Conlang Critic: Dothraki

[@philmaggiacomo]

"on a TV budget" and "on an HBO TV budget" can be widely different animals, heh

[@JL1009]

the first season was pretty low budget I think

[@mushroomsoup2866]

One thing I heard about Dothraki is that they actually have a whole bunch of words for "horse", because obviously they would. If they're dealing with horses so much, the distinction between a workhorse or a warhorse or a breeding horse is actually really useful. Unfortunately, no one knew which horses they were gonna get on screen until they started filming, so DJP couldn't put specific words in the script, like "take this mare back to the stables" only for the horse actor to end up being a stallion.

[@teacul]

The professionalism in this is great, but I have to admit that I kinda miss your jabs and jokes. Maybe this was just an episode where you reviewed a conlang you actually respected so you didn't have as much to joke about, but I think that relaxed atmosphere added a lot of personality to your videos. I hope you can find a way to be more informal without being unstudied in your future videos

[@HBMmaster]

I did have more jokes in this originally which had to be cut for time (eg. I originally was going to do a whole goof about how the word for fast is "dik")

[@shapeovertime6364]

Conlang Critic He He... dik

[@66LordLoss66]

@@HBMmaster I don't miss your jokes and jabs. I prefer this.

[@Myrus_MBG]

Dappernaut 12:12

[@BigWinner-ip9bw]

I second Dappernuat's opinion.

[@otesunki]

2:25 CC: "It sounds alot like arabic or russian to people who don't speak arabic or russian." Me, a native arabic speaker: *spits out arabic coffee*

[@jcxkzhgco3050]

You mean Qahwa

[@CommonCommiestudios]

Lack of p and presence of q, x, ħ and θ, the recipe to make a language sound like fake Arabic

[@Pingwn]

Without dˤ or ðˤ it isn't a good fake Arabic

[@juliab3326]

I was also trying to find the similarity to Russian and failed^^ People´s imagination is wild.

[@chimera9818]

Honestly to me it sounds like rough Spanish

[@Danilaschannel]

So you're starting the season with Dothraki and ending it with Quenya? Quite, poetic

[@jordandehart6905]

Good lord, I forgot The Office was on the air long enough to reference GoT.

[@thewanderingmistnull2451]

The books are from the 90s, my man.

[@sundalongpatpat]

@@thewanderingmistnull2451 The books didn't have a fully functional Dothraki language, my man.

[@TheClownesque]

@@sundalongpatpat The reference was to the books. Famously, The Office's writers had to innovate on the language (because it wasn't fully functional in the books) in order to make that joke. It was later made canon by Peterson, who named the thing Dwight did the "Schrutean Compound". As a side-note: being smug and rude isn't a prerequisite to posting on youtube, we could all do with less of it.

[@clayton229]

DJP making his wife's name translate into Good Duck in Dothraki is very wholesome.

[@jacktheripper1699]

alegra erin 🎉🎉

[@unflexian]

In Hebrew, the expression for notice/pay attention translates literally to "Put in your heart", similar to care in Dothraki.

[@gal749]

נכון. "לשים לב".

[@avivolah9401]

it is more: "Put (your/a) heart" not in... "תשים לב"/"לשים לב"

[@Pingwn]

the word תשומת־לב (/tesumat lev/ or /tăɬumɛθ lev/ in Tiberian Hebrew) means, approximately, "putting in the heart", as the word תשומה is used for gerund form of the verb putting.

[@Barakon]

To put heart.

[@Seres568]

my imediate thought was like hey isnt that savri maranan? ah yes intuletcual thoghts

[@samishaniyy]

Tbh I’m Arab and Dothraki sounds a lot like Arabic “ana” means me in both Dothraki and Arabic also my love in Dothraki is moon of my life, in Arabic we say “gamar hayati” = moon of my life.

[@samishaniyy]

I remember once in a episode were Jason momoa said "ana khal drogo" I laughed because in Arabic it means "i am the uncle of drogo" Also one time daenerys said "fenel holaki" when she was asking where are the healers it sounded similar to "feen el holaki" Meaning in Arabic ( where are the "holaki" )

[@kindlin]

I had to read your comment 3 times to figure out where one thought started or stopped. It made no sense to me until I realized you needed a some kind of punctuation before 'also'.

[@Dookylake]

M

[@krystal9467]

Haha gamer

[@nazsakar3411]

hayat means life in turkish so my immediate thought was "haha gamer life"

[@tedarcher9120]

J.K Rowling announced that you, the viewer, were David Petersen all along

[@colinfrey4440]

David J. Peterson has an incredible talent for doing really cool and interesting conlangs that are attached to things I have no interest in watching. Trigedasleng is one of my top five conlangs of all time but I couldn't get through two episodes of the 100.

