David J. Peterson

David J. Peterson
Peterson in June 2019
Born	(1981-01-20) January 20, 1981 Long Beach, California
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley University of California, San Diego
Occupation(s)	Writer, language creator
Known for	Language creation for Game of Thrones, Defiance and The 100
Spouse	Erin Peterson
Children	Meridian Peterson

David Joshua Peterson (born January 20, 1981) is an American language creator, writer, and artist, who has constructed languages for television and movies such as Thor: The Dark World and Doctor Strange and the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the television series Game of Thrones.

Life

Studying at University of California, Berkeley (1999–2003), Peterson received BA degrees in English and in linguistics. He received an MA in linguistics from University of California, San Diego (2003–06). According to an interview given to the publication Conlangs Monthly, he had his first contact with constructed languages while still at Berkeley, after attending an Esperanto class in 2000. In 2007, he co-founded the Language Creation Society with nine other language creators and served as its president (2011–2014).

In 2009, the television network HBO needed a fictional language for the Game of Thrones television series and turned to the Language Creation Society for help. This resulted in a contest, which Peterson won.

Peterson has created the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the HBO series Game of Thrones and the Castithan, Irathient, Indogene and Omec languages for the Syfy show Defiance; he has been creating languages since 2000. He also created the language used by the Dark Elves in the movie Thor: The Dark World. Peterson's recent projects include the creation of the Inha and Munja'kin languages for the NBC series Emerald City.

Peterson has worked to popularize the activity of language creation, or "conlanging." He produced a number of videos on YouTube, in a series called The Art of Language Invention, and published a book of the same title in 2015. Peterson also worked as an executive producer on the 2017 documentary film, Conlanging - The Art of Crafting Tongues.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Language(s) / Role
2011–2019	Game of Thrones	Dothraki, a language spoken by the eponymous people. It lacks labial stops and has 5 grammatical cases, including a marked nominative for inanimate nouns only. High Valyrian, a literary language once spoken in Valyria. It has 4 grammatical numbers, 8 grammatical cases and 4 noun classes. Astapori Valyrian, a descendant of High Valyrian spoken in Astapor. Meereenese Valyrian, a descendant of High Valyrian spoken in Meereen. Mag Nuk, a monosyllabic language spoken by giants. It was only used for one line. Skroth, an unused language that was meant to be spoken by White Walkers. Asshai'i, an unused language that was meant to be spoken by inhabitants of Asshai. Gerna Moussha, an unused language that was meant to be spoken by the Children of the Forest.
2013–2015	Defiance	Kastíthanu (or simply Castithan), a language spoken by Castithans. It is spoken very fast, has many honorifics, vigesimal numbers and its own abugida called Fajizwalino. L'Irathi (or simply Irathient), a language spoken by Irathients. It is spoken slowly, has a verb-object-subject word order, 18 noun classes, Afrihili-inspired plurals, vigesimal numbers and its own abugida called Izra. Indojisnen, a polysynthetic language spoken by Indogenes. It uses septenary numbers and has its own featural syllabary, called Hazugimari. Kinuk'aaz, a language spoken by Omec. It lacks palatal consonants but has ejective consonants, consonant mutation and 12 noun classes, as well as its own alphabet called Zaduusel. Yanga Kayang, an unused language that was meant to be spoken by the Liberata. It only distinguishes two vowel qualities and completely lacks labial and coronal consonants.
2014	Star-Crossed	Sondiv, a language spoken by Atrians. It has a nonconcatenative morphology, polypersonal agreement, nasal vowels and its own abjad called Kwandon.
2014–2015	Dominion	Lishepus, a language spoken by angels. It is based on Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic roots and has polypersonal agreement.
2015–2019	The 100	Trigedasleng, a language spoken by Grounders. It is a descendant of an English cryptolect.
2015	Penny Dreadful	Verbis Diablo, a language spoken by witches and demons. Though intentionally heavily distorted, its vocabulary is based on Classical Arabic, Akkadian, Middle Egyptian, Attic Greek, Latin, Farsi and Turkish.
2016–2017	The Shannara Chronicles	Noalath, a language spoken by Druids. It has a verb-subject-object order, consonant mutation, reduplication and vowel reduction.
2017	Emerald City	Inha, a language spoken by witches. It has 24 grammatical cases as well as four varieties, one for each element, though witches use the Earth variety when speaking to each other. Munja'kin, a language spoken by the eponymous people. It has a switch-reference system and a verb-subject-object order.
2018	Into the Badlands	Azrán, a language spoken in Azra. It is a descendant of Mexican Spanish and is a tonal language.

Films

Year	Title	Language(s) / Role
2013	Thor: The Dark World	Shiväisith, a language spoken by Dark Elves. It has a Finnish-inspired vowel harmony system as well as consonant harmony, 15 grammatical cases and its own script, an alphabet called Todjydheenil and inspired by runes.
2016	Warcraft: The Beginning	Orcish, a language spoken by orcs. It's a head-marking language. Draenei, a language spoken by the eponymous species. It was only used for one line.
2016	Doctor Strange	Nelvayu, a language spoken by the Zealots for incantations. It has polypersonal agreement.
2017	Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues	Executive Producer
2017	Bright	Övüsi, a language spoken by elves. It contrasts roundedness both in its front and back vowels and has 13 grammatical cases, a potential mood as well as its own abugida. Bodzvokhan, a language spoken by orcs. It has polypersonal agreement, vowel harmony, its own abjad called Vukht as well as a Cyrillic alphabet.
2018	The Christmas Chronicles	Elvish, a language spoken by Christmas elves. Its main stress is associated with a dip in intonation.
2020	Dune	Chakobsa, the Arabic-derived language of the Fremen, spoken on the desert planet Arrakis.

Video games

Year	Title	Language(s) / Role
2018	Arena of Valor	Veda, a language spoken by inhabitants of Veda. It is an isolating language with serial verb constructions and its own abjad. Afata, a descendant of Veda spoken by the eponymous people. It has polypersonal agreement, consonant mutation, 18 grammatical cases and its own abugida called Thala. Gandal, a descendant of Veda spoken by humans. It has a nonpast tense, 4 noun classes, a tripartite declension system for inanimate nouns only, and its own alphabet called Shul. G'vunna, a descendant of Veda spoken by Lokheim. It has polypersonal agreement, vowel harmony, 8 noun classes and its own alphabet called Oz.

Bibliography

• Johnston, Susan; Battis, Jes (2015). Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786496310.
• Peterson, David J. (2014). Dothraki. Living Language. ISBN 978-0-8041-6086-5.
• —— (2015). The Art of Language Invention. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-312646-1.
• Post, Nina; Peterson, David J. (2014). The Zaanics Deceit (Cate Lyr) (Volume 1). Nina Post, LLC. ISBN 978-1-4954-6134-7.
• Post, Nina; Peterson, David J. (2017). The Zaanics Pursuit (Cate Lyr) (Volume 2). Nina Post, LLC. ISBN 978-1-5376-4745-6.

External links

• Official website