High Valyrian

Phonology / pronunciation 2-10

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Dictionary

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Historical linguistics

Original corpus of known high valyrian information from George R. R. Martin

Phrasebook

Valyrian texts
Phonology / pronunciation
Standard romanization:

a US bot, UK bath

aː father

b bother

d dog

e bait

eː bade

g good

Pronounced like the "r" in French "rouge" or the "g" in Dutch "goed" (never
ɣ~ʁ —
like the "g" in "ghost"). It's a rough, throaty sound—kind of like a hard "h".

This grapheme is always pronounced, even if it comes after another

h ham consonant. The only cases in which it is not pronounced is when it occurs in
the digraphs gh, kh and th.
i beet

iː bead
Pronounced like the "j" in "judge" or approximately like the "g" in "gules"
ɟ~
gules, judge, (specifically when the vowel is pronounced like the letter U) in isolation, but
d͡ʒ~
azure, or yes often pronounced like the "z" in "azure" or the "y" in "yes" when occurring in
ʒ~j
consonant clusters.
This sound features no aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that occurs in
the "k" in "kill". Compare the "k" in "kill" and the "k" in "skill" (try holding
k sky your hand in front of your face when pronouncing both). The High Valyrian
"k" should always be pronounced like the "k" in "skill"; never like the "k" in
"kill".
Bach, or
x~χ Only found in loanwords.
Chanukkah
l left

ʎ million

m man
n no Assimilates to following velar or uvular consonant.
ɲ onion Pronounced, and usually written, as n before i, or any consonant except for j.
o moat

oː mode
p span This sound features no aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that occurs in
 the "p" in "pine". Compare the "p" in "pine" and the "p" in "spine" (try
holding your hand in front of your face when pronouncing both). The High
Valyrian "p" should always be pronounced like the "p" in "spine"; never like
the "p" in "pine".
q —
A tap when in a true onset cluster i.e. after a stop. But not in the merely
r~ɾ —
orthographic cluster rh. Trilled elsewhere.
Pronounced as r above, but without voicing. It will sound kind of like
r̥ —
pronouncing h and r at the same time.
s see
This sound features no aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that occurs in
the "t" in "take". Compare the "t" in "take" and the "t" in "stake" (try holding
t stop your hand in front of your face when pronouncing both). The High Valyrian
"t" should always be pronounced like the "t" in "stake"; never like the "t" in
"take".
θ think Only found in loanwords.
u crouton

uː food

v~w voice or wave

A high front rounded vowel, as in French "tu" or German "tschüss". Outside
y — of the standard romanization, it can be pronounced like the "y" in English
"yak" when occurring before vowels, such as in Targaryen (Targārien).
yː — A long high front rounded vowel, as in German "Zürich".
z zoo
Phonetics

Because High Valyrian was once the language of a wide empire, and because it is now a learned language
(that is, it is no longer anyone's native language, with the possible exception of the Targaryens), the
pronunciation varies a good deal from region to region. It is likely that many of the inhabitants of the Free
Cities and Slaver's Bay pronounce High Valyrian very similarly to their native form of Low Valyrian. As a
result, the pronunciations given below are only ideals, not absolutes, and even then they are often quite
broad (e.g. the pronunciation given for j).

In particular, note that most of the speakers we have heard on the show pronounce y as [i], and do not
carefully distinguish vowel quantities.

Consonants

Dent Alveol Vel Uvul Glott

Labial Palatal
al ar ar ar al
Nasal m [m] n [n] ñ [ɲ] (n [ŋ ~ ɴ])
voicel k
p [p] t [t] q [q]
ess [k]
Plosive
g
voiced b [b] d [d]
[ɡ]
voicel (th
Fricativ s [s] (kh [x ~ χ]) h [h]
ess [θ])
e
voiced v [v ~ z [z] j [ɟ ~ d͡ʒ ~ ʒ ~ gh [ɣ ~ ʁ]

Approximant w] j]

Lateral l [l] lj [ʎ]

voicel
rh [r̥]
ess
Rhotic
r [r ~ ɾ]
voiced [1]

Notes:

