Dothraki and Esperanto: an Interview with Language Creator David J
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conlangs Dothraki and Esperanto: an interview with language creator David J. Peterson Jim HENRY Jim is a language creator who David J. Peterson, a noted language has been speaking Esperanto since 1996. He lives in creator, has been hired to !esh out the Stockbridge, GA. Dothraki language from George R. R. [email protected] Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire into a full-!edged, speakable language. "is constructed language, or I interviewed David J. Peterson by conlang, is to be used for an upcoming email in May 2010. HBO television series based on the nov- How did you !rst get interested in els. "e title will be A Game of !rones, constructed languages? a#er the $rst book in the series. It was the convergence of three classes "e show’s producers hired the Lan- I was taking at the time: Esperanto, Ara- guage Creation Society to $nd an expert bic and Introductory Linguistics. Due in for this job; out of thirty-$ve proposed large part to the in!uence of Esperanto versions of Dothraki, Peterson’s version and all the natural language data I was was selected for the series. getting in linguistics, I hit upon the idea David J. Peterson studied linguistics at that someone could create a language not UC Berkeley (B.A., English and linguis- for international communication (Espe- tics) and UC San Diego (M.A., linguis- ranto, I reasoned, $t the bill for that), but tics). He started creating his own con- just for personal use—say, between structed languages in 2000, beginning friends. As soon as the idea hit me (it with a personal language based on Espe- was in a linguistics class), I immediately ranto and Arabic; he has been active in started designing the phonology for my the conlang community since early 2001, $rst language: a poor project with the including volunteer work for the Lan- regularity of Esperanto and the structure guage Creation Society, and he’s one of of Arabic. I would later discover that I the editors of Speculative Grammarian. wasn’t the $rst to have this idea. His website showcases thirteen of his conlangs (some more developed than Who taught that Esperanto course at others); his main project, Kamakawi, is Berkeley? What was it like? in!uenced primarily by Hawai’ian. Most "at was actually the $rst time that of the linguistic details of his instantia- particular Esperanto DeCAL course was tion of Dothraki remain con$dential taught at Berkeley, and it was co-taught until nearer the time the TV series is to by Lana Shlafer and Mina (or Stelet) be aired, but what’s been released so far Kim. I thought it was a unique experi- suggests that it’s an a priori, fusional and ence since both Lana and Mina had been synthetic language with in!uences from speaking Esperanto since birth (they Russian, Turkish, Estonian, Inuktitut and were raised bilingual in Esperanto and Swahili. their native language—Russian and Ko- http://esperanto-usa.org Usona Esperantisto ! 2010:5 (sep–okt) ! 7 rean, respectively). It’s one thing to take a course in a constructed language, and quite another to take it from two native speakers. I still remember everything I learned. All I would need to communicate com- fortably in Esperanto is more vocabulary (well, that and I’d probably avoid using any participles). When it comes to a lan- guage instruction course, I can’t think of higher praise to o!er – though, of course, it was also a lot of fun. I still have my USEJ sticker on my guitar case. Part of a preview from HBO’s upcoming television series Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. What, if anything, did you already Martin’s books. The series will use David J. Peter- know about Esperanto before taking that son’s expanded version of the Dothraki language. course? What motivated you to take Esperanto rather than one of the other previous DeCAL I’d taken (on the Doors language courses o!ered that semester? and Jim Morrison’s poetry), and "gured I My mother told me about Esperanto already knew a bit about Esperanto, so when I was a senior in high school tacking on another class wouldn’t be too (though I still can’t "gure out how it ever much trouble. came to her attention). #at was the "rst Which of your own conlangs is the time I’d ever encountered the idea that a best developed? Which is your favorite? human could invent a language. It Same answer for both questions: Ka- seemed pretty outlandish at the time. makawi. Kamakawi was the "rst lan- Several months later, we were at a li- guage I created a$er I realized that my brary book sale and I came across Step by previous languages su!ered from serious Step in Esperanto by Montagu C. Butler. I %aws (beginners’ mistakes; everyone looked that over, and took it with me to makes them). Even so, the language Berkeley. wasn’t perfect to begin with, but I’ve As for the course, language classes at stuck with it over the years, and have Berkeley are "ve units. #at semester I really gotten it to a good place. was taking Arabic and Russian, in addi- tion to a class for my English major and You’ve mentioned before that you’re introductory linguistics. All told, that natively bilingual in English and Span- comes to 18 units—a he$y load for a ish. Do you reckon that infuenced your freshman (average is 12; heavy is 15). I interest in languages and linguistics, or wasn’t planning on taking any other in conlanging? classes that semester, but during the "rst In the long run, perhaps, but initially, week I saw a %ier for the Esperanto De- quite the opposite. It’s very di&cult to CAL posted on the front door of my raise a child to be truly bilingual; usually dorm. I had a good experience with the one language predominates over the 8 ! Usona Esperantisto ! 2010:5 (sep–okt) http://esperanto-usa.org other. In my case, that was English. I was taken beneath the open sky, so to do doing pretty well with Spanish, but then I something under a roof—out of the light was moved away to Fresno, away from of day—is to do it secretly, and in a way my mother’s side of the family. !ere I which doesn’t merit approval. had pretty much no regular contact with Is the form of the Dothraki word “ido” Spanish speakers any longer, and English (wooden, fake) an inside joke vis-a-vis took over. By the time I moved back, I’d the Esperanto/Ido schism? lost too much time, and Spanish became Hee, hee… You caught me! I would like a source of frustration for me. I tried to to say, though, I don’t wish the Ido com- block it out, ignore it—and the thought munity ill, by any means. !ink of it as of learning languages other than Spanish kind of good-natured ribbing—the way was abhorrent to me. !at was a serious one might tease someone from a rival roadblock. I had to reclaim my "uency school. But make no mistake: If I were and tap into my native knowledge (and choosing sides in an Esperanto-Ido ath- for that, I have not only my letic competition, I’d proudly Spanish teachers to thank, wear a green star sweater. but my grandmother. I’ve always understood her Span- How would you say “ne al ish, and she never gave up glavo sangon soifanta” (not speaking it to me). to a sword thirsting for blood) in Dothraki? What can you tell me about Dothraki semantics Man, what a line to choose! and pragmatics? You’re really making me work for this. I’m even going I tried at all times to ad- to have to dust o$ the here to the ideals espoused seldom-used present parti- by the Dothraki in George R. ciple… Nice not to have to R. Martin’s books. !ere’s a coin any words, though. kind of Dothraki mindset that one gleans from the books. !ey’re Vos arakhaan feveya qoyoon... warriors, of course, but there’s also a se- Dang, 11 syllables… Of course, if this ries of dualities. For example, the Do- were in verse, I’m sure the vos could be thraki are nomadic, yet they have one clipped to v’. !at’d give us 10. Anyway, I #xed city (Vaes Dothrak), and there’s a would note here that this is the transla- certain code of behavior that applies to tion of a line of verse, and that the phras- being in the city, and a di$erent one for ing, as a result, is unusual (if I had the being elsewhere. I tried to bring these full sentence with the verb, I think I’d do di$erent senses of place into the language it a di$erent way, but without the verb, where possible. this is the best way). For example, in Dothraki something done in secret is done torga essheyi —lit- [Editor’s note: !e extended interview erally, “under a roof”. !e Dothraki be- with supplemental info can be found at lieve that all honorable acts are under- <http://pobox.com/~jimhenry>.] ★ http://esperanto-usa.org Usona Esperantisto ! 2010:5 (sep–okt) ! 9.