David J. Peterson: Creator of Dothraki, Valyrian & More
David J. Peterson: Creator of Dothraki, Valyrian & More
Quick Answer: David J. Peterson is the most prolific professional language creator working in film and television today. He has built over 60 constructed languages for screen, with Dothraki — Game of Thrones — and High Valyrian — Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon — standing as his most widely recognized works. If you have ever watched a character speak an alien or fantasy language on a major production since 2011, there is a strong chance Peterson built it.
Who Is David J. Peterson?
David J. Peterson was born in 1981 and grew up in Long Beach, California. He earned a Master of Arts in Linguistics from UC San Diego, where he developed a deep interest in phonology, morphology, and language typology — the academic study of how natural human languages vary and pattern across the world. That scholarly foundation became the engine behind every language he later created for screen.
Peterson is not simply a creative writer who invents words. He approaches each project as a linguist first, designing full grammatical systems — noun cases, verb aspect, phonological inventories, intonation patterns — before writing a single line of dialogue. This discipline is what separates his work from the decorative alien babble that characterized most film and TV productions before him.
In 2007, Peterson co-founded the Language Creation Society (LCS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of constructed languages. The LCS hosts the annual Language Creation Conference, publishes resources for conlang creators, and was the institutional body through which HBO would later issue its open call for the Dothraki language creator. Peterson serves as one of the most visible public faces of the conlang community and regularly posts language lessons and commentary on social media. He has also taught linguistics as an adjunct instructor at UC San Diego.
His 2015 book — The Art of Language Invention — is widely considered the definitive introductory text on conlang creation, covering phonology, grammar design, writing systems, and the practical realities of creating a language for a production on a deadline.
How He Got the Job — The Dothraki Audition
In 2009, HBO was developing Game of Thrones and needed someone to turn George R.R. Martin's handful of Dothraki words and phrases — scattered through the novels — into a functional spoken language actors could perform convincingly. The network reached out to the Language Creation Society, which ran an open competition. Roughly 30 conlang creators submitted proposals.
Peterson's submission stood out for the same reasons that now define his reputation: he treated the project as a linguistic problem, not a creative writing exercise. He demonstrated how the existing Martinian fragments implied specific phonological patterns, built a working grammatical system consistent with those patterns, and showed HBO exactly how Dothraki would evolve and scale to full scripted dialogue.
He was hired, and production on Game of Thrones began in 2010. The show premiered in April 2011. Overnight, Dothraki became the most widely heard constructed language in television history, and Peterson became the first professional conlang creator most of the general public had ever heard of.
His Languages: A Complete List
Peterson has created over 60 languages across his career. The table below covers his major screen credits.
| Language | Production | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dothraki | Game of Thrones (HBO) | 2011–2019 | ~4,000 words; from Martin's source sketches |
| High Valyrian | Game of Thrones (HBO) | 2013–2019 | Prestige language of Essos |
| Castithan | Defiance (SyFy) | 2013–2015 | Alien species language |
| Irathient | Defiance (SyFy) | 2013–2015 | Second major alien language in the series |
| Indojisnen | Defiance (SyFy) | 2013–2015 | Third alien language for the same production |
| Shiväisith | Thor: The Dark World (Marvel) | 2013 | Language of the Dark Elves |
| Trigedasleng | The 100 (CW) | 2014–2020 | Post-apocalyptic English creole; "Trig" |
| Sondiv | The Shannara Chronicles (MTV) | 2016 | Fantasy Elven-adjacent language |
| High Valyrian (expanded) | House of the Dragon (HBO) | 2022–present | Expanded for the prequel series |
Beyond these headline credits, Peterson has contributed to dozens of additional productions across film, television, and gaming. The 60+ total figure includes smaller projects, personal conlangs predating his professional career, and languages created for projects that were never publicly released.
Dothraki — His Breakthrough Language
Dothraki is the language of the horse-lord culture depicted in Game of Thrones, and it remains Peterson's most culturally impactful creation. Working from the fragments Martin had already written — words like arakh (a curved blade), khaleen (the collective noun for the wives of a khal), and basic greetings — Peterson reverse-engineered a consistent phonological and grammatical system that those words implied.
The resulting language has approximately 4,000 words, a fully specified grammar with verb conjugation, noun animacy distinctions, and a phonological system built around sounds that feel viscerally physical to English-speaking ears: the rolled r, the aspirated stops, the guttural fricatives. Peterson designed Dothraki to sound like a language forged by people who live on horseback in an open steppe — direct, kinetic, and unadorned by the soft palatals of more "civilized" fantasy languages.
For a full treatment of the language's structure and history, see David J. Peterson and the Dothraki Language and Is Dothraki a Real Language?. The Tengwar platform offers structured Dothraki lessons starting at /learn/200, covering pronunciation, core vocabulary, and grammar across ten lessons.
High Valyrian — The Prestige Language of Westeros
High Valyrian is the classical prestige language of Essos — the language of the Valyrian Freehold before its Doom, still spoken by educated elites, prophecy, and the dragon-riding houses. Peterson developed it from the fragments Daenerys speaks in the novels, building outward into a full system with four noun classes, a complex system of grammatical number (singular, plural, collective, and several others), and verb conjugations marked for aspect, tense, and mood.
