The Dothraki Industry

On the continent of Essos, a nomadic people live on steppeland so boundless the expanse is a veritable ocean. It carries the nomads’ name, the Dothraki Sea. To cross this terrain to raid their enemies, the Dothraki use horses—as both transport and food for their warriors. Dothraki is derived from the word for “rider,” and the language has more than 30 words for horse and horse products: nerro, lame, chafi, jedda, sajo, vezh, manin. … Fresh horse meat is gavat; the dried variety is zhifikh. Fermented mare’s milk is lamekh. The main word for horse itself is hrazef. And there are hrazefs of different colors—cheyao, ocha, qhalan, messhih.

Whoa! (Affa in Dothraki.) If you are wondering what cosmos you’ve stumbled into, you aren’t one of the countless fans hooked on the violent, lascivious, melodramatic, completely addictive alternate universe in HBO’s four-year-old hit series, Game of Thrones. (It drew more than 19 million viewers a week during its 10-episode season last spring; Season 5 comes in April.) In 2009, David Peterson, co-founder of the Language Creation Society, invented new Dothraki words for the show’s pilot after winning a contest for the gig. He’s since started a blog where he discusses the language and how it’s taken on a life of its own. And for aficionados who already have a smattering of Dothraki from watching the show, Peterson and Living Language—a division of Random House—recently released a book-and-CD set ($19.99), a sort of immersion course on the language and culture of the nomads and their friends, enemies, and horses.