David J. Peterson, Creator of the Dothraki Language, Holds a Reddit AMA
David J. Peterson, the man who created the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for Game of Thrones, was recently brought before the altar of Reddit, and held court during his very own AMA (Ask Me Anything). Usually, I’d expect this kind of thing to be chock full of questions ranging from “Do you yell Dothraki while climaxing during sex,” or “Can you teach me how to tell my boss to f**k off in Dothraki?” Thankfully, it seems like Peterson’s AMA was rather tame.
There were, of course the usual background questions—where did you go to school, what were your inspirations, etc…—but the first really interesting question came via Redditor elquesogrande:
"Hey David,What are some of your favorite Easter Eggs you’ve inserted into language used on TV / screen? Care to share some and the background behind each?"
Peterson replied:
"The Monty Python speech from GoT [Season 4] is a favorite of mine, but I don’t get the credit for it: That was one of Dan Weiss’s jokes (he throws in a lot of them). I just happily translated it; thought it was brilliant. Where it wouldn’t be inappropriate, I always add my wife’s name and try to make sure it works in. I’m usually pretty successful with that."
For those who don’t know, the Monty Python speech comes in “Breaker of Chains,” when a champion of Meereen is shouting insults at Daenerys in Low Valyrian. Not speaking that tongue, we don’t know that he’s actually railing off insults from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, saying her mother was a hamster and her father smelled of elderberries.
"One that surprised me was word I coined in honor of my mother-in-law. Her name is Jolyn, and I gave her the Dothraki root jolin in honor of her awesome cooking skills (jolinat, the verb, is “to cook”). A word built off this root is jolino, which refers to a large pot for cooking. I created it and didn’t think anything of it. Then in the episode “A Golden Crown”, they decided to add a line in ADR for Drogo: “Empty that pot!” This was awesome, because not only would I get to use her word, her name would be used exactly as it’s pronounced (more or less) in English, because of the grammar (pot is the object, and the accusative form of jolino is jolin). Thus the line came out:Ammeni haz jolin!That was the best."
This is extremely neat, as anytime a man can honor his mother-in-law, he not only makes his wife happy, but he makes his wife’s mother happy…bonus! The Monty Python gag was extremely cool, and I remember that from the commentary directly following the episode. These are the kind of nuggets that can help lighten a dark and violent television show like Game of Thrones.
Peterson goes on to talk about Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) mastering the inflection of Dothraki, and how he spent a lot of time with the actor after his character was killed off. When asked how he was brought into contact with George R.R. Martin, David Benioff, and Dan Weiss, Peterson talked about being more interested with what HBO was going to do with the material than with the books themselves, which makes sense if you’re the person responsible for manufacturing spoken languages that will be heard by millions over five seasons’ worth of TV.
"I had heard of ASoIAF before, but what impressed me more was HBO. That is, if the show was going to be done by HBO, I knew it had a legitimate chance to be big (I mean, at the time they had The Sopranos and True Blood). I wasn’t aware at the time of the depth of the fan community surrounding ASoIAF."
Peterson continues to talk about how he actually got the books and listened to the audio versions narrated by Roy Dotrice, whom he raves about. You can catch Peterson’s entire Reddit Ask Me Anything, where he talks in depth about other languages. I highly suggest it, as it’s a very interesting read.
Next: And the as-yet unseen location on Westeros or Essos fans most want to see is…