Hardcore nerds have been learning languages like Klingon and Elvish for years, even translating the Bible and Shakespearean works into Klingon. Thanks to a new class from the Living Language online school, language fanatics can now be fluent in the Khaleesi’s tongue, Dothraki.
Linguist David Peterson, HBO’s language creator for Game of Thrones, is recording a language course for the Living Language, an online school focused on language learning. We told you about the course previously, but now we have several more details thanks to the video above, which explains how the course was created and even shows actors learning the language from scratch.
Dothraki was a unique challenge for Peterson since author George R.R. Martin had included bits of the language in the original Song of Ice and Fire books. The language had to be built so those lines of dialogue were still grammatically correct. Here are some useful, conversational Dothraki phrases he came up with that students will learn from the course:
“The duck is kind.
“Where’d you find it, this boar?”
“Do you have a gift?”
“Tonight, we eat well.”
“A prince rides inside me.”
“The stars are charging for you.”
Living Language is offering three ways to learn Dothraki: a book and CD package for $19.99, a one-year subscription to the expanded online course for $30, or a Dothraki Companion App for iPhone and iPad for $3.99.
The program sounds like a pretty good deal, but personally, I don’t need to learn how to barter in Dothraki. All I need is some good battle cries for my next Nerf war. Maybe the Living Language can put out an app exclusively for cutting Dothraki insults. If the program has the Dothraki translation for, “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!”, they can take my money now.
Source: iO9