[@MrZyroid]

Actually the first two episodes are by far the worst in the entire series. I would recommend giving it another shot, or just skip a bunch of episodes/the first season. Second season onward the tone is completely different and anyone who's watched the 100 will agree.

[@colinfrey4440]

@@MrZyroid Huh, maybe I'll try skipping to season 2 sometime to see if I get more into it.

[@Sovairu]

@@colinfrey4440 Furthermore, it was only decided that the show should have a conlang AFTER season one happened. So Trigedasleng doesn't show up until the second season. DJP really wished that he had been brought in from the beginning, but oh well.

[@entwistlefromthewho]

Teen garbage.

[@emmabaker8358]

I have only watched the Dothraki parts of Game of Thrones and have very little interest in watching the series itself. Khal Drogo's speech about taking back the Iron Throne for Rhaego is so wonderful. Jason Momoa is incredible.

[@JontyLevine]

9:08 Wait, "vash" means "stampede" in Dothraki? Haha, yes! That moment when you sneak a subtle Trigun reference into your fictional language.

[@Sovairu]

Apparently, DJP put lots of fun, little jokes and references into Dothraki, but I wasn't aware of this one.

[@trafo60]

There's nothing wrong with SVO, it's a very common word order, almost on par with SOV. It would be much weirder to have to make your conlang look exotic in every way (especially if it's spoken by humans, in a universe similar to ours).

[@nevertoocoldforicecream3381]

Breadspeak BREADSPEAK PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ADD BREADSPEAK TO THE BIG LIST, I DONT CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES JUST PLEASE DO IT

[@falpsdsqglthnsac]

I have no idea what Breadspeak is, nor have I ever wanted to know something more.

[@2b-coeur]

@@falpsdsqglthnsac The internet is your friend. (Apparently it's a conlang by the Zese and Votgil person, having elements from a bunch of their former conlangs.)

[@falpsdsqglthnsac]

Abigail Sarah I am not disappointed. I didn’t look it up earlier because it can be hard to find online resources for many conlangs, but it seems this one was pretty easy.

[@xhesil8848]

I love Peterson's work, each language he's made has always had depth that Klingon (still one of my favorites because Star Trek) lacks. I like Dothraki's phonotactics and Nahuatl-esque vowel inventory a lot, although, I noticed in your sample, just like in Japanese, a tendency towards pseudo-diphthongs (use of a diphthong despite it not being part of the blackletter phonology), which I think is more organic than explicitly separating the sounds for rigid phonological agreement.

[@pentelegomenon1175]

This feels like a student trying to grade his teacher.

[@finndriver1063]

Nobody going to mention the (accidental) jab by using "ido" for fake/wooden?

[@N7a7v7i]

Not accidental, another easter egg.

[@Sovairu]

Yeah, DJP is kind of an Esperantist, so I'm sure that it was purposeful. He also put a LOT of in jokes, easter eggs, references, and such in Dothraki.

[@unvergebeneid]

@@Sovairu I don't know much about Esperanto or Ido but the whole male default thing that Ido fixed just seems dumb to me. It sucks that we have this in many languages where it's hard to fix. Why would you repeat the same mistake in a language when you have the chance to start from scratch?

[@Sovairu]

@@unvergebeneid What are you talking about? Grammatical gender?

[@blankblank1284]

@@Sovairu Yes, they are angry about grammatical gender.

[@magiv4205]

Those jabs at GoT tho lmao. I have loved the show since the beginning, and although it SERIOUSLY fell from grace which is a damn shame, all the seasons where you'd hear Dothraki spoken for more than just a few words (which is pretty much s1-4) are some of the best tv that exists in my opinion. Awesome video btw, channels like yours are such an inspiration when I'm either bored out of my mind or overwhelmed with linguistics homework and need motivation to do that morphosyntax analysis that I've been procrastinating for longer than I'd care to admit. So thank you. Apart from the great editing and obvious enthusiasm for the topic, your expertly done communication of knowledge and conscise wording are extremely helpful. So thanks for doing what you do.

[@SHDUStudios]

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

[@TheZetaKai]

A cogent analysis, and I heartily agree. Also, I stopped watching the show after season 4 due to circumstances, but I had initially intended to pick up season 5; luckily, pretty much everyone agreed that the quality took a huge dip, so I never got around to it, and I couldn't be happier pretending that the series was only 4 seasons long. A great show, cut short before it could fall from grace.

