David_J._Peterson

David J. Peterson

David J. Peterson

American conlanger (born 1981)


David Joshua Peterson (born January 20, 1981) is an American conlanger who has constructed languages for television series such as Game of Thrones[7] and The 100 and films such as Thor: The Dark World, Dune and Dune: Part Two.[8]

Quick Facts Born, Nationality ...

Life

Peterson was born to a father of German descent and a mother of Mexican descent.[9] Studying at University of California, Berkeley (1999–2003), Peterson received BA degrees in English and in linguistics.[2] He received an MA in linguistics from University of California, San Diego (2003–2006).[2] He had his first contact with constructed languages while still at Berkeley, after attending an Esperanto class in 2000.[10] In 2007, he co-founded the Language Creation Society with nine other language creators[2] and served as its president (2011–2014).[11]

In 2009, the television network HBO needed a fictional language for the Game of Thrones television series and turned to the Language Creation Society for help. This resulted in a contest, which Peterson won.[12]

He produced a number of videos on YouTube, in a series called The Art of Language Invention,[13] 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.[14]

In 2019, Peterson created a free High Valyrian course on the Duolingo website/app[15][16] and expanded the course in conjunction with the House of the Dragon series premiere in August 2022.[17]

In 2023, Peterson became engaged to and subsequently married fellow linguist and conlanger Jessie Peterson (née Sams).[18][19][5]

Filmography

Television

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Films

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Video games

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Operas

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Musicals

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Books

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Bibliography

  • Johnston, Susan; Battis, Jes (2015). Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9631-0.
  • Peterson, David J. (2014). Dothraki. Living Language. ISBN 978-0-8041-6086-5.
  • (2015). The Art of Language Invention. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-312646-1.
  • (2020). Create Your Own Secret Language: Invent Codes, Ciphers, Hidden Messages, and More. Odd Dot. ISBN 978-1250222329.
  • Post, Nina; Peterson, David J. (2014). The Zaanics Deceit (Cate Lyr) (Volume 1). Nina Post, LLC. ISBN 978-1-4954-6134-7.
  • Post, Nina; Peterson, David J. (2017). The Zaanics Pursuit (Cate Lyr) (Volume 2). Nina Post, LLC. ISBN 978-1-5376-4745-6.

References

  1. "About David J. Peterson". Dothraki.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  2. David J. Peterson [@Dedalvs] (April 27, 2013). "David J. Peterson referring to his wife" (Tweet). Retrieved April 27, 2013 via Twitter.
  3. "About". Art of Language Invention.
  4. Elderkin, Beth (April 9, 2019). "Game of Thrones Language Builder David Peterson Is Working on Denis Villeneuve's Dune". io9. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  5. "Interview with David J. Peterson". Conlangs Monthly. February 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  6. "Minutes for LCS Board Meeting (3/5/2011)". Language Creation Society. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  7. "Expert Creates Language for New HBO Series Game of Thrones" (Press release). Dothraki.com. April 12, 2010. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  8. "Conlanging, The Film About". Retrieved August 28, 2017. 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).
  9. "Imeimei". Tumblr. June 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  10. "Home - Jessie Sams". November 11, 2022. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  11. "How do you create a real fake language?". lwlies.com. March 28, 2023. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  12. "House of the Dragon: How Was the Valyrian Language Created for the Show?". movieweb.com. September 28, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  13. Busch, Jenna (June 13, 2023). "Pixar's Elemental Recruited A Game Of Thrones Vet To Create A Brand-New Language". slashfilm.com. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  14. "Game Of Thrones' Failed Pilot Would've Actually Made White Walkers Better". screenrant.com. March 8, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  15. Watel, Stephanie (June 13, 2023). "Game of Thrones' Linguistics Veteran Hired to Create Language For Pixar's Elemental". movieweb.com. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  16. Lee, Reta. "What we know about Raya And The Last Dragon so far". yahoo. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  17. Peterson, David J. (June 16, 2023). "The Ts'íts'àsh (Firish) Language from Elemental".
  18. Peterson, David J. (July 6, 2023). "Ts'íts'àsh Language from Elemental". Imeimei (David J. Peterson's Tumblr). Retrieved July 6, 2023 via Tumblr. While this is my Tumblr (so I'll be answering asks, etc.), I didn't create the language by myself. Jessie Sams and I created the language together. [...] If you've sat through the credits of Elemental, you'll see that only I'm credited. That was, in a word, bullshit...who gets credited—or whether we get credited at all—is totally at the mercy of the studio. Even when it's written into our contract it sometimes doesn't happen [...] Anyway, in this case, it's really important to me that everyone knows this was a joint project of mine and Jessie's. It's our work, and we deserve equal credit.
  19. "WeCameToDance". January 1, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2023.

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