'Game of Thrones' Languages

Game of Thrones features over a dozen distinct languages and dialects, each crafted with real linguistic depth. You'll find High Valyrian functioning like Latin — a prestigious dead empire's tongue — while Low Valyrian fractured into nine mutually unintelligible dialects across the Free Cities. Dothraki's harsh plosives were deliberately designed to sound violent, and the White Walkers even have their own ice-inspired language called Skroth. There's far more linguistic craftsmanship hiding in this world than you'd expect.

Key Takeaways

• Game of Thrones features over a dozen distinct languages, including Dothraki, High Valyrian, Low Valyrian dialects, Common Tongue, and the eerie White Walker language Skroth.
• High Valyrian, designed by linguist David J. Peterson, grew from 500 words in Season 3 to over 2,000 by Season 8.
• Dothraki prioritizes harsh plosive sounds and violent compound words like "foth aggendak," meaning throat-rip, to reflect its brutal culture.
• Low Valyrian fragmented into nine Free Cities dialects, becoming so distinct they are not always mutually intelligible with each other or High Valyrian.
• The White Walker language Skroth was replaced by icy sound effects on screen, despite Peterson developing a full constructed language version.

How Many Languages Exist in Game of Thrones?

Game of Thrones boasts a rich tapestry of fictional languages, ranging from the dominant Common Tongue of Westeros to the ancient High Valyrian and the nomadic Dothraki. You'll find over a dozen distinct languages and dialects across the series.

The languages north of the wall alone include seven wildling dialects under the Old Tongue umbrella. Meanwhile, the dialects of the Dothraki Sea represent just one cultural linguistic family.

Low Valyrian splits into nine distinct Free Cities dialects, while additional tongues like Asshai'i, Qartheen, Lhazar, Ibbenese, Summer Tongue, Rhoynish, and languages of Sothoryos round out the world's linguistic diversity.

The five core languages you'll actually hear in the show are Common Tongue, Dothraki, High Valyrian, Low Valyrian dialects, and Skroth. The latter is the eerie language spoken by the White Walkers, the fearsome ice creatures threatening all life beyond and south of the Wall.

High Valyrian, once spoken across Essos by scholars and the elite, is no longer a living language in the current Game of Thrones timeline, yet 100,000 people in the UK alone have signed up to learn it on Duolingo.

High Valyrian: The Latin of the Game of Thrones World

High Valyrian is the Latin of the Game of Thrones world — a once-dominant imperial tongue that outlived its empire. Linguist David J. Peterson designed it using Latin and Greek as foundations, giving it eight grammatical cases and four noun categories. Its linguistic significance becomes clear when you consider how it survived the Doom of Valyria through written preservation and elite education, much like Latin endured through medieval Europe's scholarly circles.

You'll notice its cultural impact throughout both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Noble houses taught it as a status symbol, Tyrion Lannister learned it despite not being Targaryen, and House Targaryen members spoke it most frequently. Daenerys even blended it with Low Valyrian dialects to connect with local populations she encountered. The language grew significantly in scope over the course of the series, expanding from around 500 words in Season 3 to over 2,000 by Season 8.

Peterson drew upon his knowledge of 22 different languages to construct High Valyrian's structured and logical framework, ensuring the language felt both authentic and internally consistent throughout the show.

Low Valyrian Dialects Spoken Across the Game of Thrones World

While High Valyrian preserved its form through elite scholarship, Low Valyrian fragmented across the former empire's territories into a sprawling family of dialects — sometimes called Bastard Valyrian — over four centuries following the Doom of Valyria.

The evolution of Low Valyrian dialects produced ten distinct branches: nine from the Free Cities and one from Slaver's Bay. You'll notice each dialect reflects the influence of local languages on Low Valyrian, particularly in Slaver's Bay, where Old Ghiscari shaped Astapori and Meereenese Valyrian.

These languages shed contrastive vowel lengths, reduced grammatical cases, and adopted more fixed word order. The dialects grew so distinct they're not always mutually intelligible — with High Valyrian or even each other — effectively becoming separate languages entirely. Notably, Meereenese Valyrian was intentionally made not mutually intelligible with High Valyrian, unlike Astapori Valyrian, which still retains some degree of intelligibility.

To bring these dialects authentically to screen, the TV series hired a linguist to construct both Dothraki and Valyrian with fully developed grammar and meaning, avoiding the made-up gibberish that might otherwise have represented these fictional tongues.

