# Dothraki language

**Dothraki** is a constructed language created by the American linguist David J. Peterson for the HBO television series *Game of Thrones*, spoken on screen by the Dothraki, a horse-mounted warrior people of Essos, the continent east of Westeros.<sup>[1](https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2015/feb/16/game-of-thrones-dothraki-david-j-peterson-invented-language)</sup> It was built from the handful of Dothraki words in [George R. R. Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-r-r-martin)'s *A Song of Ice and Fire* novels, which the show's creators asked members of the Language Creation Society to expand into a complete, speakable tongue.<sup>[1](https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2015/feb/16/game-of-thrones-dothraki-david-j-peterson-invented-language)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/game-of-thrones-languages)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creator | David J. Peterson, linguist and co-founder of the Language Creation Society<sup>[3](https://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/)</sup> |
| Origin | Developed starting in the summer of 2009 from the few Dothraki words Martin had written<sup>[4](https://www.geekwire.com/2016/talk-dothraki-game-of-thrones-language-david-j-peterson/)</sup> |
| Selection | Peterson's proposal won against 40 other candidates after two months of work, delivered as 300 pages with the pilot episode translated<sup>[5](https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/11/08/gente/1383935734_338931.html)</sup> |
| Vocabulary | About 3,900 words, against more than a million in English<sup>[6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/04/03/talking-game-thrones-conlanger-about-building-languages/tjowoTP7D16sxB1aeje29O/story.html)</sup> |
| Grammar | Uses word order, case, and agreement to encode meaning<sup>[7](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280961330_Shekh_Ma_Shieraki_Anni_Typology_of_a_fictional_language_created_for_artistic_purposes)</sup> |
| Cultural design | An equine-centered lexicon grounded in a nomadic warrior society<sup>[8](https://www.rstjournal.com/article/b66167aa-996b-4b1e-800a-8aabbf6cf933)</sup> |
| Learning resources | *Living Language Dothraki*, an official course with more than 500 words and phrases, released October 7, 2014<sup>[9](https://time.com/2815714/nows-your-chance-to-learn-how-to-speak-dothraki/)</sup> |

## Creation for Game of Thrones

Martin had never developed the Dothraki language in his books, so the show's creators contacted the Language Creation Society, a nonprofit Peterson had helped found in 2007, and asked its members to create the Dothraki vernacular.<sup>[2](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/game-of-thrones-languages)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/)</sup> The society solicited and vetted proposals from its pool of experts, and Peterson's was selected by the *Game of Thrones* production team.<sup>[10](https://www.westeros.org/News/Entry/Dothraki_Language_for_Game_of_Thrones)</sup> Peterson has described four finalist proposals going to the showrunners [David Benioff](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-benioff) and [D. B. Weiss](https://www.edgepedia.org/d-b-weiss), including his own alongside those of John Quijada, Olivier Simon, and Bill Welden.<sup>[11](https://www.wired.com/2010/08/a-game-of-thrones-david-j-peterson/)</sup>

**The winning proposal.** Peterson began work in the summer of 2009, when Benioff and Weiss asked him to build a language that incorporated all the Dothraki words Martin had written and to expand the vocabulary from there.<sup>[4](https://www.geekwire.com/2016/talk-dothraki-game-of-thrones-language-david-j-peterson/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[12](https://dedalvs.com/aoli_earlydraft.pdf)</sup> After two months of work his dothraki won against the 40 candidates who submitted proposals to the Language Creation Society; his submission ran to 300 pages and included the pilot episode translated, along with the grammar and vocabulary.<sup>[5](https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/11/08/gente/1383935734_338931.html)</sup> Peterson has said the producers chose him because he created what they had in mind, though he offers his own theory: he produced so much material that they would have felt bad not hiring him.<sup>[5](https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/11/08/gente/1383935734_338931.html)</sup>

The first line heard in the series comes in the pilot, when Illyrio Mopatis welcomes Khal Drogo with *Athchomar chomakaan*, the form of "welcome" said to one person. Peterson himself misremembered how he had translated it and initially thought the actor should have said *Athchomar chomakea*, the plural form.<sup>[12](https://dedalvs.com/aoli_earlydraft.pdf)</sup>

## Linguistic structure

Dothraki functions with the internal logic of a natural language. A typological survey of the language examines how it uses word order, case, and agreement to encode meaning, asking whether a language created for artistic purposes is typologically tractable like a natural one.<sup>[7](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280961330_Shekh_Ma_Shieraki_Anni_Typology_of_a_fictional_language_created_for_artistic_purposes)</sup> Later scholarship has compared its verbal valency properties with those of natural languages, covering avalent verbs, labile verbs, and morphosyntactic differences.<sup>[13](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/lotus/article/1654142)</sup>

