Khal

Dothraki

Etymology

From Proto-Plains *xal.

Source

Coined by George R. R. Martin in the book A Game of Thrones.

Source Spelling

khal

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈxal/

Noun

khal (nominative singular, animate, plural khali)

1. leader of a khalasar (a band of Dothraki), roughly equivalent to English words like chief, king, leader, ruler

   Khal fini laz vos dothrao, vos khal.

   A khal who cannot ride is not a khal.

   -Qotho (Game of Thrones, Episode 109)

Inflection

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	khal	khali
Accusative	khales	khalis
Genitive	khali
Allative	khalaan	khalea
Ablative	khaloon	khaloa

Derived Terms

• khalakka
• khalakki
• khalasar
• khaleen
• khaleesi

 

Creation and Usage Notes

George R. R. Martin was clearly inspired by the words "khan" and "khagan", both words used for "ruler" in the Silk Road era in Mongolia. Khal is a nice example of a word for which an adequate definition (or adequate one-word definition) simply doesn't exist—the reason being that no precise notional equivalent exists in our universe. It's also a little silly to define the khal as the leader of a khalasar, but what else can one do? As a note, it looks like I may have made a mistake in the dialogue for 109 above. It should be Khal fini laz vo dothrao, vos khal. I believe what he actually says is Khal fini laz vos dothrao, vos khal. I don't know what I was thinking. It may have been for parallelism. It may have been nothing more than a mistake. At this stage I simply don't remember. Either way, it's vo before consonants and vos before vowels, though for emphasis... Oh wait. For emphasis, it's vos before consonants, isn't it? My bad. Okay, I'll change it above. (But of course this is the first time this page will ever be published, so the vo version will never be seen!) -David J. Peterson 15:26, 1 April 2020 (PDT)