The Language Creation Society has kindly provided some audio samples of a few of the words David J. Peterson has created for the Dothraki language. It’ll be great to hear more in the future as the series, and the language, progresses. The LCS have started up a Facebook Page for Dothraki, as well as a Livejournal account.
George R.R. Martin has shared his own relationship to invented languages, and finishes up with needing to find out what, “It is known,” is in Dothraki.
GRRM has reminded us that Avatar Press will be publishing the first issue of their adaption of his 19th century vampire novel, Fevre Dream, this Wednesday. You’ll likely be able to find it at your local comic book shop. To whet your appetite, here’s a preview of the comic book, courtesy of Avatar:
The adaption was written by Daniel Abraham with art by Rafa Lopez.
The Language Creation Society has posted the press release from HBO that we’ve reported extensively on. We’ve been told by the President of the LCS, Sai Emrys, that this will be the page to keep an eye on for future updates from the Society on their work for HBO.
We’ve spoken a bit with Mr. Emrys about the news. He’s added that they will look into posting audio files of spoken Dothraki so fans can get a taste of what they’ll be hearing on the show. As we noted from our initial report, LCS has the potential to provide all language creation services for the series, which could mean Valyrian and its dialects, and even the language of the First Men, could be on the table in the future. When I asked him about this, Mr. Emrys stated, “We’d be happy to create all the other languages in the world of ASOIAF,” although to some degree it will depend on whether the production company feels the time and effort has proved worth it.
And what decides that? Fan response and interest as the series air date approaches and the first season airs. If the production company believes that the created languages add verisimilitude and appeal for fans, they’ll likely commission more.
Keep an eye out on Westeros.org and the Language Creation Society for more news and interesting developments in the future.
After a long, bloody struggle between enthusiastic (and, in some few cases, over-enthusiastic) fans of both Rand al’Thor and Jaime Lannister, the Dragon Reborn narrowly took the title in Suvudu’s inaugural Cage Match. Just 180 votes out of just over 30,000 separated winner from loser. Hats off to everyone who took part and made it a fun event (and boo to those who tried to take the fun out of it!)
In particular, a warm thanks to Suvudu’s editors for conceiving and running the event, and who wrote a fine wrap-up (video wrap-up promised tomorrow), and to all the authors who participated with arguments and stories: Steven Brust (Vlad was robbed!), Patrick Rothfuss, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson (who has written a funny version of how Rand won), and of course George R.R. Martin, who gave many fantasy fans new reason to check out A Song of Ice and Fire thanks to his terrific write-ups.
HBO has sent out a press release concerning the Language Creation Society, which was hired to created the Dothraki language as shown in HBO’s Game of Thrones. That the producers had hired a linguist to develop the Dothraki language for the pilot has been previously reported at the time that the pilot was being filmed in Northern Ireland. The press release, with additional details and commentary, follows:
For Immediate Release%09April 12, 2010
EXPERT CREATES LANGUAGE FOR NEW HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES
David J. Peterson, an expert language creator from the Language Creation Society (LCS), has been chosen to create the Dothraki language for HBO’s upcoming fantasy series GAME OF THRONES, based on the book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin.
When GAME OF THRONES executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss needed a language for the Dothraki, Martin’s race of nomadic warriors, they turned to the Language Creation Society. The LCS solicited and vetted a number of proposals for the Dothraki language from its pool of experts, with Peterson’s proposal ultimately being selected by the GAME OF THRONES production team.
Peterson drew inspiration from George R.R. Martin’s description of the language, as well as from such languages as Russian, Turkish, Estonian, Inuktitut and Swahili. However, the Dothraki language is no mere hodgepodge, babble or pidgin. It has its own unique sound, extensive vocabulary of more than 1,800 words and complex grammatical structure.
“In designing Dothraki, I wanted to remain as faithful as possible to the extant material in George R.R. Martin’s series,” says Peterson. “Though there isn’t a lot of data, there is evidence of a dominant word order [subject-verb-object], of adjectives appearing after nouns, and of the lack of a copula [‘to be’]. I’ve remained faithful to these elements, creating a sound aesthetic that will be familiar to readers, while giving the language depth and authenticity. My fondest desire is for fans of the series to look at a word from the Dothraki language and be unable to tell if it came from the books or from me—; and for viewers not even to realize it’s a constructed language.”
“We’re tremendously excited to be working with David and the LCS,” says producer D.B. Weiss. “The language he’s devised is phenomenal. It captures the essence of the Dothraki, and brings another level of richness to their world. We look forward to his first collection of Dothraki love sonnets.”
Did you know? (Hash yer ray nesi?)
The name for the Dothraki people—; and their language—; derives from the verb “dothralat” (“to ride”).
The Dothraki have four different words for “carry,” three for “push,” three for “pull” and at least eight for “horse,” but no word that means “please” or “follow.”
The longest word in Dothraki is “athastokhdeveshizaroon,” which means “from nonsense.”
The words for “related,” “weighted net,” “eclipse,” “dispute,” “redhead,” “oath,” “funeral pyre,” “evidence,” “omen,” “fang” and “harvest moon” all have one element in common: “qoy,” the Dothraki word for “blood.”
