In the books of the saga The Chronicles of ice and Fire, the language spoken by the warriors led by Khal Drogo is entirely fictional, invented by the author, George RR Martin. Already the series game of Thronesfrom HBO, turned to a linguist, David Peterson, who, based on the phrases recorded by Martin, developed a standard for pronunciation and rules for grammar.
Dothraki ended up becoming one of viewers’ favorite themes in the first season – and many fans became “scholars” of the language. By following the steps below, you can even learn (a little) too.
1) To speak naturally, watch videos with dialogues in russian or turkish – both languages were major influences on Peterson. Keep them in mind when pronouncing words like “mai” (mother) and “ave” (father), two of the nearly 3,000 terms in the Dothraki vocabulary. Really look like? Just to compare, Portuguese has about 600 thousand.
two) Sentences are constructed with subject followed by verb and object, similar to the Portuguese language. As in “Fonak tih jan”, which means “The hunter [fonak] it saw [tih] the dog [jan]“. Did you miss the articles? This word class does not exist! But, just like in our language, verbs are conjugated in different tenses.
3) You nouns are also “conjugated”, as in German. It depends on its function in the sentence. For example: “hunter” can be “fonak” (when it is the subject), “fonakes” (direct object), “fonaki” (indicates possession, “of the hunter”), “fonakaan” (when it is the destination of the action, “ for the hunter”) or “fonakoon” (when it is the origin of the action, “from the hunter”).
4) Want to learn more? browse the dothraki wiki or by portal updated by Peterson, both in English. In Portuguese, start with the “little class” Dothraki 101, organized by the HBO channel. And keep an eye out for when any of the warriors make an appearance on the series. After all, immersion is one of the best ways to learn a new language.
BASIC VOCABULARY
m’ath: Hey
Fonas check: Goodbye
Anha garvok: I am hungry
Anha fevek: I’m thirsty
Hrakkar: Lion
Noah: Bull
Hlizif: Bear
Kolver: Eagle
Eyelke: Primavera (derived from “eyel”, meaning “rain”)
Vorsaska: Summer (derived from «vorsa», meaning «fire»)
Chafka: Autumn (derived from “chaf”, meaning “wind”)
Aheshke: Winter (derived from “ahesh”, meaning “snow”)
COUNT UNTIL TEN
At: 1
Akat: two
Sen: 3
Tor: 4
mek: 5
Zhinda: 6
Fekh: 7
Ori: 8
Qazat: 9
Thi: 10