What Makes Dothraki Sound So Brutal in Game of Thrones?

Few constructed languages evoke raw aggression quite like Dothraki — but what makes it sound so brutal? The language construction approach prioritizes plosives and aspirates over smooth fricatives, instantly creating a harsh, violent tone. You'll notice the guttural consonant preference throughout, with frequent "kh" and "th" sounds reinforcing that menacing quality.

Vocabulary deepens the brutality further. Words like "foth aggendak" (throat-rip) pack violence into tight noun-verb compounds, while "Fonas chek!" (Hunt well) ties every farewell to predatory culture. Grammar strips away abstraction, favoring direct action-driven structures.

Delivery matters too. Jason Momoa's consistent gravelly intonation and sharp command cadence amplify the language's aggression. Intonation drops on commands signal dominance, making every Dothraki phrase feel less like conversation and more like a threat. Even riding commands reflect this intensity, with "Frakhas valad!" — meaning touch the horizon — transforming a simple directive into something that sounds like a battle cry.

The Dothraki language was developed by linguist David J. Peterson, who was hired by HBO to build a full language from the limited phrases that appeared in George R.R. Martin's original books, ensuring the brutality felt linguistically authentic rather than improvised.

Skroth: The White Walker Language Built From Ice Sounds

Unlike the guttural aggression of Dothraki, Skroth — the White Walker language — was never meant for human mouths. George R.R. Martin described the Others' speech as "like the cracking of ice on a winter lake," and the show's Skroth audio design honored that literally.

Sound designer Peter Brown engineered ice-breaking acoustics to replace what could've been spoken dialogue. Executive Producers Benioff and Weiss officially confirmed Skroth as the name of the White Walkers' language through producer interviews.

You might be surprised to learn that David J. Peterson, who built Dothraki and High Valyrian, actually developed Peterson's unused language version for the White Walkers. Producers ultimately chose atmospheric sound effects over his constructed language, eliminating it entirely by Season 2.

Peterson shared audio samples publicly in a 2019 Huffington Post interview. The name "Skroth" itself came through producer interviews rather than anything you'd hear on screen. Dothraki.com documented Peterson's constructed language work, preserving details about the White Walker tongue that never made it to the final cut of the series.

The Minor Languages of Game of Thrones Most Viewers Miss

Dothraki and High Valyrian get most of the spotlight, but Game of Thrones built out a surprisingly deep linguistic world you probably scrolled past.

Arya Stark quietly mastered Braavosi, Lyseni, and the Pentoshi dialect's influence on regional culture shows how trade and politics shaped each city's speech differently. These nine Free Cities variants all descended from High Valyrian after Valyria's fall, yet each evolved distinct grammar and structure.

Then there's the Asshai'i language's mystical connotations, heard through Mirri Maz Duur's incantations and tied to Melisandre's shadowy origins. Ghiscari branched further, splitting into Astapori, Yunkish, and Meereenese sub-forms — Missandei spoke all three among her nineteen languages.

You likely heard these tongues without realizing the show's creators built entire linguistic systems behind every whispered word. Even the White Walkers were given Skroth, a language said to sound like crackling ice, though actual ice sound effects were ultimately used on-screen instead.

The Children of the Forest communicated through True Tongue, their ancient language that ravens were also reportedly taught to speak, making it one of the most mysterious and otherworldly forms of communication in the entire series.

The Real Languages That Shaped Valyrian, Dothraki, and the Rest

Behind every whispered incantation and battle cry you heard on screen, real-world languages left their fingerprints. David J. Peterson didn't invent Dothraki from nothing — he drew from Turkic and Mongolian tongues to build its horse-centric vocabulary, reflecting the constructed language complexity required to make a nomadic warrior culture feel authentic.

Valyrian's elegance traces back to classical scholarly languages with liturgical qualities, shaping its noun classes and ceremonial weight. Peterson's language worldbuilding process demanded that every sound system, grammar rule, and vocabulary choice mirror real linguistic subsystems — phonology, morphology, and syntax included.

You can actually hear these real-world roots when Daenerys speaks. Her Astapori dialect carries sound shifts borrowed from observable historical language drift, making what you watched feel genuinely earned rather than invented. Notably, High Valyrian is a dead language, once spoken by the nobility but no longer used as a living vernacular in the world of the show.

Peterson's path to building these languages began when he won a contest, which ultimately led to his role creating the linguistic systems that would define the sonic identity of Game of Thrones.