Dothraki for “to dream” – “thirat atthiraride” – literally means “to live a wooden life”; in Dothraki, “wooden” (“ido”) is synonymous with “fake.”
The word for “pride” – “athjahakar” – is derived from “jahak,” the traditional long braid worn by Dothraki warriors (“lajaki”).
More information about the Dothraki language (and their love poems) will be released over the course of the series.
From a fan perspective, this latest news is quite remarkable because it shows the degree to which the producers envision the series as an immersive experience, bringing viewers into the living, breathing world of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The novels only feature a handful of words and phrases in the Dothraki language, as Martin has noted he’s not a linguist and only creates words when he needs them. The television show is apparently intent on extending this, in a way not dissimilar to how the Klingon language was created around the nucleus of a handful of phrases written by James Doohan for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The number of words reported—1,800, with a detailed grammar—is said to be right in line with “language that is actually meant to be used to communicate.”
We believe we’ve discovered the original call for submissions sent to the conlang community. It was first posted on September 4, 2009. One can see that the details fit the series: graphic violence, a fantasy setting with some prepared vocabulary, a pilot with the possibility of 10-12 episodes a season. According to this page, David Peterson provided the most interesting proposal but other names are mentioned.. One leaps out at us: Bill Welden, a Tolkienian language expert who was involved in The Lord of the Rings films. On his Livejournal, Peterson wrote at the end of 2009 of 2009 that the, “biggest bit of unexpected news was the television job to create a language. Still can’t wait to say more about that. Come March, I should be able to say everything. This project, though, cut into my August, September, October and November.” He had posted some additional information at the start of November:
But, of course, the largest enterprise I undertook over the course of the last month (two months, really) was I applied for a job posted by the LCS. Without going into details, the job was to create a language for an upcoming television show. The application process was exhausting (took most of my free time for the past two months), and there were a ton of excellent conlangers applying. At the beginning of this month, I was informed that I’d moved onto the final round, and this past Friday, I was informed that I’d won.
....
Until someone somewhere leaks the information, or I’m given the okay by the network, I signed a thing saying I wouldn’t say anything about the series, so all I can say for now is that it’s a major TV network, and the show is, at this point in time, guaranteed a pilot (and I’m guaranteed work for the pilot). If the pilot is picked up, the show will get a one season run, and I’m guaranteed work for the first season. Thereafter, I imagine it will depend on the show’s popularity, the quality of my work, and the direction of the show. Still and all, very exciting!
On December 2nd he remarked that the job proved to be less work-intensive than he had expected, suggesting that the amount of Dothraki used in the pilot is not as great as first envisioned; or at least, the amount of work that went into preparing the “artistic language” for the show was greater than what ended up on screen to start with. Examples of Peterson’s constructed languages can be found at his page on the Language Creation Society website.
The Language Creation Society was founded in 2007 and it seems they offer language creation services for television, film, fiction, and other endeavors, with Game of Thrones appearing to be their first major client.
Some amazing new miniatures from Dark Sword Miniatures, this week. Tom Meier has really outdone himself with his Eddard Stark and Samwell Tarly, as well as a beautifully sculpted Shae which really emphasizes how delicate his sculpting work can be (bear in mind that these figures are less than 2 inches tall).
On top of that, Jeff Grace has sculpted a Euron Greyjoy which GRRM calls the, “best version of him I’ve seen, better than any of the paintings, drawings, digital art, etc.”
Dark Sword has also posted additional, painted depictions of Arya, Theon, and the young Hedge Knight in their George R.R. Martin Masterworks gallery.
Ted Nasmith, who along with John Howe and Alan Lee is considered one of the foremost Tolkien artists, has posted about the fact that his artwork will grace the 2011 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, published by Bantam. He points to his George R.R. Martin gallery, which features a number of the pieces, and at the end expresses his hope that he’ll have more opportunities to work on A Song of Ice and Fire-related projects in the future, a hope I think we can all say we share.
This Is Local London, a conglomerate of local newspapers, has posted a brief article concerning a 26-year-old dancer, Kelechi Nwanokwu, who appears in HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones. It seems likely she is one of a number of dancers who performed in the Dothraki wedding scene, a scene we’re guessing was choreographed by Javier de Frutos. A picture of Ms. Nwanokwu and other dancers can be found at GRRM’s “Not a Blog”, when he posted about the wrap party in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
GRRM has written a wonderful write-up for Suvudu’s championship match between Jaime Lannister and Rand al’Thor, with cameos by Birgitte of the Bow, Nynaeve al’Meara, Egwene al’Viere, Aviendha, the Great and Powerful Turtle, Lohengrin, Melisandre, and of course Tyrion. It has some wonderful touches aimed as nods towards Robert Jordan, who was a friend of George’s and whose blurb on the cover of A Game of Thrones was a big help when the series first started. There’s also passing references to a number of other authors, such as Jack Vance and a fun one right at the end to another of GRRM’s good friends, Roger Zelazny.
