( v ). Voiceless stops may be aspirated. This does not change word meaning. The geminates of consonants marked with digraphs have a reduced orthography : kkh is pronounced / xx / ( not / kx / ) tth is pronounced / θθ / ( not / tθ / ) ssh is pronounced / ʃʃ / ( not / sʃ / ) zzh is pronounced / ʒʒ / ( not / zʒ / ) cch is pronounced / tt͡ʃ / Vowels Dothraki has a four vowel system shown below : Vowels i / i / e / e / o / o / a / a / There are no diphthongs. In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, u never occurs as a vowel, appearing only after q, and only in names, as in Jhiqui and Quaro. In sequence of multiple vowels, each such vowel represents a separate syllable. Examples : shierak ( ʃi. e. ˈɾak ) - star, rhaesh ( ɾha. ˈeʃ ) - country, khaleesi ( ˈxa. l̪e.e.si ) - queen. The vowels / i, e, o, a / turn into ( e, ɛ, ɔ, ɑ ) after / q /. / o / turns into ( ɤ ) after dental consonants. / o / can be pronounced as ( u ) after ( g ), ( k ) and ( x ). Grammar Parts of speech Though prepositions are also sometimes employed, the language is foremost inflectional. Prefixes, suffixes and circumfixes are all used. Verbs conjugate in infinitive, past, present, future, two imperatives and ( archaic ) participle ; they also agree with person, number and polarity. Nouns divide into two classes, inanimate and animate. They decline in five cases, nominative, accusative, genitive, allative and ablative. Animate nouns also decline according to number. Word order Basic word order is SVO ( subject -- verb -- object ). In a basic sentence, the order of these elements ( when all three are present ) is as in English : First comes the subject ( S ), then comes the verb ( V ), then comes the object ( O ). Khal ahhas arakh. The Khal ( S ) sharpened ( V ) the arakh ( O ). When only a subject is present, the subject precedes the verb, as it does in English : Arakh hasa. The arakh ( S ) is sharp ( V ). In noun phrases there is a specific order as well. The order is as follows : demonstrative, noun, adverb, adjective, genitive noun, prepositional phrase. Prepositions always precede their noun complements. but adjectives, possessor and prepositional phrases all follow the noun : jin ave sekke verven anni m'orvikoon this father very violent of. mine with. a. whip this very violent father of mine with a whip Adverbs normally are sentence final, but they can also immediately follow the verb. Modal particles precede the verb. In the episode `` Andy 's Ancestry '' from the United States television show The Office, Dwight Schrute created the Dothraki phrase `` throat rip '' by placing `` throat '' in front to make it the accusative. David J. Peterson adapted that language technique and called it the `` Schrutean compound ''. Sample Nevakhi vekha ha maan : Rekke, m'aresakea norethi fitte. ( ˈn̪evaxi ˈvexa ha maˈan̪ ˈrekːe ˈmaɾesakea ˈn̪oɾeθi ˈfit̪ːe ) seat. GEN exist. 3SG. PRES for 3SG. ALL there. ACC with.coward.ALL.PL hair. GEN short There is a place for him : There, with the short - haired cowards. Notes Jump up ^ Examples of demonstratives include : rakh haj strong boy ( rakh boy, haj strong ) alegra ivezh wild duck ( alegra duck, ivezh wild ) jin arakh this arakh ( jin this, arakh arakh ( type of blade ) ) rek hrakkares that lion ( rek that, hrakkares lion ) References Jump up ^ `` Do you speak Dothraki ? ''. The New York Times Upfront. January 30, 2012. Jump up ^ `` The Header Script ''. Dothraki.com. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 03. Jump up ^ Wattenberg, Laura ( 22 May 2013 ). `` The Ultimate ' Game of Thrones ' Baby Name ''. Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 May 2013. Jump up ^ `` The complex linguistic universe of `` Game of Thrones '' ``. The Economist. Retrieved 4 August 2017. Jump up ^ `` Official HBO Press Release ''. Dothraki.conlang.org. April 12, 2010. Jump up ^ `` ' Game of Thrones ' linguist : How to create a language from scratch ''. CNN What 's Next. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. Jump up ^ `` Creating Dothraki - An Interview with David J Peterson and Sai Emrys ''. Tor.com. April 22, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Westeros.Ru interview ''. Westeros.ru. June 24, 2010. Jump up ^ `` '' Long ( or Doubled ) Consonants Dothraki ``. Dothraki.com. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. Jump up ^ `` Phonology - Dothraki ''. Wiki.dothraki.org. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. Jump up ^ `` Phonology - Dothraki ''. Wiki.dothraki.org. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. Jump up ^ `` '' Accents in Dothraki Dothraki ``. Dothraki.com. 2011 - 10 - 07. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. ^ Jump up to : `` '' Qute Noises Dothraki ``. Dothraki.com. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. Jump up ^ `` The Art of Language Invention, Episode 7 : Romanization Systems ''. YouTube. 2015 - 11 - 17. