David J. Peterson
{{Short description|American language creator (born 1981)}}
{{About|the language creator|other people named David Peterson|David Peterson (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Like resume|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = David J. Peterson
| image = David j peterson 2019 06 03.jpeg
| alt =
| caption = Peterson in 2019
| birth_name = David Joshua Peterson
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1981|01|20}}
| birth_place = Long Beach, California, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = {{ubl|UC Berkeley (BA)|UC San Diego (MA)}}
| occupation = Language creator
| known_for = Creating Dothraki and Valyrian for Game of Thrones
| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Erin Peterson|end=div}}|{{marriage|Jessie Peterson|2023}}}}
| children = 1
| website = {{url|https://artoflanguageinvention.com/|artoflanguageinvention.com}}
}}
David Joshua Peterson (born January 20, 1981) is an American language creator. He came to prominence after creating the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the television series Game of Thrones. He has subsequently worked on a number of other projects, including the films Dune and Dune: Part Two, for which he created the Chakobsa language. He has written a book on language construction entitled The Art of Language Invention.
Life
= Early life =
David Joshua Peterson was born in Long Beach, California, on January 20, 1981, to a father of German descent and a mother of Mexican descent.{{cite web|first=Emma|last=Robertson|date=September 23, 2020|title=David J. Peterson: "Does it fit the culture?"|url=https://the-talks.com/interview/david-j-peterson/|website=The Talks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022233619/https://the-talks.com/interview/david-j-peterson/|archive-date=October 22, 2020|url-status=live}}{{cite tweet|first=David J.|last=Peterson|user=Dedalvs|number=896345462210539520|title=I was born in Long Beach, California. Mother's family is from Mexico, and as far as I know, my birth father's family emigrated from Germany.|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240812072859/https://x.com/Dedalvs/status/896345462210539520|archive-date=August 12, 2024|url-status=live}} Studying at University of California, Berkeley (1999–2003), Peterson received BA degrees in English and in linguistics.{{cite web |url=http://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/ |title=About David J. Peterson |work=Dothraki.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210406080154/http://dothraki.com/about-david-j-peterson/ |accessdate=April 27, 2013 |archive-date=April 6, 2021 }} He received an MA in linguistics from University of California, San Diego (2003–2006). He had his first contact with constructed languages while still at Berkeley, after attending an Esperanto class in 2000.{{cite news |url= https://www.scribd.com/doc/254356039/Conlangs-Monthly-February-Edition#scribd |title= Interview with David J. Peterson |date= February 2015 |accessdate= February 2, 2015 |work= Conlangs Monthly}}
= Language creation =
In 2007, he co-founded the Language Creation Society with nine other language creators and served as its president (2011–2014).{{cite web |url=http://conlang.org/lcs/bodmeeting352011.txt |title=Minutes for LCS Board Meeting (3/5/2011) |publisher=Language Creation Society |accessdate=April 14, 2016 }}
In 2009, the television network HBO needed a fictional language (Dothraki) for the Game of Thrones television series and turned to the Language Creation Society for help. This resulted in a contest, which Peterson won.{{cite web|first=Manvir|last=Singh|date=February 28, 2024|title="Dune" and the Delicate Art of Making Fictional Languages|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/dune-and-the-delicate-art-of-making-fictional-languages|website=The New Yorker|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240319224623/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/dune-and-the-delicate-art-of-making-fictional-languages|archive-date=March 19, 2024|url-status=live}}{{Cite press release |title=Expert Creates Language for New HBO Series Game of Thrones |date=April 12, 2010 |publisher=Dothraki.com |url=http://dothraki.conlang.org/official-hbo-press-release/ |access-date=May 14, 2017 |archive-date=July 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719045742/http://dothraki.conlang.org/official-hbo-press-release/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|title=Creator of 'Game of Thrones' languages coming to Iowa State in February - News Service - Iowa State University|url=https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2018/01/30/game-of-thrones-languages|access-date=2018-10-16|website=www.news.iastate.edu|language=en-us}}
