Today at GeekyCon 2015, David J. Peterson will be guesting at a special panel hosted by our friends at Game of Owns. The panel, titled “Game of Thrones: The Final Battle of Ice and Fire,” begins at 2 P.M. EDT and will include questions from fans, so that’s where you all come in!
The panel will cover a variety of topics, including theories, where characters stand as we head into season 6, and yesterday’s big news of the show going beyond seven seasons.
Peterson is best known for creating Dothraki and Valyrian languages on the show. He has also worked on Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, Syfy’s Defiance and Dominion, CW’s Star-Crossed and The 100, and the movie Thor: The Dark World.
There will be an Open Q&A at the end of the panel and Game of Owns would love to bring some questions from our community here at Watchers on the Wall into the mix at GeekyCon.
Share your thoughts and questions about the languages of Game of Thrones in our comments section! Game of Owns may choose your question for the Q&A today.
All questions need to be in by 1:50 P.M. EDT, since the panel is starting at 2 P.M. Your questions could be shared with the convention, Peterson and all of Game of Owns’ listeners!
UPDATE:
Question:
Are there certain languages that are your go-to when you do research for certain sounds? Sophistication? Aggression? Romance?
Question:
Do the writers/directors of GoT have to come to you on a regular basis for new words in Valyrian and Dothraki, or did you basically hand them a dictionary consisting of the entire language and tell them “this is it” ???
Question 1: How much did you consider cultural attributes when creating the languages, with regards to pronunciation, grammar, style of use, and so on. For example, I’d suspect that Valyrian, a language of the courts, is more poetic and long-winded than Dothraki. Is this the case?
Question 2: How did the actors learn how to pronounce their sentences? Do you have any influence on that? Has it happend that you had to change the pronunciation because any of the involved actors were not able to pull it off correctly?
1.) Will there be another “new” language in the upcoming seasons? Are you currently working on other languages for GoT?
2.) What is more succesful in creating languges? the well prepared masterplan or chaotic creativity?
Can Tyrion make Grey Worm laugh?
What languages/language phenomena are the languages you crated for GoT based on? (Example: Klingon doesn’t have a word for “to be”, just like Russian.)
1.) How well built is the language “skroth” at this point?
I really want to hear the white walkers talk between them with that crunching ice sound, and with subtitles in english, I bet this could happen somehow in the endgame when we learn their their true motives for invasion.
O/T but this seems like the best place to put it: Apologies if old news but there was a short (4 mins) interview on the BBC Radio 4 Front Row programme with Gemma Jackson, GoT production designer, and costume designer Michele Clapton this wednesday (29th). It’s on the catch-up i-Player service here. Possibly not accessible outside the UK and I believe things are only on there for a fairly limited time (around 7 days, maybe longer?), so if anyone would like a transcript reply to me here and I’ll do one while it’s still available.
How hard was it to combine other languages to create the dothraki superior language?
What is the first step to creating a language? Sentence structure? Conjugation patterns? Brainstorming vocabulary? What do you do before anything else?
Question: What are the differences / similarities between the way he created the Dothraki and Valyrian languages and the way that Tolkien created the languages of Middle Earth?
Can he arrange for Missandei to give me private language lessons?
Have you heard of any crazy cases yet of parents raising their kids speaking one of your invented languages to them? A native form of Dothraki or Valyrian would be amazingly interesting to look at 🙂
Whas was the first word created in Dothraki and Valyrian?
The post about “Valahd” was most interesting, any further clarification from the production crew?
Have you collaborated with Ramin Djawadi for his more lyrical scores such as Season 4’s “The Children” where a Valyrian-influenced chorus was used?
So the panel has started by now. Is there a way to watch it streaming? Anyone know?
Great questions by all.
Why haven’t we heard more variants of Low Valyrian in Season 5?
Yes I know he’s been asked before and said the writers didn’t want it; but think about it; this season was the first time we saw different Free Cities – Pentos, Braavos, and Volantis all appearing on-screen, plus Meereen.
Peterson previously explained that he divided the “Low Valyrian language family” into three main groups (one for each Free City plus Ghiscari Low Valyrian). The Ghiscari/Eastern group is off in Slaver’s Bay. In the Free Cities, he divided it off between the “North” and “South” groups, the dividing line being between Myr and Pentos.
I made a map, check it out: http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Low_Valyrian
Fortuitously, the World of Ice and Fire book largely backs that up: the “Southern” group are Myr-Tyrosh-Lys and Volantis. Volantis long dominated these others and it’s outright stated that they are similar in language. In contrast, we’d expect the “Northern” ones, further away from Valyria, to have more distinct romance languages (Braavos was founded by an odd mix of escaped slaves so they would mix in other elements, Lorath was also a haven for escaping slaves, Pentos was apparently the only Free City that existed before the Valyrians got there, etc.
Let’s see…other live Q&A that it would be fun to ask….
Well, this was the season that established that Tyrion actually does know High Valyrian, because it’s like a medieval person knowing Latin, the scholarly language of educated men. This was established in the first novel but the show only mentioned it now. Fun working with Dinklage/any notes on how Tyrion should speak with an accent or something? (ask to provide discussion; on his blog he already explained how while what Tyrion is saying is comprehensible, it sounds a little stiff).
What is the difference between the “ng” dipthong and tilded-N? Tyrion mixed that up and said “nostril” instead of “rusty” – they sound the same to me.
He worked out a little in Season 1 but totally abandoned it after the producers decided to use actual ice-cracking sounds, which are unpronounceable.
Might we ever get the other five variants of Old Tongue besides Mag Nuk?
Thank you for the excellent questions, everyone. David was an outstanding guest, literally bursting onto the stage shouting in Dothraki. Episode to come soon!
How…did I not know that he also did the languages for Defiance? Makes sense though, they’re just as excellent!
/headdesk
The Dragon Demands,
The World of Ice and Fire is non canon and garbage,don’t ever try to take most of the things there as fact . Also it was written by two writers who like to have cybersex on Second Life and not even having the decency to keep it private.not to mention that the woman is a raging moron .
Has this been broadcast yet? If not, any news on when it will be available?