Conlang Critic: Dothraki

the moment you've all been waiting for, it's the first episode of Conlang Critic Season Three. and this time it's about..... that one Game of Thrones language everyone wanted me to talk about for some reason. this is the longest episode in the series to date. I hope that makes up for this coming out about as late as it possibly could have while still technically being an "April" video.

[philmaggiacomo]

"on a TV budget" and "on an HBO TV budget" can be widely different animals, heh

[mushroomsoup]

One thing I heard about Dothraki is that they actually have a whole bunch of words for "horse", because obviously they would. If they're dealing with horses so much, the distinction between a workhorse or a warhorse or a breeding horse is actually really useful.
Unfortunately, no one knew which horses they were gonna get on screen until they started filming, so DJP couldn't put specific words in the script, like "take this mare back to the stables" only for the horse actor to end up being a stallion.

[jordandehart]

Good lord, I forgot The Office was on the air long enough to reference GoT.

[clayton]

DJP making his wife's name translate into Good Duck in Dothraki is very wholesome.

[otesunki]

2:25
CC: "It sounds alot like arabic or russian to people who don't speak arabic or russian."
Me, a native arabic speaker: *spits out arabic coffee*

[Danilaschannel]

So you're starting the season with Dothraki and ending it with Quenya?
Quite, poetic

[unflexian]

In Hebrew, the expression for notice/pay attention translates literally to "Put in your heart", similar to care in Dothraki.

[teacul]

The professionalism in this is great, but I have to admit that I kinda miss your jabs and jokes. Maybe this was just an episode where you reviewed a conlang you actually respected so you didn't have as much to joke about, but I think that relaxed atmosphere added a lot of personality to your videos. I hope you can find a way to be more informal without being unstudied in your future videos

[samishaniyy]

Tbh I’m Arab and Dothraki sounds a lot like Arabic “ana” means me in both Dothraki and Arabic also my love in Dothraki is moon of my life, in Arabic we say “gamar hayati” = moon of my life.

[JontyLevine]

9:08 Wait, "vash" means "stampede" in Dothraki? Haha, yes! That moment when you sneak a subtle Trigun reference into your fictional language.

[colinfrey]

David J. Peterson has an incredible talent for doing really cool and interesting conlangs that are attached to things I have no interest in watching. Trigedasleng is one of my top five conlangs of all time but I couldn't get through two episodes of the 100.

[finndriver]

Nobody going to mention the (accidental) jab by using "ido" for fake/wooden?

[tedarcher]

J.K Rowling announced that you, the viewer, were David Petersen all along

[pentelegomenon]

This feels like a student trying to grade his teacher.

[nevertoocoldforicecream]

Breadspeak

BREADSPEAK

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ADD BREADSPEAK TO THE BIG LIST, I DONT CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES JUST PLEASE DO IT

[redgeoblaze]

The actors in the show (At least early on) go all over in pronunciation. Most pronounce Khaleesi as Kalisi

[xhesil]

I love Peterson's work, each language he's made has always had depth that Klingon (still one of my favorites because Star Trek) lacks. I like Dothraki's phonotactics and Nahuatl-esque vowel inventory a lot, although, I noticed in your sample, just like in Japanese, a tendency towards pseudo-diphthongs (use of a diphthong despite it not being part of the blackletter phonology), which I think is more organic than explicitly separating the sounds for rigid phonological agreement.

[trafo]

There's nothing wrong with SVO, it's a very common word order, almost on par with SOV. It would be much weirder to have to make your conlang look exotic in every way (especially if it's spoken by humans, in a universe similar to ours).

[viorp]

F for Dothraki, went extinct in 1 Cavalry Charge

[matt.s]

Watching conlang critic while conlanging