Living Language Dothraki is officially on sale today! You can buy it at any bookstore, or go to the official site to buy it here. I got mine in the mail last week.
The feeling is pretty overwhelming. A lot of folks worked very hard on this, and a lot of stuff happened behind the scenes to make this day a reality. We all have HBO to thank for this. They’ve allowed a community to grow around this language, and they gave the green light to this book. Now you can take a look at it yourselves, and I hope you enjoy it!
I’m going to be in New York all week, and will be posting updates on Twitter. My remaining schedule for the coming months looks like this:
OCTOBER
- October 7th: Living Language Dothraki is on sale at an independent bookstore near you!
- Word Bookstore, Jersey City, NJ, October 8th: I’ll be doing an event and signing at Word in Jersey City at 7:30 p.m. (note: there are two stores, one in Brooklyn and one in Jersey City. Be sure not to confuse the two!).
- Lansdowne Road, New York, NY, October 10th: Living Language is hosting a happy hour at Lansdowne Road where they’ll be giving away prizes for people who want to come and practice their Dothraki. It’s near the NYCC convention center for those who are in the neighborhood for the convention.
- New York Comic Con, New York, NY, October 9-12: I’ll be on two panels on Sunday the 12th: Dothraki 101 at 11:15 a.m. in 1A24 and How A Game of Thrones Changed Fantasy…Or Did It? at 1:15 p.m. in 1A05. The latter panel features some names you may have heard of if you read fantasy, e.g. Patrick Rothfuss, Robin Hobb, Garth Nix, etc. (Totally not kidding. Check it out!)
- Book Soup, Hollywood, CA, October 14: I’ll be doing an event and signing at Book Soup in Hollywood at 7 p.m.
- Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA, October 17: I’ll be doing an event and signing at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego at 7:30 p.m.
- San Diego Comic Fest, San Diego, CA, October 17-19: I’ll be doing three panels at San Diego Comic Fest this year: “Conlanging: The Art of Language Invention with David J. Peterson” at 2 p.m., Saturday, October 18th; “Dothraki 101 with Language Developer David J. Peterson” at 5 p.m., Saturday, October 18th; and “1984: Warning or Instruction Manual” at noon, Sunday, October 19th. If you’re in the SD area, this is a great local con. Check it out!
- Orange County Public Library, Tustin, CA, October 22nd: I’ll be doing an event and signing at the Tustin library right near my home at 7 p.m.
- Life Is Beautiful Festival, Las Vegas, NV, October 24-26: Panel information coming soon!
- Mission Viejo Public Library, Mission Viejo, CA, October 28th: I’ll be doing an event and signing at the public library in Mission Viejo at 7 p.m.
NOVEMBER
- Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, November 10th: I’ll be giving a talk at Colorado College at 7 p.m. (more details to come).
- The Tattered Cover, Highlands Ranch, CO, November 11: I’ll be doing an event and signing at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch at 7 p.m. (Note: Be sure to note the location, as there are several Tattered Cover stores in the Denver area!)
- Books, Inc., Mountain View, CA, November 14: I’ll be doing an event and signing at the Books, Inc. in Mountain View at 7 p.m. (Note: Be sure to note the location, as there are several Books, Inc. stores in the Bay Area!)
- Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park, CA, November 15th: I’ll be a part of a group of other sff authors at Kepler’s Sci-Fi Fantasy Day. It’s going to be from 1-5 p.m. and feature a number of interesting talks and panels. My Dothraki event will be at 2:30 p.m. Please note that this is a ticketed event (tickets are $10 and can be purchased here), but a ticket grants you admission to the entire day’s events.
If you’re going to be near any of these places, please come say hi. Otherwise, thanks for following the blog the past few years, and for helping to make this day a reality!
Ah, good news: Volantis shooting locations confirmed in Season 5. Benioff and Weiss just confirmed that they’re shooting scenes set in Volantis in Cordoba, Spain – specifically they’re using the old Roman Bridge of Cordoba as the Long Bridge of Volantis
(well, it isn’t exactly a “Roman” bridge anymore…the Romans built a big stone bridge but it’s been repaired so many times over the centuries that the oldest parts of the structure still in it date back to the 14th century or so (sigh)…Nostra corpora semper mutantur; id quod fuimus aut sumus, non cras erimus.)
Just complete confirmation now that we’re actually seeing both Braavos AND Volantis next season, not just pushing the Volantis material into Braavos.