**Vocabulary and culture.** Peterson's word-building patterns map the words attested in Martin's source material onto phonological templates and generate new vocabulary from them.<sup>[8](https://www.rstjournal.com/article/b66167aa-996b-4b1e-800a-8aabbf6cf933)</sup> The lexicon is equine-centered and grounded in the cultural realities and worldview of a nomadic warrior society, so the language serves worldbuilding as well as realism.<sup>[8](https://www.rstjournal.com/article/b66167aa-996b-4b1e-800a-8aabbf6cf933)</sup> One deliberate cultural choice comes from Peterson's original pitch: Dothraki has no word for "please," a decision he has said he stands behind.<sup>[14](https://www.campustimes.org/2016/04/19/interview-david-j-peterson/)</sup>

By 2015 Peterson reported that Dothraki contained about 3,900 words, small next to the more than a million of English, and he called it the first language produced for television or film that can pass as a natural language.<sup>[6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/04/03/talking-game-thrones-conlanger-about-building-languages/tjowoTP7D16sxB1aeje29O/story.html)</sup>

## Use on screen and by actors

[Jason Momoa](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-momoa), who played Khal Drogo, locked himself in a hotel room with beer and pizza to memorize all of his dialogue in Dothraki for the role.<sup>[5](https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/11/08/gente/1383935734_338931.html)</sup> Actors also improvised. During filming of the second series, [Iain Glen](https://www.edgepedia.org/iain-glen) was told to ad-lib a Dothraki line while the language expert, more than 5,000 miles away in California from the set in [Northern Ireland](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-ireland), could not be reached; Peterson had been emailed at four in the morning and did not see the request until he woke up.<sup>[1](https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2015/feb/16/game-of-thrones-dothraki-david-j-peterson-invented-language)</sup>

[Emilia Clarke](https://www.edgepedia.org/emilia-clarke), who played [Daenerys Targaryen](https://www.edgepedia.org/daenerys-targaryen), said in an interview that she had read she "sucked" at Dothraki. Peterson responded that criticizing imperfections in her performance would be like criticizing [Colin Firth](https://www.edgepedia.org/colin-firth) for stuttering in *The King's Speech*: she was portraying a character forced through hardship to learn a language she had never heard, becoming functionally fluent in the manner of a non-native speaker, and in a later video he said her Dothraki always "sounded very nice."<sup>[15](https://www.cinemablend.com/game-of-thrones-news/emilia-clarke-responded-one-brutal-game-of-thrones-critique--dothraki)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[16](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/game-of-thrones-language-creator-clears-up-emilia-clarkes-confusion-over-saying-she-sucked-at-speaking-dothraki/)</sup>

Dothraki was prominently featured in the first season, but its onscreen usage dwindled in subsequent seasons, supplanted by Valyrian and "the common tongue" as Daenerys Targaryen's story moved through Essos.<sup>[9](https://time.com/2815714/nows-your-chance-to-learn-how-to-speak-dothraki/)</sup>

## Learning resources and study

HBO partnered with Living Language, a [Random House](https://www.edgepedia.org/random-house) offshoot for self-study language courses, to release *Living Language Dothraki: A Conversational Language Course Based on the Hit Original HBO Series a Game of Thrones* on October 7, 2014, an extensive guide with more than 500 words and phrases compiled by Peterson.<sup>[9](https://time.com/2815714/nows-your-chance-to-learn-how-to-speak-dothraki/)</sup> Peterson also wrote *The Art of Language Invention*, published by [Penguin Books](https://www.edgepedia.org/penguin-books) on September 29, 2015, a detailed guide to language creation covering Dothraki, High Valyrian, and other languages he has invented.<sup>[3](https://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/)</sup> In 2017 he taught a U.C. Berkeley summer course, "The Linguistics of Game of Thrones and the Art of Language Invention," which focused on creating languages rather than on speaking Dothraki.<sup>[17](https://time.com/4759240/berkeley-dothraki-language-class/)</sup>

Academic work has treated Dothraki as an object of study in its own right. A 2024 study in the *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* found that constructed languages, including Dothraki, are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages; for the Dothraki materials, Peterson himself recorded the sentences.<sup>[18](https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2313473122)</sup> A phonological study has compared Dothraki with mixed languages, a subtype of contact language, on the grounds that both involve conscious creation.<sup>[19](https://fiatlingua.org/2025/01/)</sup> Surveys of constructed languages have also examined whether artlangs such as Dothraki follow Greenberg's linguistic universals, and how their user communities resemble communities of practice rather than ordinary speech communities.<sup>[20](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110152)</sup>