 In antiquity, /j/ could be pronounced [j] or [ɟ]: always [ɟ] before [i] or [y]; often before [e];
sometimes elsewhere. Modern speakers' pronunciation varies between [j], [ʒ] and [dʒ],
depending largely on region, and native language.
 [ŋ] and [ɴ] are in parentheses because they are not phonemes, but allophones of /n/. The
phoneme /n/ assimilates to a following velar or uvular consonant, e.g. ēngos /ˈeːngos/ "tongue"
is pronounced [ˈeːŋgos], valonqar /vaˈlonqar/ "little brother" is [vaˈloɴqar].
 [θ] and [x ~ χ] are in parentheses because they occur only in words of foreign origin. As foreign
sounds, they may not always be pronounced as they ideally should be. For instance, some
speakers might pronounce Thoros as [ˈθoros], but others might just say [ˈtoros] or possibly even
[ˈsoros]. Likewise, some might pronounce arakh [aˈɾax] or [aˈɾaχ], some [aˈɾah], some might even
say [aˈɾaɣ] or [aˈɾaʁ].
 /r/ is generally a trill ([r]), but is a tap ([ɾ]) when following a stop in an onset cluster.
 In antiquity, /v/ could be pronounced [w] or [v]: always [v] before [u]; often before [o];
sometimes elsewhere. Modern speakers' pronunciation varies between [w], and [v], depending
largely on region, and native language.
 Pronunciation of v
o It has been often noted by DJP[2], that the letter v varies in pronunciation depending on
era and place in a word:
o In modern times, v in High Valyrian (ignoring daughter languages) is pronounced always
like the v in English [v].
o However, in antiquity, its pronunciation varies in a great grade depending on what
precedes and follows "v". So:
o Pronounced as [v] when preceding the vowels i and e.
o Pronounced as [w] when preceding the vowels o and u.
o If before a or y, its pronunciation is not certain. Probaly not as [v] or [w], realized as [ɥ]
(= jw). Also it's mentioned that it was perhaps pronounced [ʋ], when before a.
o When after a vowel and behind a consonant, functioning as the second part of a
diphthong, it was most likely expressed as [u], maybe [w].
o The pronunciation of v changed quite a lot throughout time and it is difficult to pinpoint
a specific pronunciation for a particular case in any given time point. In this regard, it is
up to the speakers themselves.

 Borrowed Sounds
o Like all languages, High Valyrian contains loan words from other languages that might
not fit into the language properly if not altered to do so. A word might not fit into the
declension patterns of High Valyrian and are declined according to a special declension
for foreign words and it usually contains some sounds not native to Valyrian speakers
that are reduced to ones native if the speaker is unable to pronounce them or doesn't
want to for reasons of not creating phonological inconcistencies. So digraphs to express
foreign sounds and their rendered pronunciation:
o KH
o High Valyrian uses the digraph to express the "kh" sound found in eg. German (Buch) or
Dothraki (arakh). The sound /x/ is most commonly rendered into a /k/ by a Valyrian
speaker but depeding on the speaker it could also be turned into /h/ or even /ɣ~ʁ/.
o For example arakh , borrowed [aˈɾax], would be pronounced as [aˈɾak],[aˈɾah] or by
some even as [aˈɾaɣ] or [aˈɾaʁ].
o TH
o This digraph is used to express the "th" (/θ/) sound as in "think" and Valyrians will most
likely render it as a regular Valyrian /t/.
o For example dothraki, borrowed [do'θraki], would be pronounced as [do'traki].
o SH
o This digraph expresses the thick "sh" (/ʃ/) sound found in words like "shell" and Valyrians
will most likely render it as a regular Valyrian /s/, albeit some dialects feature this sound
especially for the cluster "sr" (instead of regular rendering as j).
o VH~PH~F
o The "f" (/f/) sound found in words like English "father" is transcribed in various ways.
The older is with the digraph "vh"[3]. Its pronunciation is most usually rendered as
Valyrian /p/ or /v/.
o For example: "Winterfell(i)" » /vinter'pelli/ .
 Vowels

High Valyrian has 6 phonetically distinct vowel qualities, each of which can be either long or short:

Short Long
Front Front
unrounde Back unrounde Back
rounded rounded
d d
Close i [i] y [y]* u [u] ī [iː] ȳ [yː]* ū [uː]
Mid e [e] o [o] ē [eː] ō [oː]

Open a [a] ā [aː]

* Many modern speakers do not distinguish y from i and pronounce both as [i].

