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The Man Who Invents Languages For a Living

Posted by samzenpus on from the how-would-you-say-it? dept.

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.

6 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Feel free to translate this haiku by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll try a translation into english:

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

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    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  2. In the comments below the interview... by Sique · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

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    .sig: Sique *sigh*
    1. Re:In the comments below the interview... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    2. Re:In the comments below the interview... by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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 ;-)

  3. Vikings has ruined GoT for me and a big part of th by comrade1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  4. Re:Vikings has ruined GoT for me and a big part of by T.E.D. · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.