The last line is chillingly right, for all you fans of A Song of Ice and Fire.
There’s just one day left to vote, and Jaime presently trails by 600 votes. Read the write-up and vote at Suvudu!
This is what we get for being over-excitable at the moment. Below we discuss a casting call for a new TV series from a “Major American production company”, shooting to start in June, lasting 6 months. We assumed that it was very likely for Daenerys. However, a bit of googling reveals more details of the role:
“Description:
Playing age 14-18 years.
With the face of and Angel and the Heart of a devil, the leading lady in this groundbreaking TV series is from a Spanish family that have moved to Italy. Has to be very petite and Manipulative in nature. RP / Neutral Accent.”
At a guess, this is for Showtime’s Borgias. For the sake of completeness, we’ll maintain our full speculation below, but we’ll emphasize that it’s clearly wrong. False alarm!
Thanks to the sharp-eyed Rabbit, it looks like the mystery of U.K. casting calls for Dany—something we were sure was taking place, but could never find any evidence for—may have been resolved. There’s a notice at the Casting Website in the U.K. which states the following:
“Major American production company is launching a new TV series to be aired to a UK audience. Looking for the leading girl to star in this ground breaking production. 6 Months filming from June.”
Most notably? Closing date is given as March 21st, which implies a couple of things: the call must have gone out at least a week prior to that date, and perhaps longer, and that the U.K. casting may have already progressed to the point of narrowing down to a couple of choices there. Given GRRM’s recent reference to looking at audition tapes from HBO, we might assume they’re starting to get pretty close. However, we do know that casting is still going on in New York City, with head shots and resumes still being solicited for actresses.
It’s entirely possible that this is for some other show entirely, but the timing fits perfectly with what we’ve been told before: June start and ~24 weeks of filming. To be fair, the same might be said of Starz! Camelot, also set to begin production in June in Ireland. If we can get a definitive answer as to what production the breakdown was for, we’ll report it.
George R.R. Martin clarifies the situation for international viewers, in regards to if and when they will be able to watch HBO’s Game of Thrones on television in their native countries. GRRM goes through a list of countries and territories:
Canada: HBO Canada will air it at the same days and times as in the U.S. Canada, the show will be seen on HBO Canada, same days and times as in the US.
Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Chile: It will air on HBO Latin America, though days and times may vary.
France: It will air on Orange.
Israel: It will air on DBS.
Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic: It will air on HBO Central Europe
Asia: It will be offered by HBO Asia to countries within their territory, but not all will necessarily carry it (in some cases due to content restrictions in those countries).
As for the countries not listed here… next week in Cannes, the MIPTV trade show will be attended by broadcasters and program directors from around the globe. HBO will have a presence, screening its shows and selling foreign broadcast rights. Game of Thrones will be on the table as well, and Martin says that in a few weeks HBO should know which countries will be opting to air the series.
GRRM has shared a great pair of photos showing Maisie Williams—cast as Arya Stark—posing with Valyrian Steel‘s replica of Arya’s sword, Needle. She looks very Arya-like, if we may say so! Valyrian Steel has two additional photos on their site
GRRM also confirms that filming commences in June in Northern Ireland. Not all actors may be in the area at that time, however, as Jason Momoa and Nikolai Coster-Waldau have both indicated they’re scheduled to start in early July.
George R.R. Martin is keeping himself very busy, with Dance with Dragons, Fort Freak, and a host of other tasks and projects now that he’s gotten taxes out of the way. Among them? Reviewing the latest batch of audition tapes. This follows our previous report on the fact that casting is going on for the role of Daenerys Targaryen, which may or may not mean that Tamzin Merchant is definitely out of HBO’s Game of Thrones.
However, one other thing that hasn’t been mentioned very much is that it’s quite possible that casting has begun in the U.K. for the many roles that will need to be filled by the time late June roles around. As always, more information as soon as we get it.
It’s time to get out the vote, folks, as Suvudu.com’s popular Cage Match 2010 hits the final round. Two titans of fantasy are facing off. In one corner: Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, master of half of a continent, fated to save the world from the Dark One. And in the other: Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. In common: good looks, popularity, and an unfortunate lack of a hand.
Jaime issued a challenge, calling for a trial of seven. Rand’s response was to refuse to take six champions with him into battle ... but he allowed Jaime whatever support he wanted, and Jaime means to take it. We’re all waiting to see the write-up from GRRM, which he’ll doubtless post to “Not a Blog” once it’s ready. Brandon Sanderson has promised he’ll provide some sort of analysis (though not a full write up) of how things should go from his perspective.
But don’t wait until then, vote now! It’s neck and neck, and the comments section is filled with commentary.
A member of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum has poured an incredible amount of work to create an animated timeline map for the series. Ser Mountain Goat’s map is not anywhere near done, as of yet, but there’s enough there to see the possibilities that the map will offer, once it tracks multiple characters as they criss-cross Westeros. His FAQ goes into great detail about the origins of the map, his sources, and his methodology. We’re very much looking forward to see it develop.
If you’d like to comment on the map, there’s a thread dedicated to it.