<p>It is probably impossible to say which language resembles Valyrian most, lacking a metric for similarity. But there are clearly identifyable influences of other languages, both constructed and natural.</p>
<p>Let's start with the catch phrase <em>valar morghulis</em> from GRRM: It just sounds like Tolkien's Elvish languages, with <em>valar</em> being a word from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Quenya</a> and <em>morghul</em> a word from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sindarin</a>. Both Quenya and Sindarin have <a href="https://conlang.stackexchange.com/questions/1/were-tolkiens-elvish-languages-based-on-known-natural-languages">well-known influences from natural languages</a>: Finnish for Quenya and Welsh for Sindarin.</p>
<p>Looking at High Valyrian, some Finnish feeling is still retained in the language: There is a distinction between long and short consonants as well as vowels, the case endings still have some Finnish feel (and a Latin feel, too, especially the vowel alternations), the phonotactics resemble Finnish. It is further away from Finnish than Quenya in its phonology contrasting voiced and voiceless stops and featuring the sound /q/. There is little Welsh in High Valyrian left, maybe the frequency of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180821055650/http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2011/9/the-women-of-fantasy-context-free-femininity-part-2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;the defining fantasy vowel&quot; ae</a> (Laura Wattenberg) can be traced to Welsh.</p>
<p>The 8-case system may be insprired by Languages like Russian or Sanskrit, with the commitative case being typologically rare, but occurring in Finnish again.</p>
<p>The four noun classes are a creative invention (but not far of, as natural language, especially Native American languages, are concerned) and I see no closer resemblence to Bantu languages (they have a lot of noun classes, but the noun classes are marked by overt prefixes that are also used as agreement markers).</p>
<p>The syntax with head-final relative clauses may be inspired by languages like Japanese.</p>
<p>P.S. While Peterson has stated some <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200817120827/http://dothraki.conlang.org/official-hbo-press-release/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">linguistic influences for the Dothraki language</a>, I have not found a similar quote for Valyrian. So all the observations above are mine.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-13T16:05:58.097Z
This was about the kind of answer I was looking for so I'll mark this as the answer in a couple of days (provided no other answers come up). I don't know if you could already deduce it from my name but I **am** Finnish so reading this answer certainly brought a smile to my face!
Simo Kivistö
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-15T14:31:04.930Z
@SimoKivistö: Out of curiousity: Does High Valyrian looks somewhat Finnish to you?
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-16T05:53:02.230Z
jknappen not at all :). To me it looks more like Latvian or Lithuanian (languages not really related to Finnish). Then again it's hard to recognize similarities in grammar or structure just from written or spoken language as I haven't actually learned any Valyrian.
Simo Kivistö
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-16T18:49:42.003Z
Russian has **6** cases. I know it as a native speaker of Russian.
USERNAME GOES HERE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-13T15:23:30.837Z
2024-09-28T14:21:30.833Z
2024-09-28T14:21:30.833Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>I'm interested in knowing what living languages Valyrian from <em>Game of Thrones</em> resembles the most in its <strong>grammar</strong> and/or <strong>vocabulary</strong>.</p>

<p>I've gathered here some very basic examples of what kind of similarities I would like to know of:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>History/Culture</strong>

<ul>
<li>To the layman the history of the language group seems to resemble that or <em>latin</em> (and maybe <em>arabic</em>).</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p><strong>Vocabulary</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>If I have understood correctly the Valyrian vocabulary is formed so that it shouldn't sound like any living language so probably there's not much similarities there.</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p><strong>Grammar</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>It seems to contain many word inflections which would mean it bears more similarity to <em>Latin</em> than for example <em>English</em>, right?</li>
<li>It has four grammatical genders and here the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valyrian_languages" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia article</a> mentions some kind of similarity to <em>Bantu languages</em>?</li>
<li>Any other aspects of Valyrian containing significant similarities?</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>I'm aware that David J. Peterson, the creator of the language for the series didn't base Valyrian on any existing language. Yet it does seem to resemble in many aspects some languages much more (Latin, also Lithuanian comes to mind) than others (Chinese). It might not be a complete language but it has hundreds of words and what seems to be a well-thought-out grammar (see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valyrian_languages" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia article</a>) so it should be possible to compare linguistic similarities.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-11T08:44:12.193Z
@TorstenLink What does it matter if George Martin or someone else created the language, though? This isn't a GRRM question.
Christian Rau
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-13T01:20:41.157Z
I think this query is going to be far too opinion based to be anything like useful for this forum.  For what it worths, a quick shufty reminds me most of Latvian.  Google translate wants to translate from Latvian as well. *tā kā darba ņēmēju brīva kustība ir pozitīvs sociāli ekonomiskais piemērs gan ES, menti ossēnātās, qilōni pilos lue vale tolvie ossēnātās, yn riñe dōre ōdrikātās. Dovaogēdys! Āeksia ossēnātās, ekonomiskās attīstības, sociālās kohēzijas, individuālo glaesot iderēptot daor.*
elemtilas
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-13T22:38:40.790Z
@elemtilas By using tools like WALS I think a set of languages that Valyrian is closest to typologically could be identified.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-13T23:19:15.503Z
@curiousdannii -- Could be.  Penny to a pound says WALS will say Latvian as well!  Still rather opinion based.  That, after all, would just be the opinion of whoever plugged data into WALS!
elemtilas
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-15T11:49:30.473Z
@elemtilas The language detection algorithms are quite sensitive to the character sets and other superficial features of the spelling system, I doubt that trying automatic language detection on Valyrian gives really sensible results.
Sir Cornflakes
<typology><song-of-ice-and-fire>
Valyrian - what living languages does it resemble the most?
# Valyrian - what living languages does it resemble the most?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-07-11)

I'm interested in knowing what living languages Valyrian from *Game of Thrones* resembles the most in its **grammar** and/or **vocabulary**.

