Sam
asked
David J. Peterson:
Hi David, What was the Valyrian word last night that Daenerys said to Drogon? And does Valryian have some kind of an imperative tense that Daenerys uses to command her dragons?
David J. Peterson
She just said "fly" in English. If she were using High Valyrian, she would've said sōvēs. Generally Dany has only used High Valyrian with the dragons, but this was an exception. I guess it just didn't work out on set. (Update: I figured out what happened with the dubbing. She did say "fly" during the actual filming, but they added a Dothraki word over the top to match her mouth movements. For a full discussion, please see my blog post here.)
More Answered Questions
Jennifer
asked
David J. Peterson:
First, congratulations on both your forthcoming book, The Art of Language Invention, and on landing Penny Dreadful (perhaps the best show on TV)! So the Verbis Diablo. It does sound quite a bit like Latin (as remarked upon in "Fresh Hell" ). Did you begin with Latin or create Verbis Diablo from the ground up as your other languages? (Second question coming)
Melissa Harney
asked
David J. Peterson:
Hi David! Big huge fan of yours here with a question relating specifically to Dothraki - you obviously had a small vocabulary to start with from the books; was it harder going into the creation process with words that already existed, or did it make your job easier? Also, have you created languages for written material as well as visual and how does the experience differ? Thanks oodles!
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more