David Peterson creates languages for television shows, for films and for fun.
Why you should listen
Best known for creating the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for HBO's Game of Thrones, David Peterson continues to work in Hollywood, though primarily out of his home in Orange County, where he lives with his wife, daughter and two cats. He's appeared previously on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (2016) and given talks at Google (2014 and 2015) and EG (2016). He has written two books, Living Language Dothraki (2014) and The Art of Language Invention (2015), and some of his upcoming work includes Netflix's The Witcher and Legendary's Dune.
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Arts + Design
Meet the person who created Dothraki and Valyrian for Game of Thrones — and learn how “khaleesi” should have been said
April 9, 2019
How do you build an ultra-compelling, feels-so-real fictional world? It all starts from the words up, according to linguist David J. Peterson.
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Meet David Peterson, who developed Dothraki for Game of Thrones
March 29, 2013
There are seven different words in Dothraki for striking another person with a sword. Among them: “hlizifikh,” a wild but powerful strike; “hrakkarikh,”a quick and accurate strike; and “gezrikh,” a fake-out or decoy strike. But you won’t find these words in George R. R. Martin’s epic series A Song of Ice and Fire, which is where Dothraki originated as the language […]
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