While fans of the original “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series by George R.R. Martin might disagree, there is still a strong and eager following for the next part of the franchise’s TV adaptation “Game of Thrones” on HBO. Trailers for season 7, as well as the blurbs for its first episodes, have supporters of the various in-universe character factions on tenterhooks.

Will the warring leaders of Westeros prioritize finishing their politically-driven warfare or the ancient threat about to destroy their world? We’ll have to wait until next Sunday and the six Sundays after that.

Meanwhile, more dedicated and geeky fans of “ASOIAF/GOT” might be able to appreciate a new option being offered by language translating app Duolingo. Are you interested in learning High Valyrian?

Fictional language course

Duolingo, a language-learning website, and app widely used globally has surprised its regular customer base of 150 million users around the world by offering new lessons in the fictional language of High Valyrian from the George R.R. Martin books and HBO adaptation. As fans of “Game of Thrones” know, High Valyrian is the Latin-like language of the long-destroyed realm of Valyria, from which the ancestors of one of the book-show setting’s primary faction leaders hails from.

Martin himself was sparse with his development of High Valyrian language on his books.

Language Creation Society president David Peterson, who was contracted as a language expert by HBO for “Game of Thrones,” worked out a comprehensive grammar and vocabulary used in the show. His constructed High Valyrian is prominently spoken by Emilia Clarke, in the role of Daenerys Targaryen. Peterson’s work on the fictional tongue has been in Duolingo’s “Incubator” for eight months, but the work is almost done in its lesson curriculum.

Its July 10 announcement update for beta includes a message from Peterson reading “Valyrio Māzis” which was translated on Reddit as “Valyrian is coming.”

From two sentences

David Peterson’s language work for HBO’s “Game of Thrones” was remarkable considering that all he had to work on to create a functional enough language was rooted in only two High Valyrian sentences written in the books by George R.R.

Martin. In addition, Peterson had also crafted the show’s version of Dothraki, and Ghiscari Low Valyrian, used in incidental conversation by characters in the setting of the Essos continent.

Duolingo is the first language-learning service to formulate a formal course in the learning of High Valyrian. However other websites dedicated to “Game of Thrones” offer somewhat extensive word dictionaries, while another learning site, Living Language, offers its own course in Dothraki (also by Peterson). Time will tell if High Valyrian can match the epic timelessness of Tolkien’s Elf-tongue from “The Lord of the Rings.”