Text
“Zhillie Avesoon”
Jadi anna, zhey yalli anni. Asshekh yer vannevae rhojosores yeri ma adothrae yomme krazaajoon. Vosma hatif athezari yeri, vosm’anha vazhak yeraan jin zhilli. Vo shillo mahrazhes fin vastera adrasea. Adrasi lazim vos avvirsae, majin mori varrokhi hrazef yeri. Adakhi fes kash jalan hatifi disse. Jalan vahhaja fes majin yer nem vahhaji. Ha nakhaan, vos frakho soqwof vosecchi. Soqwof dozgo yeri. Soqwof azichomee ma yeraan, ma sajosaan yeri, ma kimisiraan. Ei soqwof meli nakhaan. Anha ma afonak yera ma addrivak yera, hash yer tihie soqwof akka. Anha astak asqoy yeraan, zhey yalli anni: Anha vatthasak yera. Vos frakho soqwof vosecchi. Vosma soqwi gizikhveni. Yer jif adakhi soqwe. Filla akka. Mori davrae! Ajjin dothra, zhey yalli anni! Dothra ma awazi ven dorvi!
English Translation
“Advice from Father”
Approach me, my child. Today you will leave your family behind and ride beyond the mountains. Before your departure, though, I will give you this advice. Don’t trust a man who speaks with turtles. Turtles cannot be burned, and so they will frighten your horses. Eat carrots during the full moon only. The moon will strengthen the carrot and so you will be strengthened. Finally, never touch a plum tree. The plum tree is your enemy. A plum tree will disrespect you, your mount, and your ancestors. All plum trees are completely evil. I will hunt you down and murder you if you even look at a plum tree. I give you my word, my child: I will lay you low. Do not touch a plum tree. Plums, however, are sweet. You should eat plums. Dried plums, too. They’re great! Now ride, my child! Ride and scream like a goat!
Grammar and Vocabulary
Grammar
Website: http://www.dothraki.com/
Fan Wiki (better source): http://wiki.dothraki.org/
Typological facts: word order = SVO; prepositional; NG; NA; NR. Adverbs generally come sentence-finally.
The old word order of Dothraki is VSO. Vestiges of this old word order sometimes surface in relative clauses, questions, and quotations.
The infinitive form of a verb ends in /-(l)at/. Strip off this suffix to get the verb stem. The verb stem by itself serves as the past tense form of the form in the positive grade. In the negative grade, a suffixed -o is added to the verb stem in the past tense. In the present and future tense, verbs take personal suffixes. Only two are encountered in this text: The first person singular /-ak/, and the second person singular /-i/. The future tense of a verb is built off the present (the stem plus the personal ending). To the form the future tense, prefix /a-/ to the present tense form. Imperatives are formed by adding /-i/ to verb stems that end in a consonant; nothing to those that end in a vowel. Negative imperatives are formed by adding /-o/ to verb stems that end in a consonant; by changing the last vowel to /-o/ for stems that end in a vowel.
There is no copula in Dothraki. If you have X-NOM Y-NOM, it means “X is Y”. The nominal forms listed in the lexicon are the nominative forms of a given noun, unless otherwise stated.
Dothraki has five cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, ablative and allative. Only the first four feature in this text. Unless otherwise stated, the subject of a verb takes the nominative, and the object takes the accusative. The genitive is used in possessive constructions (such that X Y-GEN means Y’s X). Otherwise, the various prepositions will state what case they assign to their governed noun phrase.
Aside from the pronouns (whose relevant declensions are listed in the lexicon), you’ll find a few declined nouns. Inanimate nouns drop their final vowel before being declined. The genitive ending is /-i/, and for animate nouns, the accusative ending is /-es/ (which is added regardless of whether the word ends in a vowel). The ablative ending is /-oon/.
Dothraki distinguishes alienable possession from inalienable. Alienable possession is indicated with the genitive (as shown above). Inalienable possession, though, is indicated with the ablative as follows: X Y-ABL = Y’s X. This is used primarily with body parts.
Dothraki doesn’t distinguish between progressive and perfective. This means that a verb in the past tense means “x’d” or “was x’ing”, depending on context (and this extends to the other tenses).
Dothraki passives are unusual. If a standard sentence is “X V Y”, then the passive will be “Y nem V (ki X)”, where the verb agrees with Y.
