David Joshua Peterson (born January 20, 1981) is an American
conlanger who has constructed languages for television series such as ''
Game of Thrones'' and
''The 100'' and movies such as ''
Thor: The Dark World'' and ''
Dune.''
Life
Peterson was born to a father of German descent and a mother of Mexican descent. Studying at
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
(1999–2003), Peterson received
BA degrees in English and in linguistics.
He received an
MA in linguistics from
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
(2003–2006).
He had his first contact with constructed languages while still at Berkeley, after attending an
Esperanto class in 2000. In 2007, he co-founded the Language Creation Society with nine other language creators
and served as its president (2011–2014).
In 2009, the television network HBO needed
a fictional language for the ''
Game of Thrones'' television series and turned to the Language Creation Society for help. This resulted in a contest, which Peterson won.
He produced a number of videos on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, in a series called ''The Art of Language Invention,'' and published a book of the same title in 2015. Peterson also worked as an executive producer on the 2017 documentary film, ''
Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues''.
In 2019, Peterson created a free
High Valyrian
The Valyrian languages are a fictional language family in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, and in their television adaptation ''Game of Thrones'' and later ''House of the Dragon''.
In the novels, H ...
course on the Duolingo website/app and expanded the course in conjunction with the ''
House of the Dragon
''House of the Dragon'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal for HBO. A prequel to '' Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), it is the second TV show in the '' A Song of Ice and Fire'' franch ...
'' series premiere in August 2022.
Filmography
Television
Films
Video games
Operas
Books
Bibliography
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, David J.
1981 births
Constructed language creators
People from Long Beach, California
Living people
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of California, San Diego alumni
American people of German descent
American people of Mexican descent