The Allusionist is a linguistics podcast hosted by Helen Zaltzman. In episode 95, Helen Zaltzman interviews David Peterson, a language creator and writer, who talks about his work making the Dothraki and Valerian languages for HBO series Game of Thrones. I really am excited that I stumbled upon this podcast because I’m interested in linguistics and I am a big Game of Thrones fan. This episode is a pleasure to listen to for me since it combines these two subjects.
Helen Zaltzman’s voice is clear and authoritative, bringing attention to her questions and informative statements during the interview as she guides David Peterson’s passionate delve into language creation for Game of Thrones and in general. Zaltzman did well in gently shaping the conversation with Peterson in a manner that allowed him to go on as much as his passion needed him to. I learned how extensive language creation is and how involved it can be, even more so if there is a written system for the new language.
I think that fans of the epic fantasy television show would enjoy this podcast interview because of the insight given to the Dothraki and Valerian languages creation and development. A part of the interview that I like but also may be on the longer side is Peterson talking about the word “Khaleesi” and the issue of its pronunciation. He goes into depth about his mistake with the word “Khaleesi” and how its current pronunciation isn’t right according to how he constructed the Dothraki language, although it honors George R.R. Martin’s spelling of it in the novels.
Iris,
I was scrolling through everyone’s podcasts and immediately I was drawn to “Game of Thrones” because I’m a huge fan of the books and TV show. I completely agree with your assessment of how Helen Zaltzman’s authoritative voice guides the narrative. She allows David Peterson to tell the story without interruptions and asks questions when it’s appropriate. I really appreciate her voice over comments about Peterson’s background, especially about other languages he’s created for TV shows like Penny Dreadful and The 100.
As a GoT fan, I loved listening to this podcast. I’m not especially interested in linguistics, but this podcast definitely got me interested because of GoT. I find it fascinating that Peterson developed over 300 pages of the Dothraki language. I also find it amazing that when Peterson was tasked with creating unique languages like Dothraki and Valerian, he decided he wanted honored George R.R. Martin’s vision of the languages as best he could.
Great find, Iris!
Marissa
Hi Iris,
This is a really interesting episode! I was drawn to it by the title because I wanted to see this concept I’ve seen is game design is related to creating a language. Although it didn’t specifically touch on this until the second half, a well done interview keep me engaged throughout. The interviewer did an excellent job blending a not every accessible topic like linguistic creation with both personal narrative of how the interviewee became interested in and became a language creator. Also interviewing the creator of game of thrones’ languages is a great idea. It gives the audience an easy in to a potentially archaic subject they might just write off as irrelevant and hopefully increase the amount of people interested in language creation!