[@jbdbibbaerman8071]

Yes. I'm really excited for the rest of the season now. This is a really good start.

[@jabrown]

Valyrian when

[@kiro9291]

this new format is glorious

[@redgeoblaze3752]

The actors in the show (At least early on) go all over in pronunciation. Most pronounce Khaleesi as Kalisi

[@badday4885]

RedGeoBlaze this is actually a mistake that DJP points out in his book. He says he probably ought to have just changed the romanization to “khalisi” because that’s how fans and the like pronounce it

[@louisfrancisco2171]

People who don't speak Dothraki mispronouncing Dothraki words? That would never happen in real life.

[@badday4885]

Louis Francisco @georgerrmartin “doʊθækaɪ”

[@noklish7079]

This channel is making me realize how truly terrible my conlang I built in high school was lmao. I'm truly glad you like base 6, cause at that point that's like the only positive I can really say about it.

[@tuluppampam]

If you don't know about thandian you should find it and realise that any language you could ever make won't be worse than thandian

[@noklish7079]

@@tuluppampam I do, lol. That video also made me realize how bad it was. 1:1 English alphabet to weird kooky alien letters, obtuse grammar that no human would ever naturally come up with... I could go on forever.

[@sunwukong6897]

Awesome episode! I also recently found my brother’s copy of that Doþraki guide. I can’t wait for Sindarin and Quenya!

[@Marjiance26]

I looooove your use of the letter thorn!

[@Doormin]

YO I LOVED THE RHYTHM HEAVEN MUSIC AT THE END THANK YOU

[@squeezycheezees6411]

I came here specifically to comment this!! It's "Dreams of Our Generation" by Tsunku, in Rhythm Heaven Fever btw If anyone can find that piano cover, I'd love to hear the full thing!!

[@HBMmaster]

I made it myself for this video! full cover coming, well, we'll see.

[@matt.s9607]

Watching conlang critic while conlanging

[@gabidabest4254]

Ye this is what I do

[@imperial2252]

a thing i do often

[@noellelavenza494]

"con this lang" is a great phrase, I'm taking it

[@kodyballard49]

Please cover NeoKhuzdul(Dwarrow Scholar has the most updated and developed information regarding it) & Nadsat(from Clockwork Orange)!!! Super excited to see you cover the Dothraki language!!!

[@ibrahinmenriquez3108]

Nadsat is the best

[@yonatanbeer3475]

Definitely a huge step up in quality! Looking forward to seeing more!

[@crosisbh1451]

Oh damn you would be doing Quenya last. It's the language that got me into conlangs, so I'll eagerly wait for it.

[@viorp5267]

F for Dothraki, went extinct in 1 Cavalry Charge

[@unflexian]

OOF

[@memelordmarcus]

iT sOuNdS a LoT lIkE aRaBiC aNd RuSsIaN aMoNg PeOpLe WhO dOnT kNoW wHaT aRaBiC aNd RuSsIaN sOuNd LiKe this man is the master of sass

[@ira1420]

Next language: Quenya. I started studying it and it's beautiful

[@jonasloe4926]

It’s on the list

[@CookieFonster]

it genuinely blows my mind how believable this language is. you could show me any chart saying it's from say, some random language in papua new guinea, and i wouldn't be the wiser. very refreshing contrast against the languages you analyzed from star trek or skyrim or avatar.

[@skyeturner5003]

I'm not even that big into conlangs but I love your channel because of how well you explain them.

[@smakyakproductions4466]

By the name of the gods, he has returned.

[@carl8703]

10:45 That makes sense in a way. A horse in this culture is not usually something that is entitled to make its own decisions. Any horse you encounter day-to-day would be domesticated, and would usually be seen more as an instrument of a rider's will. Wild horses are simply a natural resource that has yet to be harnessed. A river on the other hand does what it pleases, you don't harness it's power because nobody does that, and if it floods you had best get out of the way. Maybe "mastery" would be a more appropriate term for this concept?

[@astrodonunt]

Hangonaminit... Vash hrazefmen... Stampede horse-empty... Vash... the Stampede!!! :O :O

[@zaraaaa420]

tttttooooookkkkii !!!

[@nighteule]

After doing some reading, apparently David J Peterson also created a language for one of my favorite series: The 100. Trigedasleng (a language I'd suggest for a review btw) is based on English, and in the canon it was created as a coded form of American English (during nuclear war) that evolved rapidly as a native language over three generations after society fell apart. For that purpose, David did a damn good job.

[@harrymcwilliam9379]

I loved this episode. Can you do one about high valyrian

[@edi9892]

It's next to sindarin my favorite conlang.