Diphthongs
High Valyrian diphthongs can divided into two categories: "falling" diphthongs (which end with e or o),
and "rising" or "on-glide" diphthongs (which begin with i or u).[4] Falling diphthongs have a more official
status in the language: when the word "diphthong" is used without qualification, it usually refers to
falling diphthongs. The on-glides in rising diphthongs never count as consonants.

While falling diphthongs are always considered "long vowels" for prosodic purposes, rising diphthongs
count as short or long depending on the length of their last vowel.

Coda -a -ā -e -ē -o -ō
a- ae [ae̯] ao [ao̯]
Falling
ā- āe [aːe̯] āo [aːo̯]
i- ia [i͡a] iā [i͡aː] ie [i͡e] iē [i͡eː] io [i͡o] iō [i͡oː]
Rising
u- ua [u͡a] uā [u͡aː] ue [u͡e] uē [u͡eː] uo [u͡o] uō [u͡oː]

Hiatus
Occasionally, two vowels will occur in a row, without forming a diphthong. These should be pronounced
as two separate vowels. The most common of these are aē [a.eː] and aō [a.oː], which are never
pronounced as diphthongs. It is also possible, but very rare, for two vowels that could have formed a
diphthongs are pronounced as two separate vowels instead. The only known example of this, so far, is
daor "not," which may be pronounced either as one syllable ([dao̯r]) or two ([da.ˈor]).
 Prosody & accent
A High Valyrian syllable may be "heavy" or "light."

Heavy and light syllables

A syllable is light if:

o It ends with a short vowel (e.g. vă-). This inclueds rising diphthongs that ends in a short vowel (e.g. luĕ-)
A syllable is heavy if:

o It contains with a long vowel (e.g. zō-)

o It contains a falling diphthong (e.g. glae-, rāe-)
o It contains a long rising diphthong (e.g. jiō-)
o It ends with a consonant (e.g. lok-).
For syllable boundaries at the middle of a word, a good rule of thumb is that if a vowel is followed by two
consonants, the first consonant is at the end of a syllable and thus the syllable is heavy. For this purpose:
 Digraphs, such as rh, gh, lj count as a single consonant.
 A plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g) followed by a liquid (r, l, rh) or a sibilant (s, z) counts as a single consonant.
 A double consonant (e.g. rr, ss) counts as two consonants.
Placing the accent
All imperative verbs are accented on the last syllable, no matter the composition of the syllables (e.g.
kelītī́s "halt!"). The same is true of words in which the final vowel is lengthened for coordination (e.g.
pérzys ānogā́r "fire and blood").[5] For all other native words, the accent is based on the "weight" (heavy
or light) of the second-to-last syllable (which is called the "penult"), and the third-to-last syllable (called
the "antepenult"):

 If the penult and the antepenult are both light, then the accent falls on the penult: valaro = va·lá·ro
 If the penult is heavy, then the accent falls on the penult: valarra = va·lár·ra
 If the penult is light, and the antepenult is heavy, then the accent falls on the antepenult: valzyro =
vál·zy·ro
In other words:

1. Place the accent on the last syllable if the word is a verb in the imperative, e.g. vestrás "say!," kelītī́s "halt!
(pl)" or in coordination, e.g. pérzys ānogā́r "fire and blood"
2. Place the accent on the antepenult (third-to-last syllable) if it is heavy, and the penult is light, e.g. póntalo
(pon·ta·lo) "of themselves," morghū́ljagon (mor·ghū·lja·gon) "to die," obū́ljarion (o·bū·lja·rion)
"surrender"
3. Place the accent on the penult (second-to-last syllable) in all other cases: valáro (va·la·ro) "of all men,"
undéssin (un·des·sin) "I always see," iprádis (i·pra·dis) "always eats" (remember that pr counts as one
consonant!)
Loanwords
Words and names borrowed from another language will often keep their original stress. The accent tends
to stay on the same syllable, regardless of any endings that may be added. Thus:

 Arákh (a type of sword), from Doth. arakh.