Of course like all of you here I hope this means we’ll get to see the Southern and Northern branches of Low Valyrian, as well as Eastern/Ghiscari Low Valyrian.
Yay! Good news indeed!
Dragon, dude, do you wanna translate that for those of us who may not speak Latin?… LOL. But that bit of news about Volantis is brilliant.
“Nostra corpora semper mutantur; id quod fuimus aut sumus, non cras erimus.”
Corpora = bodies (plural neuter noun), nostra = our (uses -a ending to agree with corpora), semper = always, mutantur = change (third person passive “-ntur” ending).
“Our bodies are always being changed”
id = “it”, but in this context it’s being used in agreement as a weak demonstrative, so “that”
quod = which (well, “who, which” – in this context, “which”)
fuimus = past tense of “is”, first person plural = “were”
aut = or
sumus = present tense of “is”, firstperson plural = “are”
non = not
cras = tomorrow (“procrastinate” = “put off until tomorrow”)
erimus = future tense of is, first person plure, = “we will be”.
Thus:
“Nostra corpora semper mutantur; id quod fuimus aut sumus, non cras erimus.”
“Our bodies are always being changed; that which we were or are, we will not be tomorrow.”
–Ovid, Metamorphoses.
Last line of a longer passage, chiding people for fearing “death”, when in reality, piece by piece and molecule by molecule, or bodies are never “the same” but always changing even when alive…and in death, are simply mixed into new forms. So it goes.
…well, it was translation exercise in Wheelock chapter 18.
I was lamenting the fact that, like the Ship of Theseus, so many incremental repairs have had to be made to the “Roman” bridge of Cordoba over time that the oldest extant parts now only date back to the 14th century or so. Like a living body, it changed piece by piece with time.
The reason I remember the poem off the top of my head (apart from the fact that it’s kind of easy Latin) my cat was dying of cancer at the time I was working on it, and it just kind of stuck with me, so I got up from my desk and read it to him aloud – hope he understood. But that was a couple of years back, first year I was taking Latin (I didn’t even know Subjunctive yet).
Or in HV:
Īlvi ībyry jomazverdisi; īlin lȳ iā iksi lȳ māzirē tubī kesoty daor.
;o)
I missed the premiere of The 100 Season 2 on Wednesday. Does anyone have a clip of the one phrase of the Grounder language that was in it so far?
(Are we calling it a language? “Grounder creole”? “Grounder pidgin”? I don’t know)
…what was it called in formal documents on the set?
Separate news: the votes are in, I’m the new head Administrator of Game of Thrones Wiki.
(Well, one-third co-head. We decided that there was so much work that we’d have three people holding the topmost rank at the same time jointly — directly compared to the Triarchy of Volantis. So my rank is “Triarch” now…)
Hajas! I’m very glad to hear it! Long live the triarchy!
Ah, I found a transcript of the Grounder language from the first episode:
“I like Octavia com sky crew, an’ I gaff go-through klin.”
Stated to mean:
“I’m Octavia of the sky people, and I seek safe passage.”
….let’s see now….
“I’m like, Octavia” (Valley-speak) seems to have turned “like” into “is, am”.
com = de (in the Latin/French sense)
crew = people, group
an = “and” clipped.
“gaff go-through klin” = “seek safe passage”
…”go through” seems mutated from “passage”…..
…also, Octavia first said, “gothrough klir” and got corrected that it’s “gothrough klin”
“go-through clean?” As in clear? Vowel-shift?
How did they get “gaff” from “seek”? “Gaff”…”Go-for”–>”Go-Fer”–>”Ga’Fer–>”Gaff”?
Helps that it’s not an a prior conlang but supposed to be a creolized English.
Question: Can the Reapers actually talk? Or are they pretty much feral?
That was the transcript I did specifically for that actress, because it wasn’t clicking with her. The usual romanization (simple and regular) looks like this:
Ai laik Okteivia kom Skaikru en ai gaf gouthru klir.
This is a good start, but I think you should hold off on analyzing until more dialogue starts coming. Four or five episodes from now there’ll be tons of lines to look at.
Actually, that’s apparently what displays in the subtitles (which the transcript I saw must have used to check spelling).
I was just in the process of breaking it down so I figured “Skaikru?…Oh, Sky-crew” etc.
Also I assume “come” is clipped “come from” = “of”
You know, when I heard that the Grounders speak “future creolized English”, part of me deep down in my heart hoped that when we first heard it they’d say, “Monsieur, azonnal kövessen engem bitte!”