For thousands of years mankind has been using languages to understand and communicate with one another and it may not seem as if there are new languages being created in the 21st century, this is not the case. 

To help kickoff the start of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’s LAS Week David J. Peterson will be talking about the secrets on what it takes to create a new language in tonights lecture in linguistics, which will be held tonight at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. 

Peterson is the creator of the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for HBO’s Game of Thrones, making him a qualified speaker in the topic of linguistics. His other notable languages include the Irathient, Castithan, and Omec languages from Syfy’s Defiance as well as the the Dark Elves’ Schivaisith language in Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World.

Peterson received his B.A. from University of California Berkeley and his M.A. from University of California San Diego. He helped co-found the Language Creation Society in 2007 and served as its president from 2011-2014. 

During tonights lecture Peterson will be discussing how he constructed the languages of Dothraki and Valyrian and will also being giving insights on what it takes to create a successful language. The Lecture is titled “The Art of Language Invention” and will be one of the first of many events this week in celebration of LAS Week.