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!

David J. Peterson Honestly, having pre-existing vocabulary and phrases has the potential to make my job easier or harder. In this case, I'd say it was easier, because everything George R. R. Martin had created cohered really well and gave a very clear picture of what the language would end up looking like. I was grateful for that!

As to your second question, I'm not sure I understand what you mean...? If you're talking about writing systems, yes, I certainly have created those. It's a different thing, because writing is an artificial invention, unlike spoken/signed language, but it's the part of the job I find the most fun. I love writing systems, and love creating them. I've gotten the opportunity to create four different writing systems for the show Defiance I work on, and I also created one for the Sondiv language in the CW's Star-Crossed. You can learn a lot about these systems on my Tumblr, if you're curious.

Thanks for the questions!

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