Dothraki Phonology

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The Dothraki language has 20 consonants, 4 vowels and 2 glides.

Standard Orthography

Dothraki	IPA	Informal	English example	Notes
a	a	aah	father
ch	t͡ʃ	ch	check
d	d̪	d	dog	dental
e	e	e	play	"Then" would be pronounced as [e]. [e] makes the sound in say and great
f	f	ff	fool
g	g	g	good
h	h	hh	ham
i	i	ee	machine
j	d͡ʒ	j	judge
k	k	k	kill
kh	x	x	Bach
l	l̪	ll	left	dental
m	m	mm	man, ham
n	n̪	nn	no, tin	dental
o	o	oh	toe	Not as a diphthong. Said like the Minnesota "o"
q	q	k
r	ɾ, r	rr		trilled when at the beginning of the word and followed by a vowel; at the end of the word; when doubled; tap medially elsewhere
s	s	ss	see, city
sh	ʃ	shh	ship
t	t̪	t'	stop, top	dental
th	θ	th	thin
v	v	vuh	voice, have
w	w	wuh	wave, dowager
y	j	y'	yes
z	z	zz	zoo
zh	ʒ		azure

Apart from names, the letters p, b, u and x do not appear in the ortography of diegetically modern Dothraki, and c appears only in the digraph ch.

Geminates

For phonemes that are marked with digraph, the geminate has a reduced ortography, eg. kkh instead of khkh. This does not affect the pronunciation, these are geminates just as any others.

Dothraki	IPA	Never
kkh	xx	*kx
ssh	ʃʃ	*sʃ
tth	θθ	*tθ
zzh	ʒʒ	*zʒ
cch	tt͡ʃ

Consonants

Dothraki has 22 consonant phonemes. The IPA pronunciation symbol is indicated in square brackets when different from the standard orthography:

Consonnants of Dothraki

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m || n [n̪]
Plosive/Affricate	voiceless		t [t̪]		ch [t͡ʃ]	k || q ||
	voiced		d [d̪]		j [d͡ʒ]	ɡ || ||
Fricative	voiceless	f || th [θ]	s || sh [ʃ]	kh [x]		h [h ~ ħ ]
	voiced	v || || z || zh [ʒ]
Approximant		w || l [l̪]		y [j]
Rhotic				r [r ~ ɾ ] || || || ||

The digraphs kh, sh, th and zh are all fricatives, while ch and j are affricates.

Doubled consonants are always pronounced geminated.

Allophones of consonnants

As in any natural or natural-aspiring language, there are some phones in Dothraki that are considered—and even heard—the same with each other.

Complementary Distribution

Some phonemes change according to the surrounding phones, to ease the pronunciation.

• In syllable-final position, h [h] shifts to [ħ]
• Stop produced at the same region of mouth as the fricative following it changes to geminate of the fricative. This can occur when words are derived, especially when compounds are formed. The changed consonant cluster is marked in the ortography.

Free Variation

There is no definite line between complementary distribution and free variation; some variation happens always when the surrounding phones call for it, some may happen. Some variation is indifferent of the surrounding phones.

• While Dothraki has no labial plosives, [p] or [b], both of these have been available in the past and have developed into [f] and [v], respectively. The [p] and [b] phones can still be met as free variants of f [f] and v [v], and should generally go unnoticed.
• Voiceless stops, t [t], k [k] and q [q] even ch [t͡ʃ] may be aspirated.

Vowels

Dothraki has four vowel phonemes:

Vowels of Dothraki

	Front	Back
Close	i [i]
Mid	e [e]	o [o]
Open	a [a]

There are no diphthongs or long vowels.

Allophones of vowels

With only four vowel phonemes, Dothraki vowels have more room to shift than in other languages. They should be treated as little less precisely placed than vowels in English. Because the sound [q] is produced far in the throat, vowels immediately following [q] undergo a considerable shift:

Vowel shift

Normal	After q
i	e
e	ɛ
o	ɔ
a	ɑ

o may be pronounced [u] after the velar consonants g [ɡ], k [k], and kh [x]. In addition, o may be pronounced [ɤ] after the dental consonants t [t̪], d' [d̪], n [n̪], and l [l̪].

Relevant Information Elsewhere

• Peterson, David J. (16 September 2011). "Long (or Doubled) Consonants". Dothraki.com.
• Peterson, David J. (14 November 2011). "Qute Noises". Dothraki.com.