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. ^ Jump up to : `` Dothraki 101 post on HBO 's Making Game of Throne 's blog ''. Makinggameofthrones.com. December 15, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Dothraki presentation at Language Creation Conference 4 '' ( PDF ). Conference.conlang.org. August 22, 2011. ^ Jump up to : `` Demonstratives ''. Dothraki.com. Retrieved 2013 - 06 - 16. Jump up ^ `` Adjectives ''. Dothraki.org. 8 October 2012. Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved 2013 - 06 - 16. ^ Jump up to : Rahman, Ray ( 31 May -- 7 June 2013 ). `` My Weird TV Job : The Guy Who Makes Up Languages for Game of Thrones and Defiance ''. Entertainment Weekly ( # 1261 / 1262 ). Archived from the original on 2015 - 04 - 08. Jump up ^ `` Dothraki on The Office ''. Dothraki.com. 5 October 2012. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Dothraki Presentation at WorldCon 2011 '' ( PDF ). Dedalvs.com. August 21, 2011. Retrieved 2017 - 07 - 23. External links The official Dothraki blog The LCS blog about the language The Dothraki Language Wiki George R.R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire A Game of Thrones ( 1996 ) A Clash of Kings ( 1998 ) A Storm of Swords ( 2000 ) A Feast for Crows ( 2005 ) A Dance with Dragons ( 2011 ) The Winds of Winter ( TBA ) Franchise media Novellas Tales of Dunk and Egg ( 1998 -- 2010 ) The Princess and the Queen ( 2013 ) The Rogue Prince ( 2014 ) The Sons of the Dragon ( 2017 ) TV series Episodes Season 1 5 6 7 8 Awards Characters Music `` Game of Thrones Theme '' `` The Rains of Castamere '' `` The Bear and the Maiden Fair '' `` Light of the Seven '' Catch the Throne Live Concert Experience Soundtracks Season 1 5 6 Title sequence After the Thrones Thronecast Video games A Game of Thrones : Genesis Game of Thrones ( 2012 ) Game of Thrones Ascent Game of Thrones ( 2014 ) Other media The World of Ice & Fire ( 2014 ) Board game Card game ( Second edition ) Comic book series Characters Petyr Baelish Joffrey Baratheon Renly Baratheon Robert Baratheon Stannis Baratheon Tommen Baratheon Ramsay Bolton Roose Bolton Bronn Gregor Clegane Sandor Clegane Khal Drogo Gendry Tormund Giantsbane Gilly Theon Greyjoy Cersei Lannister Jaime Lannister Tyrion Lannister Tywin Lannister Oberyn Martell Melisandre Missandei Jorah Mormont Daario Naharis Ellaria Sand Davos Seaworth Jon Snow High Sparrow Arya Stark Bran Stark Catelyn Stark Ned Stark Rickon Stark Robb Stark Sansa Stark Daenerys Targaryen Viserys Targaryen Samwell Tarly Brienne of Tarth Margaery Tyrell Olenna Tyrell Varys Ygritte World Languages Dothraki Valyrian Themes Iron Throne White Walker Miscellaneous Fandom Book Constructed languages Classification A priori language A posteriori language International auxiliary language ( IAL / LAI ) Fictional language Language game Musical language Universal language Zonal language Philosophical language Experimental language Oligosynthetic language Worldlang Artistic language Specific languages by group International auxiliary Babm Blissymbols Bolak Esperanto Esperanto 1894 Esperanto II Ido Mundolinco Romániço Esperantido Glosa Interglossa Interlingua de ApI ( IL ) / Latino sine Flexione Interlingua de IALA ( IA ) International Sign Langue nouvelle Lingua Franca Nova Lingwa de planeta Mondial Nal Bino Neo Novial Occidental Solresol Sona Spokil Unish Universalglot Volapük Idiom Neutral Zonal Afrihili Folkspraak Iazychie Interslavic / Medžuslovjanski Sambahsa Slovio Uropi Engineered aUI Ithkuil Kalaba - X Loglan and Lojban Ro Toki Pona Fictional and other artistic Atlantean Brithenig Enchanta Kēlen Klingon Known World languages Dothraki Valyrian Kobaïan Láadan Loxian Middle - earth languages Adûnaic Quenya Sindarin more... Na'vi Nadsat Teonaht Tsolyáni Verdurian Wenedyk Ritual and other Balaibalan Damin Enochian Eskayan Lincos Lingua Ignota Medefaidrin N'Ko Yerkish Zaum Writing systems Constructed script Esperanto orthography Interglossa alphabet Tolkien 's writing systems Cirth Sarati Tengwar Related Relexification Conlanging - The Art of Crafting Tongues zompist.com Portal List of constructed languages List of language creators Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dothraki_language&oldid=798057379 '' Categories : Languages introduced in 2009 A Song of Ice and Fire Constructed languages Fictional languages Subject -- verb -- object languages Hidden categories : Languages without Glottolog code Conlangs without ISO 639 - 3 code Languages with neither ISO nor Glottolog code Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2011 All articles containing potentially dated statements Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Беларуская Čeština Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Gaeilge Հայերեն עברית Коми Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Português Русский Scots Simple English Suomi 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 30 August 2017, at 18 : 52. 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Question: what language do they speak in game of thrones
Answer: Dothraki