[@popito8366]

@@edi9892 what exactly do you like about High Valyrian?

[@edi9892]

@@popito8366 It´s hard to tell. I also prefer Latin and Japanese over languages like German, Russian etc. The sounds and rythm certainly play a role. BTW: that doesn´t mean that I don´t like any German or Russian songs, far from it, but I do think that German sucks for singing, and only few are making good songs despite that.

[@vgg175]

:)

[@Mr.Nichan]

Him: Sees 2 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes. "Omg, that's way to long." Me: Sees 2 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes. "Hey, that's not really that long, I've watched that much TV plenty of times before. Maybe I should watch Game of Thrones."

[@johlarson]

Yeah, I'm not sure what Jan has against GoT, but he's missing out, and would do well to reconsider. The original novel just might be the finest work of fantasy of its generation, with a deeply imagined setting, compelling characters, and a plot that leads to places people don't see coming. It works as a standalone, too; things happened before the novel, and things will happen after, but the novel has a distinct and sensible beginning and end. It is is famous for good reason.

[@joy_gantic]

I have been waiting for this, Janette.

[@caritahearts2405]

This series has inspired me to create an artlang based on frogs and things frogs care about

[@Composer_Ben]

"Vash", part of a phrase that translates to stampede. :D Does anyone know if D.J.P.'s a fan of Trigun?

[@sadsongs7731]

He's got to be.

[@willinnewhaven3285]

Militarily, the Dothraki are light cavalry with the macho ethos of charging into infantry formations. They ought to be extinct and now they pretty much are.

[@Nae_Ayy]

It's about time you uploaded a real video I almost forgot about you

[@spore4ever91]

I love the rhythm heaven stuff you use! Every time I hear it, it makes me smile

[@karlmarx920]

Much more in-depth episode Loving the new season

[@alessiomuccio2795]

8:54 I just noticed that in italian too there are 3 distinct ways to say "to kill", which are more or less synonims to each other "ammazzare" (a bit informal), "uccidere" (classic to kill) and "massacrare" (to massacre)

[@T.h.e.T.i.n.o]

to kill, to eliminate, to Execute, to Erase, To Deleat, To Murder, To Unalive (More Moder ) - Angry English

[@evelynschneider3095]

I love it. I'm curious whether it would be worth it to make a totally-not-ranking list of languages sorted by their ratings, just to keep track of the languages covered and the broad strokes of their relations.

[@lilSapphireFox]

Just as a note... German has the same translations for "to kill" - umbringen (done by person), töten (generally, by a thing, animal or person) and schlachten (slaughter an animal or like a animal, which also can be "abschlachten"). Also the fact that it has cases like that might be an indicator it's inspired by German or Russian in its structure, but I actually don't know any more languages that use cases for nouns..

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

Methinks "Zero Copula" (seen 'round the 6:30 pt. of this video) would make a great conlang-themed band-name!!

[@Nagutama]

This is the first video about fictional language i see and I am amazed 😱 how can this be a thing? How can someone create an entire new language? Is too cool i cannot comprehend.

[@BlasphemyBaby]

Ooooh, spoken segment. That really ties the video together... we learn about the language, then hear it afterwards for some practical application! Can't wait for more of those!

[@Tesana]

'The Dothraki have no word for 'Thank you'.' 9:35 - 'General Expressions: Haja! = Cheers!' Hmm, seems as if they *do* have a way to say 'thanks' after all.

[@cassieedmonds3832]

great video! hope you're proud of it, i know you worked hard on it

[@handecuber8490]

You should rate High Valyrian. I have tried to learn it but never really gotten past the noun cases or noun plurals.

[@eMorphized]

This makes me want to make a script for this. They could cite it in the show to some ancient, little-known character who only recently gained attention.

[@Liggliluff]

(4:25) Well, if you're used to English romanisation, it make sense. But there are other ways to do it, like the Slavic way: c /ts/, č /tʃ/, š /ʃ/ ž /ʒ/, j /j/ (which I personally prefer) And then there's the Swedish way: ts /ts/, tsj /tʃ/, sj /ʃ/, zj /ʒ/, j /j/ And many other systems too.

[@nucklechutz9933]

I'm certain that snippet at the end, Khal Drogo's declaration, is the scene that made Jason Momoa a star.

[@HoneydewBeach]

Lord Misali has done it again!

[@Oi-fo1wt]

Great video and even better conlang! If only we saw this kind of CLC more than once a year

[@fairycat23]

I just realized that a lot of times when I'm not trying to muffle a laugh, but my mouth does a weird thing anyway, I make the velar fricative sound, or at least something close to it. Hmm.