There are two grammatical elements here which may not be comprehensible without explanation. Certain verbs in Dothraki can take a subordinate clause or a non-finite clause headed by an infinitive. This is kind of like the English verb “hate” (which can work in phrases like “I hate to eat onions” and “I hate that I have to eat onions”), but the pattern extends to more verbs in Dothraki than it does in English.
Dothraki has a series of adverbial conjunctions which work a little differently from English. One such is /kash/. A phrase like “kash X kash Y” means “while X, Y happened” or “X when Y”.
Lexicon
- adakhat (v.) to eat
- addrivat (v.) to murder, to kill
- adra (na.) turtle
- ahhajat (v.) to strengthen
- ajjin (adv.) now, and now
- akka (adv.) even, also
- anha (pron.) I (first person singular nominative pronoun)
- anna (pron.) me (first person singular accusative pronoun)
- annevalat (v.) to leave, to desert
- anni (pron.) my (first person singular genitive pronoun)
- arrokhat (v.) to frighten
- asqoyi (ni.) oath
- asshekh (adv.) today
- astat (v.) to say
- astat asqoy (vp.) to swear, to promise, to give (one’s) oath
- athezar (ni.) going, departure
- atthasat (v.) to destroy, to ruin, to disgrace
- ave (na.) father
- avvirsalat (v.) to burn (transitive)
- awazat (v.) to scream
- azhat (v.) to give
- davralat (v.) to be good, to be useful
- disse (adv.) only, simply
- dorvi (ni.) goat
- dothralat (v.) to ride
- dozgo (ni.) enemy
- ei (adj.) all
- feso (ni.) carrot
- filla (ni.) dried plum
- fin (pron.) relative pronoun used to introduce a relative clause
- fonat (v.) to hunt
- frakhat (v.) to touch
- gizikhvenat (v.) to be sweet
- ha (prep.) for (assigns the allative case)
- ha nakhaan (pp.) finally
- hash (conj.) if
- hatif (prep.) before (spatial/temporal)
- hrazef (ni.) horse
- jadilat (v.) to approach, to come up to
- jalan (na.) moon
- jalan hatifi (np.) full moon
- jif (part.) should
- jin (adj.) this
- kash (adv./conj.) while, during, when (see grammar notes)
- kimisir (na.) ancestry
- krazaaj (ni.) mountain
- lazim (part.) a particle meaning “be able” which is also turns a verb passive (see grammar notes)
- ma [1] (conj.) and
- ma [2] (prep.) with (assigns the ablative case)
- mahrazh (na.) man
- majin (conj.) and then, then, so, and so, consequently
- melat (v.) to be evil
- mori (pron.) they (third person plural nominative pronoun)
- nakhaan (adv.) completely, totally, utterly
- nakho (ni.) end, terminus
- nem (part.) passive (see grammar notes)
- rhojosor (na.) family
- sajo (na.) mount, steed
- shillat (v.) to trust
- soqwi (ni.) plum (accusative is soqwe)
- soqwof (ni.) plum tree
- tihilat (v.) to look at
- vasterat (v.) to talk, to converse with
- ven (prep.) like
- vo (part.) no, not (negator; used only before words that begin with a consonant)
- vos (part.) no, not (negator)
- vosecchi (adv.) no, never, no way (used for emphatic negation)
- vosm’ (prep.) elided version of /vosma/ which occurs before words beginning with a vowel
- vosma (conj.) but, though, however
- yalli (na.) child
- yer (pron.) you (second person singular nominative pronoun)
- yera (pron.) you (second person singular accusative pronoun)
- yeraan (pron.) to you (second person singular allative pronoun)
- yeri (pron.) your (second person singular genitive pronoun)
- yomme (prep.) across (assigns the nominative case); (prep.) beyond (assigns the ablative case)
- zhey (part.) vocative particle
- zhillie (ni.) advice
- zichomelat (v.) to disrespect
Glossary
- A = adjective
- ABL = ablative
- adj. = adjective
- adv. = adverb
- conj. = conjunction
- expr. = expression
- G = genitival phrase
- GEN = genitive
- N = noun
- n. = noun
- na. = animate noun
- ni. = inanimate noun
- nm. = name
- NOM = nominative
- np. = noun phrase
- O = object
- P = preposition
- part. = particle
- prep. = preposition
- pron. = pronoun
- R = relative clause
- S = subject
- V = verb
- v. = verb
- vp. = verb phrase
- X = an argument of the verb or clause
- Y = a different argument of the verb or clause