Mahrazh

Dothraki

Dothraki Phrasebook

This entry is part of the phrasebook project, which presents criteria for inclusion based on utility, simplicity and commonality.

For other Dothraki entries on this topic, see Basic.

From an invisible proto-language.
The etymology of this word comes from an invisible proto-language. If you're confident you know the etymology, feel free to add it, but reader beware should the etymology be added by someone other than the creator of the language!

IPA^(key): /mahˈɾaʒ/

Rhymes: -aʒ

mahrazh (animate, plural mahrazhi)

Sense: male person (man) ^[‌edit‌]

In A Game of Thrones, there are a group of people referred to as the jaqqa rhan or "mercy men". After a battle, they go through and kill whoever is not yet dead but is critically wounded and suffering. Based on everything I knew about Dothraki at the time, if I were to accept "mercy men" as a direct translation, rhan would mean "mercy" or "merciful", or something like that, and jaqqa would mean "men". With a geminate uvular stop. You have to figure a word like "man" is going to enjoy some frequent use in dialogue, so there was no way I could possibly let jaqqa mean something as basic as "man", even if it made textual sense to let it be so. Consequently, I gave to jaqqa a meaning rather like "executioner": a bit literal, but I did what I felt I had to. Having done so, I was now free to do whatever I wanted with the word for "man". Given that freedom, I felt I owed Dothraki something cool. I've long been a fan of post-vocalic [h], as you have it in Arabic, and my favorite sound is [ʒ], so I decided to throw them both in. To my mind, mahrazh is one of the coolest sounding words I've ever created. I still like it. I always hoped the fans of the books would be okay with it. -David J. Peterson 01:23, 25 May 2020 (PDT)