[@evaristedelagery9440]

I mean... Latin also has three words for kill (necare, occidere, interficere among others).

[@jacob_and_william]

I mean even English has kill, slaughter, and murder.

[@federicovolpe3389]

Can you do High Valyrian next?

[@renerpho]

Fantastic episode! I want more of this. :-D

[@ajinkyatarodekar9099]

Keep it up. We need this

[@cdshop1301]

Appreciating the high effort content here

[@caelmarquard]

Please do Breadspeak! It is a new conlang from the Vötgil guy, and he watched your video!!

[@phuctranhuu3535]

Thank you, slow button. I finally can listen to what he said.

[@williamangliss5063]

I missed you!!

[@michaeltnk1135]

Please bring back the rankings. It would honestly my favorite part of these. 😅

[@sophiejones7727]

oh yeah, and DJP had to make two kinds of Valyrian for the show while he was making Dothraki.

[@booloffs.3912]

Finally it's here! whoo!

[@aziztcf]

"me" is also 1pl in Finnish, so looking how they handled the two locative cases it could very well be inspired by Finnish too

[@BillDeWitt]

@jan Misali, what's the chances you might put out a general, "Don't do this with your conlang" compendium?

[@indoorcoyote]

this is super great, glad to see the improvement in video quality! :^D

[@slamwall9057]

9:32 that poster is in my school

[@jankima8646]

Great, proper long episodes now!!! Thank you Please could you redo Ithkuil as a long episode?? Please??

[@bradykeith3993]

OMG I AM A HUGE FAN JAN MISELI I LOVE YOU

[@DTux5249]

IT'S HERE

[@MrCantStopTheRobot]

So now, what we need to see is a biker gang or fight-club that uses Dothraki as their code language during street brawls.

[@gabidabest4254]

awwww I liked the old ranking system

[@TheOtherWhiteNerd]

How about Oqolaawak (by Biblaridion)? Or Oa (by Artefixian)?

[@xenolegend2767]

There isn`t enough material to work with right now.

[@zeonino]

"As they say, 'The circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant.'" Just casually over here dropping Pokemon quotes like they're common sayings, lol

[@fgvcosmic6752]

Nice rhythm heaven music at the end!

[@schnoz2372]

Is there a way you will do a video about the Barsoomian language from John Carter of Mars books? I’m not even sure if there’s enough info on it or if it’s fleshed out enough for that to be possible but if it is, I’d like to see a video on that

[@whatno5090]

literally everyone requested it

[@blankname1209]

Hello! Have you seen the movie arrival and, if so, have you considered making a video about it?

[@cifge_404]

Why do I find it so funny, the way you go through pronouncing all the consonants? Are you intentionally being silly? I genuinely can't tell. 😂

[@537rj1307]

Three years later I'm noticing that the Dothraki word for stampede is "vash".

[@joshuamitchell5018]

'the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant.' Could this quote be a not so subtle hint at conlang critic taking a deep delve into the legendary and super complicated con-lang of 'poke-ise'? "Bee, beedrill, drill, drillbee bee? Bedrilldrillbee!"

[@hiimemily]

Wait, the Dothraki word for "stampede" is "vash"? DJP, you sneaky dork.

[@erik.isomer]

Don't think I'm gonna miss that Mewtwo Strikes Back reference

[@zdxns]

so no one's gonna talk about how he stopped numbering the episodes?

[@europaproject6426]

very cool! Nice analysis.

[@ihopenoonefindsthisaccount7687]

YAAAY CONLANG CRITIC IS BACK

[@phalvorantos]

i hope no one finds this account yooo Norge whazzup

[@junirenjana]

Did you say "animate sounds" at 5:22? XD

[@bds8715]

vash means stampede... David must be a Trigun fan!

[@vampyresmiles713]

Odd little note that I didn't see anyone else say (tho I didn't go through every comment since last year when this was posted): Vash the Stampede is a character in the anime classic Trigun. So it was interesting to notice that stampede in Dothraki is vash. I wonder if the word for typhoon (if the Dothraki have one) also involves vash, since the character's other name was The Human Typhoon. This is assuming the word comes from the character at all and isn't a complete coincidence.

[@eyeless_person]

some arabic influence can be seen in this language. 10:58 anha means "I": the arabic word for "I" is "أنَا" (which is rougly pronounced anaa)

[@winkydinky1436]

he gets facts about your favorite language wrong.

[@eyeless_person]

@@winkydinky1436 fair