The Man Who Invents Languages For a Living

An anonymous reader writes: David J. Peterson is fluent in eight languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Esperanto, Arabic and American Sign Language, but it is the languages he's created that gives him notoriety. He created Dothraki, Giant, and High Valyrian for Game of Thrones, Shiväisith for Thor: The Dark World, and four different languages for the TV show Defiance. Peterson recently sat down with NPR to talk about inventing languages for a living, and offers some advice on how to make your own.

Comments

Preventing communication is evil.

[Anonymous Coward]

Inventing language facilitates communication, inventing another language hinders it.

Re:Preventing communication is evil.

[Boronx]

Not if the language is a fake one for giants to speak on TV.

Re: Preventing communication is evil.

[aristotle-dude]

That's why we Republicans invent languages all the time: because we're evil. We want you to lose your ability to communicate so nobody will heed your pleas for help. As you starve to death, watching your loved ones suffer without even some words of comfort, we will gloat from our Tower of Neo Babel, mocking your plight. Because we hate you and that's the way of our kind.

I am pretty sure politically correct "New Speak" is an invention of the left to dumb down the public and make it impossible to express yourself clearly. For example "Xe, xir" and other bullshit.

Re:Unue!

[wonkey_monkey]

Bonvolu alsendi la pordiston, laushajne estas rano en mia bideo.

Re:Feel free to translate this haiku

[mwvdlee]

I'll try a translation into english:

Gender preference,
parent poster is unsure.
Fears he might like men.

In the comments below the interview...

[Sique]

In the comments below the interview, there were several comments along the line that Hollywood should not pay someone to invent a new language, but rather revive one of the many languages on the verge of extinction. One answer of one commenter was that exactly those people who invent languages for fun and for a living are also exactly those linguists who preserve those languages destined for extinction.

I would add a second thought: First, it doesn't make sense to have an invented place speak a real language in lieu of an invented one. It just creates a confusing context. Lets say the people of the eastern regions in Game of Thrones would speak a language like the Mansi language. It would somehow place Westernesse into the Ural mountains as Mansi is spoken east of the Ural. People from West Siberia, who might not speak Mansi, but recognize the sound of it would always be somehow reminded of their home land instead of being immersed in a phantasy world, and the Mansi people then would then wonder if the people of Westeros should somehow be identified with the Russians, and why there is no Khanty language (a neighboring language both locally and linguistically) in the series.

Chosing a language always sets a context, and if you want to control the context, you can't chose languages at will.

Re:In the comments below the interview...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's also much easier to invent a language than to revive one. The first just takes one person, the latter a whole community.

Re:In the comments below the interview...

[Intrepid imaginaut]

Plus it runs the risk of making entertainment political, and way too many things have been made political which never should have been lately.

Re:In the comments below the interview...

[T.E.D.]

Chosing a language always sets a context, and if you want to control the context, you can't chose languages at will.

But this already happens anyway. Ever notice how the imperials in Star Wars tend to speak British English? Dialects are used to indicate social differences in English Language SF/Fantasy movies and shows all the time. Its done with the apparent race of actors as well. Even if all your actors for all the races in your shows are the same (usually white), that's a statement with some implied context. If the races of the actors are mixed seemingly randomly with the "races" in the source work, that's a statement with some implied context too. You simply cannot get away from it.

I see no problem with extending this to entire human languages, as long as the languages are properly used (the words actually say what they purport to say, or something sensible for the context if subtitles aren't used).

Re:In the comments below the interview...

[Somebody Is Using My]

It doesn't make sense to have an invented place speak a real language in lieu of an invented one. It just creates a confusing context.

Worse, it opens the studios open up to criticisms and accusations of bias. Imagine if they used an ancient dialect of Persian as the language of the Evil Wizard and his minions.; the uproar - both in the Middle East and the Western world - would be amazing (it works in reverse too; have the GOOD guys speak the language and they are accused of pandering or an anti-American bias). Either way, it's probably going to cost them some sales.

Made-up languages have the advantage of being neutral; nobody cares if the Orcs speak a butchered version of Sindarin except the geeks... and they'll just pay to see the movie three or four more times so they can gather evidence for their arguments ;-)

Vikings has ruined GoT for me and a big part of th

[comrade1]

Watching Vikings I was surprised when I heard old English (sounds a lot like German) and old French. I don't know enough about Scandinavian languages to know if they're speaking an old Scandinavian dialectic. Now when I watch GoT and they start up in one of their made-up languages I just cringe. It sounds fake and is usually delivered stiffly. Vikings has made GoT painful to watch for me.

Re:Unue!

[Foobar of Borg]

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Re:Vikings has ruined GoT for me and a big part of

[T.E.D.]

don't know enough about Scandinavian languages to know if they're speaking an old Scandinavian dialectic.

I haven't seen the show, but the most historically sensible thing for Vikings to be speaking would be Old Norse. According to some folks on Reddit, that is in fact what they are speaking.

Its not very closely related to English, outside of the fact that they are both Germanic, and their common ancestor language was only 700 years or so in the past at that point.

How very mileyraki she is

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> Dothraki

Isn't that the Game of Thrones language? So like Eskimos and Norwegians supposedly have dozens of words for different kinds of snow, I presume Dothraki has dozens of different words describing the size, texture, hue, and contracture state of the female areola?

Re:Unue!

[yodleboy]

Vi parolas Esperanton , Kapitano Rimmer?

Hodor!

[src1138]

He did an awesome job with the Hodor language.

Or in Hodor: Hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor. Hodor? Hodor!

Re:Vikings has ruined GoT for me and a big part of

[Cro Magnon]

Yeah, and I'm sure the real gorillas weren't too happy with the movie either.

Read this book..

[braindrainbahrain]

... if you are interested in made up or artificial languages: "In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius" by Akira Okrent.

Author's Website