He produced a number of videos on YouTube, in a series called The Art of Language Invention,{{YouTube|channel=UCgJSf-fmdfUsSlcr7A92-aA}} and published a book of the same title in 2015. Peterson also worked as an executive producer on the 2017 documentary film, Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues.{{cite web|url=http://conlangingfilm.com/about|title=Conlanging, The Film About|accessdate=August 28, 2017|quote=David J. Peterson EXECUTIVE PRODUCER David began work on his first language in 2000 and has been creating languages ever since. He's worked as a language creator on HBO's Game of Thrones, Syfy's Defiance and Dominion, the CW's Star-Crossed and The 100, plus Marvel's Thor: The Dark World. He’s also the author of two books: Living Language Dothraki (2014) and The Art of Language Invention (2015).}}
In 2019, Peterson created a free High Valyrian course on the Duolingo website/app{{cite news |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/14/game-of-thrones-fans-this-app-teaches-you-to-speak-in-high-valyrian.html |title=If you are a 'Game of Thrones' fan, this app will teach you how to speak in High Valyrian |date=April 14, 2019 |first=Noah |last=Higgins-Dunn |work=CNBC}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/13/game-of-thrones-high-valyrian-language-learning-duolingo |title=Do you you speak High Valyrian? Duolingo launches Game of Thrones language app |first=James |last=Tapper |date=April 13, 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian}} and expanded the course in conjunction with the House of the Dragon series premiere in August 2022.{{cite news |url=https://www.cbr.com/house-of-the-dragon-duolingo-game-of-thrones-course/ |title=Duolingo Expands Its High Valyrian Course for GoT: House of the Dragon Debut |first=Frankie |last=Negron |date=July 21, 2022 |work=CBR.com}}
Peterson has also worked on the films Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024).{{Cite web|last=Elderkin|first=Beth|title=Game of Thrones Language Builder David Peterson Is Working on Denis Villeneuve's Dune|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/game-of-thrones-language-builder-david-peterson-is-work-1833921344|access-date=2019-05-07|website=io9|date=April 9, 2019 |language=en-US}}{{cite web|first=Marc|last=Tracy|author-link=Marc Tracy|date=March 23, 2024|title=The Invention of a Desert Tongue for 'Dune'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/movies/dune-language-fremen.html|website=The New York Times|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240323170919/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/movies/dune-language-fremen.html|archive-date=March 23, 2024|url-status=live}}
= Personal life =
Peterson was previously married to Erin Peterson, but the marriage ended in divorce.{{cite tweet |author= David J. Peterson |user= Dedalvs|number= 328054376117710848 |date= April 27, 2013 |title= David J. Peterson referring to his wife |access-date= April 27, 2013 }}{{YouTube|id=rUPUJM65pZ8|time=1h55m39s|title= David J. Peterson (and Dr. Jessie Sams) talking about their divorces}} They had one daughter together.{{cite web|title=About|url=http://artoflanguageinvention.com/about/|website=Artoflanguageinvention.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128080701/http://artoflanguageinvention.com/about/|archive-date=January 28, 2021|url-status=dead}}
In 2023, Peterson became engaged to and subsequently married fellow linguist and conlanger Jessie Peterson (née Sams).{{Cite web |title=Imeimei |url=https://dedalvs.tumblr.com/post/719325249451245568/while-in-finland-i-proposed-to-my-conlang-partner |access-date=2023-06-06 |website=Tumblr |date=June 2023 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2022-11-11 |title=Home - Jessie Sams |url=https://jessiesams.com/ |access-date=2023-06-06 |language=en-US}}{{Cite Instagram |user= athdavrazar|postid= CzAfpVqt5Ze|title= Today we hiked up to the Wisdom Tree (next to the Hollywood sign) and got married. It's now official: We are David and Jessie Peterson. :)|date= October 29, 2023|author = David J. Peterson |access-date= October 30, 2023}}
Languages created
{{BLP sources|date=May 2022|section}}
= Television =
class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Language(s) / Role |
2011–2019
|
|
2013–2015
| Defiance |
|
2014
| Sondiv, the language of the Atrians. It has its own abjad called Kwandon. |
2014–2015
| Dominion | Lishepus, a language invented by the angels to prevent humans from understanding them. It is based on Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic roots. Peterson also translated a few lines into Akkadian for one episode. |
