As of September 2011[update], the language comprised 3163 words,[2] 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.[3] Dothraki and Valyrian have been described by The Economist as "the most convincing fictional tongues since Elvish".[4]
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 30 conlangers, 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 Estonian, Inuktitut, Turkish, Russian, and Swahili.[5]
David J. Peterson and his development of the Dothraki language were featured on an April 8, 2012 episode of CNN's The Next List.[6] 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
David Peterson has said, "You know, most people probably don't really know what Arabic actually sounds like, so to an untrained ear, it might sound like Arabic. To someone who knows Arabic, it doesn't. I tend to think of the sound as a mix between Arabic (minus the distinctive pharyngeals) and Spanish, due to the dental consonants."[7]
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.[8]
Consonants
There are 23 consonantphonemes in the Dothraki language. In the following IPA chart, each sound in Dothraki is given with the romanization in brackets.
The letters ⟨c⟩ and ⟨x⟩ do not appear in Dothraki, although ⟨c⟩ appears in the digraph⟨ch⟩.
⟨p⟩ and ⟨b⟩ seem to appear only in names, as in Pono and Bharbo. These consonants were used in the past but have since lenited 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:
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.eˈɾak] ('star'), rhaesh[ɾhaˈeʃ] ('country'), khaleesi[ˈxa.le.e.si] ('queen').
The vowels /i,e,o,a/ are realized as [e,ɛ,ɔ,ɑ] after /q/. /o/ turns into [ɤ] after dental consonants.[11][12]/o/ can be pronounced as [u] after /ɡ,k,x/.[11]
The 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), followed by the verb (V), and then the object (O).
Khal
The Khal
S
ahhas
sharpened
V
arakh.
the arakh.
O
Khal ahhas arakh.
{The Khal} sharpened {the arakh}.
S V O
When only a subject is present, the subject precedes the verb, as it does in English:
Arakh
The arakh
S
hasa.
is sharp.
V
Arakh hasa.
{The arakh} {is sharp}.
S V
In noun phrases, there is a specific order as well. The order is as follows:
