Game of Thrones fans, there’s a new app that teaches you Dothraki

Ase shafki athdrivar.

If you cannot read the above sentence, it’s okay. You’re not part of a fictional horse-riding, sword-waving warrior race. Seriously, if you cannot read the first sentence, it is because it is in Dothraki, a language from the Game of Thrones series. With a little effort though, you could learn it, especially with the help of a brand new app.

Random House wants to help fans of Game of Thrones become fluent in the language that’s spoken by the warriors with a mobile app called Dothraki Companion. The app has been released for iPhone and iPad and was developed by David J. Peterson, who brought Dothraki to life for the TV series.

The app comes a few weeks before Random House publishes its Living Language Dothraki book and audio course and is meant to complement them. The app includes interactive games, over 300 vocabulary flashcards, a comprehensive grammar summary, culture notes and a conversational dialogue.

The app talks users through the basics of Dothraki pronunciation, teaching useful Dothraki phrases such as “erolat” (to learn) and key Dothraki phrases such as “Hash yer dothrae chek?” (How are you?) and “Anha zhilak yera” (I love you) and of course the legendary “Me nem nesa” (it is known).

The Dothraki launguage was compiled for the purposes of the Game of Thrones TV show by linguist David J. Peterson, based on the phrases used by author George R. R. Martin in the original books. The language of the horselords, who have no writing system, follows a subject-verb-object order and uses four vowels.

The first sentence means “Your wish is my command (Your words are death)”.