## Peterson and the wider conlang industry

David J. Peterson was born in [Long Beach, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/long-beach-california), in 1981, attended UC Berkeley from 1999 to 2003, where he received a B.A. in English and a B.A. in [Linguistics](https://www.edgepedia.org/linguistics), and received an M.A. in Linguistics from UC San Diego; he has been creating languages since 2000 and working on *Game of Thrones* since 2009.<sup>[3](https://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/)</sup> Beyond Dothraki and High Valyrian, he has developed languages for *Defiance*, *[The Shannara Chronicles](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-shannara-chronicles)*, *The 100*, and *Emerald City*, among other productions.<sup>[21](https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/david-peterson-create-a-new-language/)</sup> The success of subtitled invented dialogue on television, which he traces to films such as *The Lord of the Rings*, *The Passion of the Christ*, and *Avatar*, turned language creation into paid industry work; in 2008 his Language Creation Society had debated whether studios would ever want such languages and concluded no policy was needed, yet within about a year it had become a link between the entertainment industry and linguists.<sup>[5](https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/11/08/gente/1383935734_338931.html)</sup>

## References

1. [Mark Smith (2015). "Game of Thrones' Dothraki: meet the man who invented a language." *The Guardian*.](https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2015/feb/16/game-of-thrones-dothraki-david-j-peterson-invented-language)
2. ["The Languages of Game of Thrones." *BU Today*, Boston University, 2017.](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/game-of-thrones-languages)
3. ["About David J. Peterson." Dothraki.com.](https://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/)
4. ["Linguist has his say over 'Game of Thrones'." GeekWire, 2016.](https://www.geekwire.com/2016/talk-dothraki-game-of-thrones-language-david-j-peterson/)
5. ["La Real Academia de 'dothraki' y 'valyrio'." *El País*, 2013.](https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/11/08/gente/1383935734_338931.html)
6. ["Talking to 'Game of Thrones' conlanger about building languages." *The Boston Globe*, 2015.](https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/04/03/talking-game-thrones-conlanger-about-building-languages/tjowoTP7D16sxB1aeje29O/story.html)
7. ["Shekh Ma Shieraki Anni: Typology of a fictional language created for artistic purposes." ResearchGate.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280961330_Shekh_Ma_Shieraki_Anni_Typology_of_a_fictional_language_created_for_artistic_purposes)
8. [Bettina Ene. "The Linguistic and Sociocultural Functions of Dothraki and High Valyrian in 'Game of Thrones': Constructed Languages as Tools for Worldbuilding." *Research and Science Today*.](https://www.rstjournal.com/article/b66167aa-996b-4b1e-800a-8aabbf6cf933)
9. ["Now's Your Chance to Learn How to Speak Dothraki." *Time*, 2014.](https://time.com/2815714/nows-your-chance-to-learn-how-to-speak-dothraki/)
10. ["Westeros: News – Dothraki Language for Game of Thrones." Westeros.org, 2009.](https://www.westeros.org/News/Entry/Dothraki_Language_for_Game_of_Thrones)
11. [Dave Banks (2010). "Interview: Creating Language for HBO's Game Of Thrones." *WIRED*.](https://www.wired.com/2010/08/a-game-of-thrones-david-j-peterson/)
12. [David J. Peterson. "How to Invent a Language" (early draft of *The Art of Language Invention*).](https://dedalvs.com/aoli_earlydraft.pdf)
13. ["Verbal Valency in Lekh Dothraki." *International Journal of Language and Translation Studies*.](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/lotus/article/1654142)
14. ["An interview with David J. Peterson." *Campus Times*, University of Rochester, 2016.](https://www.campustimes.org/2016/04/19/interview-david-j-peterson/)
15. ["'I Read An Article That Said I Sucked At Dothraki.' Emilia Clarke Just Responded To One Brutal Game Of Thrones Critique." CinemaBlend, 2025.](https://www.cinemablend.com/game-of-thrones-news/emilia-clarke-responded-one-brutal-game-of-thrones-critique--dothraki)
16. ["Game of Thrones language creator clears up Emilia Clarke's confusion over saying she 'sucked' at speaking Dothraki." GamesRadar, 2025.](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/game-of-thrones-language-creator-clears-up-emilia-clarkes-confusion-over-saying-she-sucked-at-speaking-dothraki/)
17. ["The Man Who Created Dothraki for *Game of Thrones* Is Teaching a College Language Course." *Time*, 2017.](https://time.com/4759240/berkeley-dothraki-language-class/)
18. ["Constructed languages are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages." *PNAS*, 2024.](https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2313473122)
19. ["'Lekhmove tawak?': A phonological comparison between a constructed language, Dothraki, and mixed languages." *Fiat Lingua*, January 2025.](https://fiatlingua.org/2025/01/)
20. ["Constructed Languages." *Annual Review of Anthropology*.](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110152)
21. ["Q&A: The man who invented Dothraki." University of Rochester NewsCenter, 2016.](https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/david-peterson-create-a-new-language/)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Languages and linguistics › Languages and dialects › Named languages by region › Named languages overview*

*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*

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