I've gathered here some very basic examples of what kind of similarities I would like to know of:

* **History/Culture**
  + To the layman the history of the language group seems to resemble that or *latin* (and maybe *arabic*).
* **Vocabulary**

  + If I have understood correctly the Valyrian vocabulary is formed so that it shouldn't sound like any living language so probably there's not much similarities there.
* **Grammar**

  + It seems to contain many word inflections which would mean it bears more similarity to *Latin* than for example *English*, right?
  + It has four grammatical genders and here the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valyrian_languages) mentions some kind of similarity to *Bantu languages*?
  + Any other aspects of Valyrian containing significant similarities?

I'm aware that David J. Peterson, the creator of the language for the series didn't base Valyrian on any existing language. Yet it does seem to resemble in many aspects some languages much more (Latin, also Lithuanian comes to mind) than others (Chinese). It might not be a complete language but it has hundreds of words and what seems to be a well-thought-out grammar (see the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valyrian_languages)) so it should be possible to compare linguistic similarities.

**Tags:** typology, song-of-ice-and-fire
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: @TorstenLink What does it matter if George Martin or someone else created the language, though? This isn't a GRRM question.  
> **username_2**: I think this query is going to be far too opinion based to be anything like useful for this forum.  For what it worths, a quick shufty reminds me most of Latvian.  Google translate wants to translate from Latvian as well. *tā kā darba ņēmēju brīva kustība ir pozitīvs sociāli ekonomiskais piemērs gan ES, menti ossēnātās, qilōni pilos lue vale tolvie ossēnātās, yn riñe dōre ōdrikātās. Dovaogēdys! Āeksia ossēnātās, ekonomiskās attīstības, sociālās kohēzijas, individuālo glaesot iderēptot daor.*  
> **username_3**: @elemtilas By using tools like WALS I think a set of languages that Valyrian is closest to typologically could be identified.  
> **username_2**: @curiousdannii -- Could be.  Penny to a pound says WALS will say Latvian as well!  Still rather opinion based.  That, after all, would just be the opinion of whoever plugged data into WALS!  
> **username_4**: @elemtilas The language detection algorithms are quite sensitive to the character sets and other superficial features of the spelling system, I doubt that trying automatic language detection on Valyrian gives really sensible results.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2019-07-13. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

It is probably impossible to say which language resembles Valyrian most, lacking a metric for similarity. But there are clearly identifyable influences of other languages, both constructed and natural.

Let's start with the catch phrase *valar morghulis* from GRRM: It just sounds like Tolkien's Elvish languages, with *valar* being a word from [Quenya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya) and *morghul* a word from [Sindarin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin). Both Quenya and Sindarin have [well-known influences from natural languages](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/questions/1/were-tolkiens-elvish-languages-based-on-known-natural-languages): Finnish for Quenya and Welsh for Sindarin.

Looking at High Valyrian, some Finnish feeling is still retained in the language: There is a distinction between long and short consonants as well as vowels, the case endings still have some Finnish feel (and a Latin feel, too, especially the vowel alternations), the phonotactics resemble Finnish. It is further away from Finnish than Quenya in its phonology contrasting voiced and voiceless stops and featuring the sound /q/. There is little Welsh in High Valyrian left, maybe the frequency of ["the defining fantasy vowel" ae](https://web.archive.org/web/20180821055650/http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2011/9/the-women-of-fantasy-context-free-femininity-part-2) (Laura Wattenberg) can be traced to Welsh.

The 8-case system may be insprired by Languages like Russian or Sanskrit, with the commitative case being typologically rare, but occurring in Finnish again.

The four noun classes are a creative invention (but not far of, as natural language, especially Native American languages, are concerned) and I see no closer resemblence to Bantu languages (they have a lot of noun classes, but the noun classes are marked by overt prefixes that are also used as agreement markers).

The syntax with head-final relative clauses may be inspired by languages like Japanese.

P.S. While Peterson has stated some [linguistic influences for the Dothraki language](https://web.archive.org/web/20200817120827/http://dothraki.conlang.org/official-hbo-press-release/), I have not found a similar quote for Valyrian. So all the observations above are mine.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: This was about the kind of answer I was looking for so I'll mark this as the answer in a couple of days (provided no other answers come up). I don't know if you could already deduce it from my name but I **am** Finnish so reading this answer certainly brought a smile to my face!  
> **username_4**: @SimoKivistö: Out of curiousity: Does High Valyrian looks somewhat Finnish to you?  
> **username_0**: jknappen not at all :). To me it looks more like Latvian or Lithuanian (languages not really related to Finnish). Then again it's hard to recognize similarities in grammar or structure just from written or spoken language as I haven't actually learned any Valyrian.  
> **username_5**: Russian has **6** cases. I know it as a native speaker of Russian.  

---