2015–2020
| The 100 | Trigedasleng ("forest language") or Trig, the language of the Grounders. It is a descendant of a cryptolect based on American English. |
2015
| Verbis Diablo (or Verbis Diabolo), the language of witches and demons. Its vocabulary is based on Classical Arabic, Akkadian, Middle Egyptian, Attic Greek, Latin, Persian and Turkish. |
2016
| Face Off | Guest judge. |
2016–2017
| Noalath ("great tongue"), the language of druids. |
2017
|
|
2017
| Written Tibetan translation. |
2018
| Azrán, a descendant of Mexican Spanish spoken in Azra. |
2018
| Written Tibetan translation. |
2019, 2021
| Achaian, Tala and Decuma, three asemic syllabaries. Peterson worked on this show with Claire Ng. |
2019, 2021, 2023
| Hen Linge ("elder speech"), the language of elves and mages. It has its own alphabet called Hen Wökina. |
2019
| Euphoria | Dothraki lines. |
2020–2022
| Méníshè ("mother tongue"), the language of witches. A language derived from Méníshè and spoken by Camarilla members was also used for one line, and an ancient form of Méníshè appears in season 3. Peterson created all three languages with Jessie Peterson. |
2020
| Language of Adam. Peterson created a writing system for this show in collaboration with Claire Ng, but it was not used. |
2021
| Dothraki lines. Uncredited. |
2021, 2023
|
|
2022
| From | Background dialogue lines for the creatures. Peterson worked on this show with Jessie Peterson, both are uncredited. |
2022, 2024
| Halo | Sangheili, the language of the Covenant. Peterson created this language with Carl Buck. |
2022, 2024
| High Valyrian (Valyrio Udrir) lines, as well as a new logoconsonantal script called Nekesse Valyrio for this language. |
2022
| Kezhwa, a creole language spoken by time travelers. It was only used for one line. Peterson created this language with Jessie Peterson, both are uncredited. |
2022
| Aazh Naamori ("Language of the Moroi"), the language of vampires. It has its own abugida. Peterson created this language with Jessie Peterson. |
2022
| Hen Linge lines and texts. |
= Films =
= Video games =
class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Language(s) |
2018
|
The scripts were only made for promotional purposes, none of them were used in the game. |
= Operas =
class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Language(s) |
2019
| Lampedusa (Eduardo Reck Miranda) | Vōv ("love"), a language spoken on Ariel's island. |
= Musicals =
class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Language(s) |
2021
| WeCameToDance (Food Tank) | Hanyana, a language spoken by aliens from the eponymous planet.{{Cite web |date=2021-01-01 |title=WeCameToDance |url=https://foodtank.com/wecametodance/ |access-date=2023-11-06 |language=en-US}} |
= Books =
class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Language(s) |
2014, 2017
|
| Væyne Zaanics ("God's gift" or "God's curse"), a secret language invented by the Lyrs and the Severns. It has its own cipher alphabet called Yesuþoh. Peterson created this language with Nina Post. |
Publications
- {{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Susan |last2=Battis |first2=Jes |date=2015 |title=Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-9631-0}}
- {{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=David J. |date=2014 |title=Dothraki |publisher=Living Language |isbn=978-0-8041-6086-5}}
- {{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=David J. |author-mask=2 |date=2015 |title=The Art of Language Invention |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-312646-1}}
- {{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=David J. |author-mask=2 |date=2020 |title=Create Your Own Secret Language: Invent Codes, Ciphers, Hidden Messages, and More |publisher=Odd Dot |isbn=978-1250222329}}
- {{cite book |last1=Post |first1=Nina |last2=Peterson |first2=David J. |date=2014 |title=The Zaanics Deceit (Cate Lyr) (Volume 1) |publisher=Nina Post, LLC |isbn=978-1-4954-6134-7}}
- {{cite book |last1=Post |first1=Nina |last2=Peterson |first2=David J. |date=2017 |title=The Zaanics Pursuit (Cate Lyr) (Volume 2) |publisher=Nina Post, LLC |isbn=978-1-5376-4745-6}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons}}
- {{Official|https://artoflanguageinvention.com/}}
- [https://dedalvs.com/ Previous official website]
- {{IMDb name|4018833}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, David J.}}
Category:American people of German descent
Category:American people of Mexican descent
Category:Constructed language creators
Category:People from Long Beach, California