Why Learn Fantasy Languages Like Dothraki and Valyrian?

[Greg Bernhardt]

Dothraki and Valyrian are two languages in Game of Thrones. Amazingly there are resources to actually learn these made up fantasy languages. There is even a course on Dothraki at UC Berkeley next year. I question who would find this worth their time. I remember a story several years ago where a father taught his son Klingon (Star Trek). I'm trying to figure out the upside in both developing these fantasy languages and also learning them.

https://www.dothraki.org/

 

[PetSounds]

A close friend (who, incidentally, is currently doing cosmology research) once taught himself one of the Elvish languages from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I think the upside for him was the challenge of learning a language with no how-to guides whatsoever; he had to figure everything out (more or less) on his own. Granted, I don't believe the language was truly complete. Regardless, Tolkien's fictional languages are brilliant.