By Kavishna Wijesinghe
David J. Peterson, a prominent language creator and writer in the industry, the creator of the Living Language Dothraki, High Valyrian and Astapori Valyrian for HBO’s Game of Thrones; the CW’s The 100 (Trigedasleng); and Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World (Shiväisith); spoke to Junkyard Theory a few weeks ago about his journey in the industry.
Entry to the game
Despite growing up in an English-Spanish family, David really had no interest in languages. However, David later developed an interest in French, as all of his acquaintances only spoke French. While learning the language, he realised the vastness of languages out there, and it was then that David was inspired to study more languages.
David eventually got to know of “Esperanto”, a constructed artificial language that was invented in the 19th Century, and thus started to fall in love with Conlanging. In 2009, Richard got the chance to work as Language Creator of Game of Thrones’ fictional language Dothraki, and it was the first step of David’s film career.
Working with actors
As David explains, working with actors depends on the production. There have been times where he never even met the cast, but he usually records all the lines and sends them to the actors as audio files to practice based on how a line sounds. He also highlighted working with Jason Momoa and Bruce Willis, explaining their skill with different languages. In general, he believes that the output is better when conlangers get to work with the actors.
Starting point of a constructed language
Conlangers discuss with the directors or the showrunners to understand their needs. Then David begins by developing a sound sample for the language, with the objective being to construct a consistent sound. Later, with the director’s approval, he goes for any further adjustments as needed.
However, for long-term projects like Game of Thrones, he mentioned the emphasis on grammar and words, because the audience is likely to get used to the language with time. As David spoke, he explained that it’s important to construct the language well before the production starts in order to translate the dialogues.
Using existing materials to construct languages
It’s important to examine the material such as the original book of the story and analyse it. Afterwards, conlangers need to create supporting material which fits with the original material and it takes time and skill to do it. Which is what David did with the Dothraki language from the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin during the making of Game of Thrones.
On calligraphy and the Sinhala language
When questioned about creating scripts, David revealed that calligraphy is one of his favourites but he doesn’t always get to do it. He was able to do the calligraphy for productions such as Bright (2017), Another Life (2019), Shadow and Bone (2019-), and The Witcher (2019-).
David revealed that he takes an existing writing system and makes few adjustments for his work. He said his favourite writing system is “abugida”, a writing system that originated in India, and while answering the question, David also revealed that his all-time favourite script is Sinhalese.
“My favourite script of all time is actually Sinhalese. It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s got just the right balance of ornamentation and functionality. It looks beautiful!”
The Art of Language Invention
The Art of Language Invention is one of the books that David has penned, and in it, he explains how he creates languages and tries to teach language creation for youngsters. He was inspired to write this book from his experience in the early language creation community and from the knowledge he gained through reviewing and working with other linguists.
David stated that one mistake he sees in new conlangers is that they do not tend to learn from the older community, which was the main reason he wrote this book – to pass on the knowledge to the newcomers.
In Defiance (2013-2015), David mentioned that he created a script with a series of interlocking hexagons, and production designers loved it to the point where they used them in the sets, character designs, make-up, and architecture which he added is “incredibly gratifying”.
Advice for language enthusiasts
David encourages youngsters to improve their skills as language creators, and according to him: “in order to get better at language creation, you need three things; one, study linguistics; two, study languages as much as you can to get a breadth of human language; and the third, practice!”
The full interview with David is available on the Junkyard Theory YouTube channel.
Junkyard Theory is Sri Lanka’s first and only film education platform that brings on veteran filmmakers from Hollywood as guest speakers. Their webinars, hosted by Akash Sunethkumara, have been recognised on industry sites such as ‘No Film School’, and the team now runs film courses for upcoming filmmakers in the country.
David J. Peterson, a prominent language creator and writer in the industry, the creator of the Living Language Dothraki, High Valyrian and Astapori Valyrian for HBO’s Game of Thrones; the CW’s The 100 (Trigedasleng); and Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World (Shiväisith); spoke to Junkyard Theory a few weeks ago about his journey in the industry.
Entry to the game
Despite growing up in an English-Spanish family, David really had no interest in languages. However, David later developed an interest in French, as all of his acquaintances only spoke French. While learning the language, he realised the vastness of languages out there, and it was then that David was inspired to study more languages.
David eventually got to know of “Esperanto”, a constructed artificial language that was invented in the 19th Century, and thus started to fall in love with Conlanging. In 2009, Richard got the chance to work as Language Creator of Game of Thrones’ fictional language Dothraki, and it was the first step of David’s film career.
Working with actors
As David explains, working with actors depends on the production. There have been times where he never even met the cast, but he usually records all the lines and sends them to the actors as audio files to practice based on how a line sounds. He also highlighted working with Jason Momoa and Bruce Willis, explaining their skill with different languages. In general, he believes that the output is better when conlangers get to work with the actors.
Starting point of a constructed language
Conlangers discuss with the directors or the showrunners to understand their needs. Then David begins by developing a sound sample for the language, with the objective being to construct a consistent sound. Later, with the director’s approval, he goes for any further adjustments as needed.
However, for long-term projects like Game of Thrones, he mentioned the emphasis on grammar and words, because the audience is likely to get used to the language with time. As David spoke, he explained that it’s important to construct the language well before the production starts in order to translate the dialogues.
Using existing materials to construct languages
It’s important to examine the material such as the original book of the story and analyse it. Afterwards, conlangers need to create supporting material which fits with the original material and it takes time and skill to do it. Which is what David did with the Dothraki language from the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin during the making of Game of Thrones.
On calligraphy and the Sinhala language
When questioned about creating scripts, David revealed that calligraphy is one of his favourites but he doesn’t always get to do it. He was able to do the calligraphy for productions such as Bright (2017), Another Life (2019), Shadow and Bone (2019-), and The Witcher (2019-).
David revealed that he takes an existing writing system and makes few adjustments for his work. He said his favourite writing system is “abugida”, a writing system that originated in India, and while answering the question, David also revealed that his all-time favourite script is Sinhalese.
“My favourite script of all time is actually Sinhalese. It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s got just the right balance of ornamentation and functionality. It looks beautiful!”
The Art of Language Invention
The Art of Language Invention is one of the books that David has penned, and in it, he explains how he creates languages and tries to teach language creation for youngsters. He was inspired to write this book from his experience in the early language creation community and from the knowledge he gained through reviewing and working with other linguists.
David stated that one mistake he sees in new conlangers is that they do not tend to learn from the older community, which was the main reason he wrote this book – to pass on the knowledge to the newcomers.
In Defiance (2013-2015), David mentioned that he created a script with a series of interlocking hexagons, and production designers loved it to the point where they used them in the sets, character designs, make-up, and architecture which he added is “incredibly gratifying”.
Advice for language enthusiasts
David encourages youngsters to improve their skills as language creators, and according to him: “in order to get better at language creation, you need three things; one, study linguistics; two, study languages as much as you can to get a breadth of human language; and the third, practice!”
The full interview with David is available on the Junkyard Theory YouTube channel.
Junkyard Theory is Sri Lanka’s first and only film education platform that brings on veteran filmmakers from Hollywood as guest speakers. Their webinars, hosted by Akash Sunethkumara, have been recognised on industry sites such as ‘No Film School’, and the team now runs film courses for upcoming filmmakers in the country.