 Buzdári "slave," from AV buzdár.
 Rullór, gen. Rullóro,[6] "R'hllor," possibly from Asshai'i.
 Phonotactics
Syllable structure
The maximum possible syllable structure in High Valyrian is CCCVːCC, where C stands for consonant and V
for vowel.

Permitted onsets
A syllable may begin with a single consonant, or a permitted cluster. Known permitted clusters consist of
an oral stop (plosive) followed by either a liquid or a sibilant. As detailed below, such a cluster may
additionally be preceded by a sibilant (s or z) at the beginning of words, which then partakes in the onset.
Such a sibilant does not, however, form onsets with a following stop, stop-liquid cluster or stop-sibilant
cluster within words.

Permitted word-initial onsets

A word may begin with a vowel, a single consonant, an oral stop followed by a liquid, or either of those
preceded by a sibilant. That is, I word may begin with three consonants provided they occur in the
following configuration:

1st 2nd 3rd

p
t
s
k
r
q
l
b
z d
g
Permitted nuclei
A nucleus may be a short vowel, a long vowel, or a permitted diphtong.[7]

Permitted codas
It seems to be the case that the palatals (ñ, lj, and j) as well as h and rh are not allowed in the coda
position, except for the marginal case of ñj [ɲɟ] (written as nj), as in onjapos and in superlatives of nasal-
final class II verbs, such as bāne ~ bānje.

An underlying coda h can be deleted with lengthening of the preceding vowel as a result in order to
resolve the disallowed coda. This occurs in the present active subjunctive stem of verbs ending in -hugon,
where h would otherwise precede v, for example *nehvon → nēvon in the case of nehugon. However,
at least historically, the h could also be deleted without resultant vowel lengthening, such as in *jaohos
→ *jaohs → jaos.

Permitted complex codas

The only possible example of a complex coda word-internally so far is rs in kyrstenka and related terms
in kyrst-, which is presumably complex given that s followed by another consonant usually does not
partake in onsets. As seen below, ks is the only cluster that can appear as a word-final coda, however it is
not known if this ever occurs word-internally or if rules for consonant clusters always change it.

Permitted word-final codas

A word may end with a vowel, s, m, n, t, z, l or r. The only permissible consonant cluster word-finally is
ks[7].
 Palatal resonants

The palatal resonants, ñ and lj, have a particularly limited distribution:

 They may not double.[7]

 They depalatalize before i, or any consonant except for j.
o When this happens, lj [ʎ] becomes l [l].
o Likewise, ñ [ɲ] becomes [n], however this is not consistently reflected in the transcription system: the
sound may be written either n or ñ, but either way it is pronounced [n].
Disallowed consonant clusters
Consonants that can be geminates in High Valyrian are t, d, n, s, l, r and m. Geminate d is a marginal case,
so far only seen in ridda and related forms. Although there are no examples yet, p and k and are
probably allowed as geminates, and geminate v may be allowed. Palatals (j, ñ and lj) being geminated,
per the above, is explicitly forbidden, and the remaining consonants (q, b, g, h, z, gh and rh) are probably
disallowed as geminates.

Additionally, restrictions apply to laterals and nasals adjacent to one another:

 *ln becomes nn
This is most frequently seen in the first person singular of the future active indicative, where *-il·na
becomes -inna
It is also common with the suffix -non: *qrin·rhol·no·r → qrīdronnor. Compare also the hypothetical
*obūlj·non → *obūnnon[8]
 Conversely, *nl appears to become ll, based on qrin·laodagon → qrillaodagon
Cr clusters
A number of common soundchanges occur when a consonant is followed by r. These are particularly
important for the declension of aquatic nouns and adjectives:

 *hr becomes rh [r̥], e.g. *ñuhro → ñurho[9]

 *zr becomes j[10]
Often seen in words of the aquatic gender whose stem ends in z, e.g. vestriarzir → pl. vestriarja
Also with the prefix oz-, e.g. *oz·rughagon → ojughagon.
(Presumably examples of this change will also occur with the prefix maz-, or type I adjectives with stems
ending in z, but no examples of either are known so far.)
 *sr may also become j, but it does not always do so[11]. Thus, either kesrio or kejo (kejio) are acceptable.
Here, the sporadic change of ji to j before a vowel, as seen in palatal-final class II adjectives, occurs.
o Additionally, in clusters with voiceless plosives followed by sr (*ksr, *psr, *tsr), this change always occurs,
and the plosive becomes voiced in assimilation (producing gj, bj, dj, respectively). In the case of *psr → bj,
the b can further also be deleted with lengthening of the preceding vowel as a result. It is not known
whether the clusters *qs and *qsr ever occur, and what phonotactic rules, if any, apply to them.
 *lr occurs in words such as molry and remains unchanged in the oblique forms of aquatic nouns, such as
pelar ~ pelro[12], but produces ldr in zaldrīzes.
For the nasals, n, m, and ñ, see the section on nasal deletion below.

Nasal Deletion
 *nr or ñr become dr, with lengthening of the preceding vowel:[13]
This is frequently seen with the prefix qrin-, e.g. *qrin·rughagon → qrīdrughagon
It is also common in nouns and adjectives of the aquatic gender whose stem ends in n, e.g. bianor → pl.
biādra[14]
 Cf. also the word hēdrȳ, derived from *hen·rȳ.
 By the same process, *mr produces br. Presumably this includes lengthening of the previous vowel as
well, but in all examples we know so far, the vowel is already long, e.g. sūmar → pl. sūbri.[15]
 A similar soundchange occurs when n or m (and presumably ñ as well) come before s: the nasal is
deleted, with the preceding vowel lengthened, and the s becomes z
This is most commonly seen in emagon and derived words, where *em·za → ēza. This apparently is also
an option for regular verbs whose stems end in a nasal.
It is also seen in the word hēzir, derived from *hen·sīr.
 Grammar
High Valyrian is a heavily inflected, mostly head-final, language. The word order is strongly verb-final
(subject–object–verb). Nouns and adjectives are inflected for number, case and gender, and verbs
for person, number, tense, voice, and mood.

Nouns belong to one of four genders (lunar, solar, terrestrial and aquatic), that have no relationship
to sexual gender. Most humans are either of the lunar or solar gender. For example vala "man" is of
lunar gender, and ābra "woman" is too. They also can inflect for one of four grammatical numbers
(singular, plural, collective and paucal). The collective number conveys the idea of totality, while the
paucal conveys the idea of a small number.

As well as having gender and number, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns have forms with different
endings according to their function in the sentence, for example, dārys "king" (subject), but dāri
"king" (object). These different forms are called cases. Most nouns have eight cases: nominative
(subject), accusative (direct object), genitive ("of"), dative (indirect object; "to" or "for"), locative
("in"), instrumental ("with" or "by"), comitative ("with" or "together with"), and vocative (used for
addressing). Some noun declension classes merge two or more cases. Also, there is no definite or
indefinite article in High Valyrian, so that dārys can mean "king", "a king", or "the king" according to
context.

Adjectives must agree with nouns in gender, number and case, and have four degrees of comparison
(positive, comparative, superlative and equative). Adjectives may precede or follow a noun, except
for certain determiners and demonstratives, which almost always precede. If such an adjective
follows its noun, it gives it a more "official" feel. In some cases, this might be done for simple
emphasis. When an adjective is postpositive, that is, when it follows the noun it modifies, it has the
complete set of endings. However, when it is prepositive, meaning it precedes the noun, the endings
are shortened and more prone to fall together.

Verbs conjugate for seven tenses (present, aorist, future, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect and past
habitual), two voices (active and passive) and three moods (indicative, subjunctive and imperative).
Tenses in High Valyrian often convey information both about time and aspect. Finite verb forms
agree with the subject in person and number. There are also non-finite verb forms (infinitives and
participles), which do not. To show agreement, finite verbs take various endings, for example iksan
means "I am", even without the independent personal pronoun nyke "I". High Valyrian usually omits
these pronouns, except when emphasis on the subject is desired, i.e. is a pro-drop language. High
Valyrian also employs a number of verbal prefixes called applicatives, which can change how the
semantic roles of the verb (agent, patient and so on) are encoded (specifically which case is used for
which role).