Why learn Game of Thrones Valyrian

What are artificial languages

Artificial languages are invented and developed specifically to meet specific goals and objectives. They usually do not have natural carriers. Their main difference from natural languages - for example, Russian, Japanese or Swahili - is that the latter developed historically, under the influence of time, cultural and natural circumstances.

Artificial languages can be divided into groups according to the purpose of their creation:

Philosophical and logical (enjlangs) are languages that have a clear logical structure of word formation and syntax. These include tokipona, ilkash and others.
Auxiliary (auxlangs) are languages designed to simplify intercultural and interethnic communication. The most famous examples are Esperanto and Interlingua.
Necessary for setting up an experiment - languages that exist for testing linguistic hypotheses. For example, loglan.
Artistic or aesthetic (artlangs) are languages created to solve artistic problems or simply for aesthetic satisfaction. These include: Klingon from Star Trek, Elvish from Tolkien, Na'vi from Cameron's Avatar. Artlangs are also the Valyrian and Dothraki languages from Game of Thrones, which were developed specifically for the series by the Language Creation Society.

Why learn invented languages

Language proficiency does not always have to solve business problems and be strictly functional, as is often now the case with English. Against this background, the study of artificial languages seems less useful: unless you can understand the heroes of films and TV series without translation.

However, in fact, there is much greater benefit hidden in the study of auxlangs or artlangs: mastering an invented linguistic structure, you remove the psychological barrier to studying the natural one.

Remember how often the lessons of the same English puzzled you. Too strict teachers, high expectations of others, fear of making mistakes and looking stupid are just some of the reasons why language acquisition may not be possible. Against this background, acquaintance with Esperanto or Valyrian does not oblige you to anything and turns into a unique experiment. And at the same time it teaches us to look at the syntax, vocabulary and grammar of new language systems.

In addition, the author's linguistics introduces the unusual features of word formation and case constructions that are not characteristic of the native language. And this is a great training for the brain, during which neural connections are formed, making it easier to assimilate the necessary information. By the way, in "Game of Thrones" there are at least two deeply developed and worthy of learning languages.

What languages are spoken in "Game of Thrones"

A fairly large number of languages are used in the universe of the series. So, in Westeros - one of the continents of George Martin's world - everyone mostly speaks the common (English) language. However, in the north, especially among the wildlings, the old language is widespread, which was the main one before the arrival of the Andals - the ancient warlike people. By the way, the white walkers also have their own language: they speak in a scrotum that resembles the sound of breaking ice.

On Essos, east of Westeros, Dothraki, the spoken language of the nomadic people of the same name, is widespread. And also - Low Valyrian, consisting of a group of dialects formed from High Valyrian. The last one was stopped after Doom of Valyria - the disaster that led to the collapse of the great empire of the Valyrians, which existed 400 years before the events of the series.

By the way, nobles from Westeros can often read and write in Valyrian. For example, Tyrion Lannister is well versed in several dialects from Low Valyrian. At the same time, in different free cities they speak their own dialect and often may not understand another.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Valyrian and Dothraki are only mentioned by George Martin. And to recreate these languages and dialects in the series, David Peterson, the head of the Society for the Creation of Languages, was invited, who had already done similar work on the films "Thor", "Doctor Strange", the series "100", "Challenge" and others. projects.

According to David, during the creation of the Valyrian for Game of Thrones, he was given complete freedom, since the books use only a few words invented by Martin. The main task of the scientist was to develop a complex system of grammar, vocabulary and phonetics - both for high Valyrian and for many dialects from low.

How to learn Valyrian

Valyrian may seem daunting at first. He has a very unusual phonetics for the Russian language, four types of numbers (singular, plural, collective and spider) and genera (lunar, solar, terrestrial and water). And also - eight cases, about 10 grammatical forms of verbs, as well as three grammatical classes of adjectives.

But this is unusual only at first. Over time, you will find that some of the nuances are familiar to you in Russian, and others in English. It is also safe to say that when studying Valyrian, you will be able to learn a lot not only about it, but also about the natural languages in which each of us constantly communicates.

For example, that in Russian the spider number is indirectly used, the plural form for several (up to four) objects, or the fact that the local and vocative cases are still present in everyday speech in the form of rudiments that are not reflected in modern Russian grammar.

You can also start exploring with David Peterson, where you will find many answers to questions that fans ask directly to the author of Valyrian and Dothraki.

We also recommend watching this video from the Vanity Fair channel - in it you will get acquainted with the phonetic nuances of the language firsthand.

In the process of learning, it will certainly come in handy in High Valyrian.

By devoting about half an hour a day to learning an artificial language, you can learn the basics in 3-4 weeks. And this time is quite enough to begin to understand the characters of "Game of Thrones" without translation and subtitles. Speaking practice will speed up the process of mastering the language: you can learn Valyrian with friends and communicate with them as much as possible. Or find Game of Thrones fans who also want to practice their language skills.