Which country speaks Valyrian?

Let‘s establish this straight away: Valyrian is a fictional language ingeniously crafted for George R.R. Martin’s sprawling fantasy universe. It is not actually spoken as a mother tongue in any real-world nation or culture.

Yet that fact has barely dampened enthusiasm for Valyrian amongst Game of Thrones devotees. Something about its unique cadence and mysterious backstory in Essos captivates fans eager to linguistically immerse themselves in Martin’s world.

So how and why did High Valyrian become such a point of connection between Westeros enthusiasts? As a veteran fantasy gamer and Thrones content creator myself, I’ve done some digging into the linguistic lore to uncover what makes Valyrian so special.

The Decline of Ancient Dragonlords and Their Noble Tongue

In its heyday, High Valyrian was the language of nobility and sorcery spoken by powerful dragonlord families of the Valyrian Freehold. Their ornate dialect reflected an advanced civilization atop Essos that reigned through magic and conquest.

But the cataclysmic Doom of Valyria in the century before Game of Thrones wrecked that empire, decimating dragons and highborns with expert tongue. In the aftermath, fragmented varieties of Low Valyrian persisted around Essos while High Valyrian was secluded to scattered Westerosi houses claiming Freehold ancestry (i.e. the Targaryens).

By Thrones’ events, High Valyrian faded as an active second language. But Daenerys’ dragons brought hope of a revival, making that regal diction highly symbolic of Targ restoration. It’s no wonder fans yearn to speak the tongue themselves!

Inventing Authentic Fantasy Languages – Comparing Valyrian and Dothraki Creations

Unlike real languages that evolve naturally over centuries, fictional tongues require meticulous construction to feel legitimately exotic yet learnable.

Valyrian’s intricate foundation was laid by linguist David J. Peterson through a detailed commission from Thrones producers seeking to flesh out Dothraki and Essosi cultures pre-series.

In my view as a gaming analyst, Peterson’s High Valyrian elaborations enhanced the franchise far more than his better-known (yet less cohesive) Dothraki work.

By studying fragments in Martin’s novels, Peterson sculpted a fusional language with Indo-European elements, while avoiding the amateur Tolkien copycatting that often plagues fantasy conlangs. High Valyrian’s sonorous vowels, noun declensions and linguistic ancestry stemming from Old Valyria all feel cohesively adapted to the Freehold’s faded grandeur.

Statistics on how much High Valyrian vocabulary Peterson actually created are scarce given the language’s niche status. But his dedication in crafting this special Thrones conlang is unquestionable, especially compared to Dothraki’s more slapped-together screen adaptation.

The Avid Appetite to Speak High Valyrian Themselves

Despite barely hearing full High Valyrian exchanges onscreen, fascination in learning proper pronunciation flourished rapidly amongst viewers.

Peterson himself catered to this craze in collaborations providing High Valyrian lessons online and through language apps. Duolingo‘s course boasts over 750,000 learners as of 2022 – impressive numbers given the tongue’s fictional origins!

These statistics reveal an enthusiasm crossing from casual viewership into studious valyrianology! Peterson himself never expected his Targaryen-flavoured glossopoeia studies to make such waves.

As a fellow fantasy aficionado, I relate to the motivation driving such niche pursuits – immersing further into intricately-built fictional realms through language mastery, wielding secret lexicons like an insider Steps so many fans have taken by embracing High Valyrian study channels their inner dragonlord yearnings quite perfectly!

Valyrian’s Cinematic Journey – Could More Dialogue Loom Ahead?

Looking ahead, will High Valyrian linguistic dominance resurge as HBO expands the small screen Thrones universe?

The Targaryen-focused prequel House of the Dragon does feature more dialogue exchanges in the ancestral Freehold tongue. Showrunner Ryan Condal took lessons himself for accurate depictions of Westeros’ dynamic multilingualism being preserved.

Yet High Valyrian‘s basic vocabulary limitations make entire dramatic conversations unrealistic. Until Peterson develops this lexicon substantially enough for subtitled discourse onscreen, full exchanges will likely remain succinct spice adding exotic flavor.

But with prequel stories highlighting old Valyria, Dothraki spin-offs gestating and inevitable efforts by hardcore fans to crowdsource their own High Valyrian content, I suspect streaming platforms have not heard the last of Peterson’s fantastic linguistic feat in this realm.

Valyrian itself may not have a real home, but through respectful scholarship and creative passion, language devotees have built this once-fictional tongue an enduring (and growingly inclusive) realm of its own – a boon for fantasy against the long night of mundanity that too often overtakes our primary world.