Like “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Trek” before it, “Game of Thrones” has been responsible for bequeathing brand new languages unto the world. For the HBO show, a linguist named Dave J Peterson was hired to create not one, but THREE languages for the wide world of Westeros. Dothraki might be the most utilized, but both High and Low Valyrian were also fully created.
Once the languages were constructed, it was time to have some fun! Remember the pivotal scene from Season 4 when Daenerys arrives at Meereen and is taunted by a lone rider? (Hyperlink because embedding is disabled). Missandei translates the man”s taunts for us, but she”s taking some liberties with her interpretation. The speech is actually a hidden Monty Python Easter egg.
From a recent print interview with the “Game of Thrones” writers:
In fact, the [Meereen] rider was yelling in Low Valyrian, ‘I fart in your general direction! Your mother a a hamster and your fatter smelt of elderberries. You don”t frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go boils your bottoms, son of a silly person! I wave my private parts at your aunties!”
While Peterson has published a language guide to Dothraki, neither Valyrian languages have yet been written down, perhaps aspiring linguists can use this new knowledge to begin to reverse engineer the syntax.
“Game of Thrones” returns to HBO on Sunday, April 12th.