Game of Thrones — The Dothraki… Enough Said
By: Jeffrey Mcgee
Tags: Game of Thrones, Languages Translation, Translation Services, Video Game Translation, Video Games Industry

The only thing I know of them is that they really like horses

The year was 1996, a time when the arcades only started to show signs of decay in popularity, but they remained strong to the very end of the 90s regardless, and good for that because I really going to the arcades with my friends… that is… back when they were still popular.

But since most of the world only started to blame video games as the number one cause for violence among teens (sounds like something I might’ve said before), there was this book that came out that nobody cared about whatsoever. Well… maybe except two people, I guess. I think it was during that time when Goosebumps was still the leading series of children’s books (and they were scary!). Anyway, that book’s name was A Game of Thrones, the first book in the series, A Song of Ice and Fire.

Considering how popular this is, I suppose I don’t need to do any introductions (also, because I don’t have enough space for redundant paragraphs). But I’ll say it now: I have NEVER watched A Game of Thrones. People keep telling me it’s the best thing ever, but from someone who watches from the sides, all I see is people getting brutally killed, overindulgence in sex scenes, and more darkness AND evil than there should be. Thank you, but I have enough of that in my life, so why do I need to watch that on TV?

In any case… there was one thing that stood out to me in particular

Among all the political bullshit and the bloodshed and the orgies, there was one thing that I was actually willing to check out, and that was the language of the Dothraki, AKA the people who like horses a lot (that’s what I got from them, at least). It was 2013, and I was only starting to write my debut novel back then (other than that, I don’t remember anything from that year). I was researching various languages since I was writing a language for the fictional race in the world of my book. Among the languages I looked up were languages constructed for the purpose of fictional work. Aside from the Dothraki, three come to mind: Elvish from The Lord of the Rings; Na’vi from Avatar; and arguably the most famous, Klingon from Star Trek. I would like to believe that the language that I created for my book would’ve been “The 5th Beatle”, but as of this moment, it’s far from being applicable (next life, I’ll try better).

Yet, the problem isn’t that no one has heard of what I wrote. The problem is that the Dothraki language can be on the same level as Klingon (which is, from what I understood, I fully fleshed out language), and frankly, all the other languages do. It’s just that, apparently, nobody cares enough to do anything about it.

I suppose when you think about it, the world of A Game of Thrones is an almost realistic fantasy setting (it’s a poor description, but it’s somewhat accurate). The Dothraki are supposed barbarians or something, so their vocabulary shouldn’t be the same as, I suppose, modern English. But that’s not the point, as nobody seems to care enough about fictional languages to develop them further (except for Klingon, apparently). That’s not entirely surprising considering the TV show’s decline in popularity, which is probably attributed to the assumption that the 6th book in the series will never come out (and to think, there’s going to be the 7th book).

All the problems, but none of the solutions

First of all, I think everyone can agree that when it comes to finishing this series of books, it should probably come out already, especially since the author isn’t getting any younger. I personally don’t care about the books; it doesn’t really have an impact on my life. My condolences to all GoT fans.

But about the language thing, I suppose someone could take it upon themselves to develop the language further if they saw a need for it, which is exactly the problem since it’s probably not a subject that’s too demanding.

Or, even better, learn Klingon. I have yet to do it myself, and it probably won’t happen since I’m not a Trekkie (that and I don’t have time). But it’s fascinating to see that there’s a language as Intricate as English or Spanish but has no actual historical roots. In a sense, it’s like how the Cthulhu Mythos is sometimes regarded as actual mythology, despite having its roots in a collection of stories told by one H.P. Lovecraft (though this is still debatable).

I think I know who to ask this time

It occurred to me that the best person to ask is the person who wrote the language himself. The Question: if it is actually worth continuing working on this language, or is it not worth the time? I believe the answer is the latter, but I can’t know for sure.

Aside from that, maybe fans of GoT would also like to have a say in what they think about the Dothraki tongue (not the kind that they rip out). Although I believe that all they want to know is when is the next book coming out.

In addition, what do people who enjoy conlangs have to say about this? Is there potential, or is there a better conlang to invest time in? Aside from Klingon, of course.

In Conclusion…

I can’t give an opinion on the quality of A Game of Thrones since it’s not for me, and I know nothing of it. If you share my ignorance, I will tell you to look it up since it wouldn’t be too hard to find considering the impact it left in the 2010s.

I think that while the Dothraki language DOES have the potential to be a plausible language, I don’t think that it’s relevant enough to warrant someone actually taking the time to expand the vocabulary beyond 3000 words. And what about the grammar? That part is even more complicated.

Long story short, I recommend that you invent your own if you’re into conlangs (that’s what fictional languages are called). I did it… not that anyone noticed, but… it was worth a shot.