A game of prose: inventing languages across the multiverse with David J. Peterson

The creator of Dothraki for 'Game of Thrones' explores the art of inventing new languages for the University's Contemporary Music Festival 2019
David J. Peterson talking at the Contemporary Music Festival, 2017

Evolving the language of love

It all began when Eduardo had an idea for creating a piece of music where I would write the lyrics in a language I鈥檇 invented that had been evolved to demonstrate the separate stages of its evolution.
This language became V艒v, which translates to 'love'. It is a working language in the same way that Esperanto is a constructed language, or 'conlang'.
I first met Professor Eduardo Mirandain 2016 at the EG Conference 鈥 an annual conference of creative talents. We talked about his musical ideas 鈥 including a prequel to 'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare, as an opera using one of my languages 鈥 but I didn鈥檛 think much more about it.
However, Eduardo soon got in touch: 'Okay, maybe we can start to talk seriously about this piece of music'. I was like, oh my goodness, he was serious. Everything he said on that first day was pretty much everything he ended up wanting to do.
So, for Plymouth's 2017 Contemporary Music Festival, in the space of a few months, I created V艒v, a language that I evolved over six different stages. I chose three of those periods to write lyrics in, a poem on the evolution of love.
Eduardo gave me the choice to hear it first, and I said, 'I don鈥檛 want to 鈥 surprise me'. I heard it for the first time as an 18-minute piece, also called 'V艒v', all sung in my created language with four singers. It was really weird. It was really out there. But in the end, it was quite beautiful.

Tikum. Durloi.  I am small. We are great.
Loi v艒v.  We are love.
Bon gil奴r vdak, ulloi qas.  With many bodies, we will not feel cold.
Bon gid墨s vdak, ulloi b菨r.  With many children, we will not hunger.
Kinl墨k sqen mbau nanahloi.  We will show them our paths.
Kinl墨k sqen mv膿m h膩.  We will teach them of fire.
Ab奴v qen sv膿mosloi.  They will keep our knowledge.
V艒v奴v loi.  They will love us.
Qen loi.  They are we.
E ohl奴v.  And we will be.
Gibil ndr膩 e ndr膩.  From now to then and then.

Watch David talk about the evolution of V艒v.

Using V艒v to reimagine Shakespeare

Initially, I was hesitant about using V艒v again, because I didn鈥檛 know if it would apply to Eduardo's vision.
I knew 'The Tempest' well, it is my favourite Shakespeare play, which is saying something because I don鈥檛 like Shakespeare. So, I was totally on board, but I didn鈥檛 fully get it until Eduardo shared with me his plan for 'Lampedusa'.
We鈥檙e in a place, this island, which is almost out of, and even before, time, with these magical beings. The universe we live in may not be the only one out there. It might be one of an infinite number of universes making up a multiverse. The Lampedusa of the opera could be one of an infinite number of other Lampedusas.
Once this was explained to me, I was fine with taking the initial stage of V艒v and implanting it there as a language which is outside of time. Eduardo gave me these beats. Here鈥檚 the song and here鈥檚 a sentence describing what鈥檚 happening. He also gave me a time stamp. But there was no hint towards the music, so it was up to me to decide on the meter. I tried to do some funky stuff. For the Ariel part, things are very metrical and melodious. For Caliban, it's ametrical.
The opera raises an interesting question of what might have happened if humanity had gone in a different direction using this language as its base.
I'm really happy to be involved in the festival again. To work with Eduardo again. To give my talk on designing languages for would-be worlds. I love to do it and I'm really happy to be bringing my family over from California to Plymouth to see my libretto in 'Lampedusa' come to life at the Gala Concert performed by the BBC Singers.

鈥淵ou taught me language, and my profit on鈥檛
Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!鈥

鈥 Caliban, 'The Tempest'

David J. Peterson
'Lampedusa' was written in V艒v
Sycorax in 'Lampedusa'
Sycorax: 'Sik letmem'
Ariel in聽'Lampedusa'
Ariel: '莫 laiv膩!'
Caliban in聽'Lampedusa'
Caliban: 'Naur ginah sik?'

How to invent a new language

Grammar comes first when inventing a new language. The place where the world enters into this language is in the lexicon and the idioms.
I spend a good deal of time thinking about the world, how it exists, and how it might exist, how the inhabitants perceive it, how they describe it. Sometimes it鈥檚 a world very much like our own, and other times鈥
I did a show where several alien cultures came from different worlds from a solar system that had been destroyed, so they were refugees arriving on Earth. Of course, those languages they speak evolved in this old solar system, so I would make references to plants and animals that no longer exist. I鈥檇 use them for adjectives and making expressions, things like 'quick like a bunny', but using something that not only is an alien animal, but doesn鈥檛 even exist anymore.
One of my larger languages I work with a lot is High Valyrian from 'Game of Thrones'. The problem there is it is the language of an evolving civilisation created by George RR Martin, and it is clear there are going to be things revealed when the later books come out. I feel hemmed in, because I don鈥檛 want to go and create a bunch of stuff that talks about this culture, because I don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 like.
So, I can stick to the very general human experience and physicality, but people ask me things like, 'what鈥檚 the word for wedding in High Valyrian?', and I don鈥檛 know what their weddings were like. I can鈥檛 just invent it because it might be contradicted later, and that鈥檚 an argument I won鈥檛 win. It is his universe, and I鈥檓 just playing inside it.

David's network of languages

  • @Dothraki and Valyrian (HBO's 'Game of Thrones')

  • @Trigedasleng (CW's 'The 100')

  • @Elvish (Netflix's 'The Christmas Chronicles')

  • @Shiv盲isith (Marvel's 'Thor: The Dark World')

  • @Verbis Diablo (Sky's 'Penny Dreadful')

V艒v brought to live on stage at the University's Contemporary Music Festival.
V艒v brought to life on stage at the Contemporary Music Festival 2017
Contemporary Music Festival Lampedusa

Contemporary Music Festival 2019: MULTIVERSE

MULTIVERSE is the theme of 抖阴短视频 Contemporary Music Festival (CMF) 2019, which celebrates the internationally renowned research combining music, engineering and the life sciences developed at the 抖阴短视频鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR).
MULTIVERSEproposes a weekend of musical interpretations of the quantum world.