Where Dothraki sounds steppe-forged and physical, High Valyrian sounds imperial and liturgical. Peterson designed its phonology to suggest a language that was once written and codified by a literate ruling class — rounded vowels, liquid consonants, and a preference for open syllables that give spoken High Valyrian an almost song-like cadence. It is the language Daenerys uses to command her dragons and to speak with the Masters of the slaving cities — always the language of authority and distance.
High Valyrian returned as a central element of House of the Dragon, set roughly 200 years before Game of Thrones, where the language is still alive and spoken at court. Peterson expanded the lexicon and refined grammatical details for the prequel series. See our House of the Dragon Language Guide for specifics on how the language is used in that series. A comparison of the two Peterson languages side by side is available at High Valyrian vs. Dothraki.
The Art of Language Invention — His Book
Published in 2015 by Penguin Books, The Art of Language Invention is Peterson's definitive public-facing work on conlang creation. The book is simultaneously a memoir of his career up to that point and a practical linguistics textbook for aspiring language creators.
Peterson walks readers through every major component of language design: how to build a phonological inventory, how to design morphological systems (the rules governing word forms), how to construct syntax, and how to create a writing system. He uses his own languages — Dothraki, High Valyrian, and several personal projects — as worked examples throughout.
The book is written for a general audience, not academic linguists, but it is rigorous. Peterson does not simplify the underlying concepts; he explains them in accessible language without stripping out the substance. The Art of Language Invention is the standard first recommendation for anyone who wants to move beyond learning an existing conlang and start building their own.
How to Learn Peterson's Languages Today
The two most learnable Peterson languages are High Valyrian and Dothraki.
High Valyrian is available as a full course on Duolingo, making it the most accessible entry point into Peterson's work. The Duolingo course covers core vocabulary, basic grammar, and the noun class system. See How to Learn High Valyrian and Best App to Learn High Valyrian for structured guidance.
Dothraki is available on the Tengwar platform at /learn/200. The ten-lesson sequence covers pronunciation, numbers, family and honor vocabulary, food, body vocabulary, and high-frequency phrases — enough to follow basic dialogue in Game of Thrones scenes. For a full learning roadmap, see How to Learn Dothraki: Complete Guide 2026 and Best App to Learn Dothraki 2026.
Trigedasleng from The 100 does not have a formal learner course but has an active fan community that has documented much of the language from the show.
People Also Ask
What languages did David J. Peterson create? Peterson has created over 60 constructed languages. His most famous are Dothraki and High Valyrian for Game of Thrones. He also created Castithan, Irathient, and Indojisnen for Defiance; Shiväisith for Thor: The Dark World; Trigedasleng for The 100; and Sondiv for The Shannara Chronicles, among many others.
How did David J. Peterson get hired to create Dothraki? HBO issued an open call through the Language Creation Society in 2009. Peterson submitted a proposal demonstrating how the words Martin had already written implied a specific phonological system, and built a working grammar around them. His submission was selected from roughly 30 entries.
Is High Valyrian a complete language? Yes — High Valyrian is a fully systematic language with a documented grammar, four noun classes, a complex number system, and verb conjugations for tense, aspect, and mood. Peterson developed it from fragments in the Martin novels into a complete prestige language used across two HBO series.
Where can I learn Dothraki or High Valyrian? High Valyrian is on Duolingo. Dothraki is on the Tengwar platform at /learn/200. Peterson's book The Art of Language Invention teaches conlang creation principles for those who want to go further. See Dothraki Language Basics for a vocabulary primer.
Related Reading
- David J. Peterson and the Dothraki Language — deep dive into Peterson's Dothraki creation process
- Dothraki in Game of Thrones — how the language functions in the show
- House of the Dragon Language Guide — High Valyrian in the prequel series
- High Valyrian vs. Dothraki — comparing Peterson's two most famous languages
- How to Learn Dothraki: Complete Guide 2026
- How to Learn High Valyrian
- Is Dothraki a Real Language?
- Best Fictional Languages to Learn
- Start Dothraki Lessons on Tengwar
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What languages did David J. Peterson create?
David J. Peterson created over 60 languages, including Dothraki and High Valyrian for Game of Thrones, Castithan and Irathient for Defiance, Shiväisith for Thor: The Dark World, and Trigedasleng for The 100, among many others.
How did David J. Peterson get hired to create Dothraki?
Peterson submitted a proposal to HBO through the Language Creation Society's open call in 2009. His entry was selected from roughly 30 applicants. He built the Dothraki language from the handful of words George R.R. Martin had already written in the novels.
Is High Valyrian a complete language?
Yes — High Valyrian is a fully systematic language with its own grammar, noun classes, and verb conjugation system. Peterson developed it from the fragments Daenerys speaks in the novels, expanding it into a prestige language with thousands of words.
Where can I learn Dothraki or High Valyrian?
High Valyrian has a full Duolingo course. Dothraki is available on the Tengwar platform at learningelvish.com/learn/200. Peterson also teaches conlang principles in his book The Art of Language Invention.
What is the Language Creation Society?
The Language Creation Society (LCS) is a nonprofit organization Peterson co-founded in 2007 to support conlang creators and enthusiasts. It hosts the annual Language Creation Conference and was the body through which HBO solicited proposals for the Dothraki language.
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