A fictional language created by linguist David J. Peterson for HBO's *Game of Thrones* adaptation — the language of the nomadic Dothraki horse-lords.
Where it’s spoken
Dothraki has no real-world country. George R. R. Martin’s books mention only a few dozen Dothraki words; Peterson — a member of the Language Creation Society — built it into a full language in 2009 when HBO commissioned the work for production. He extrapolated from Martin’s existing words a phonology, grammar, and vocabulary now exceeding 4,000 lexemes.
What it sounds like
Designed to feel harsh and equestrian-warrior-like: lots of velar and uvular consonants, no /p/, and a stress system that pulls toward the final syllable. Grammar features case marking but no grammatical gender — instead an animate/inanimate distinction.
How it’s written
Dothraki has no native script within the fiction (its speakers are illiterate). All published material uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics for vowel qualities and a few special characters for distinctive consonants.
Find more languages by letter
Dothraki starts with D and ends with I. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Dothraki":