Languages of A Song of Ice and Fire

Several fictitious languages are mentioned in George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. These include

• the Common Tongue of Westeros, for which English is used in both the books and the television series
• the Old Tongue of Westeros still spoken north of the Wall
• the classical Valyrian (High Valyrian) of the Valyrian empire of Essos, and for a time of Westeros
• nine Low Valyrian dialects of the Free Cities and the city-states of Slaver's Bay, which descend from High Valyrian and are on their way to becoming separate languages
• Ghiscari, the extinct language of the empire of Ghis, which influenced the Low Valyrian dialects that replaced it in Slaver's Bay
• Dothraki, the language of the steppe nomads of Essos
• Lhazareen, the language of the Lhazar nomads
• Qartheen, the language of the city of Qarth
• the languages of Asshai and the Summer Isles
• a trade pidgin of the port cities of Essos

Martin created only a few words for these languages, mostly proper names. For the television adaptation, Game of Thrones, two were elaborated by linguist David J. Peterson: Dothraki and High Valyrian. As of 2014, a Low Valyrian dialect, Astapori, was also created, though not as fully. All three are used with subtitles for dialogue in the series.

References

External links

• www.dothraki.com — A site managed by David J. Peterson, where he blogs about the languages he's constructed for Game of Thrones
• Tongues of Ice and Fire wiki — fan wiki collating information about the constructed languages in Game of Thrones