If you’ve been watching Game of Thrones, you may have noticed the Dothraki language spoken in each episode.
Fans of the novels know that author George R.R. Martin introduced snippets of Dothraki into the stories. Producers have used those bits as a starting point toward developing the full Dothraki language we hear each week on the show.
According to TV Guide, producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, with the help of the Language Creation Society’s mononymous Sai, selected David J. Peterson to help craft and expand the language which now extends to 2,763 words.
“The handful of Dothraki words and names and a couple of phrases that Martin has in his books seemed pretty consistent,” Sai tells TVGuide.com. “They suggested at least the very bare bones of the structure. They had a consistent sound to them, which I think is a compliment to him as a writer because one can’t say that about all writers who try doing even minimal languages.”
TV Guide has provided a bit of a primer to how to speak Dothraki. We’re included a bit of the language you can learn, including meanings and a guide to pronouncing the words and phrases so you’ll sound like a true Dothraki warrior.
Three beginner’s curses/insults:
Ifak – foreigner (Peterson: “It actually sounds dirtier in English, but it is not. It literally translates to ‘walker, somebody who walks.’ The idea is that Dothraki are the riders. People that are outsiders, they are walkers. Anybody who comes from one of the cities, they call them ifak. They kind of laugh about it.”)
Choyo – a kind of jocular term used for somebody’s hindquarters
Graddakh – refers to refuse or waste (Peterson: “If you are really upset and ticked off about something, and you just want to exclaim but not necessarily insult somebody else, you would say graddakh.”)
Advanced students who have perfected their nomadic tan and are comfortable wearing animal hides can move on to full sentences that will mark them as a true member of a khalasar (Dothraki horde).
Three sentences to show off your Dothraki know-how:
Me nem nesa – It is known. (Peterson: “One of the things that the Dothrakis say all of the time in the books is, ‘It is known.’ That would probably peg you as native Dothraki.”)
Yer affesi anna – Literally “You make me itch.” (Peterson: “Dothraki don’t wear much clothing. The clothing that they wear is made by themselves out of coarse leather. Some of the elaborate trappings that are seen in the Free Cities are made of things like wool and things like that. They think of that type of clothing as itchy. So if you want to tell somebody that you don’t like this person or they make you uncomfortable, you say: Yer affesi anna.”)
Fichas jahakes moon – Literally “Take his braid.” (Handy in a fight when you want to encourage your fellow lajaki to “Get him!” A Dothraki warrior wears a long braid to indicate his success in combat.)
If you’re having a difficult time with the language, you’re not alone. Series star Jason Mamoa admits that when he was first presented with the new language he spent an entire month learning an epic speech featured in the episode that airs Sunday night.
“It was the hardest thing I’d ever done,” he admits. “I literally locked myself into a hotel room with some beer and pizza. I had to break it apart almost like a song really. It’s like memorizing a f—ed-up song. Trying to get a melody to it and then afterwards learning all the words and how to say them. That’s what worked for me.”