Who's to say that some of the languages don't share a common ancestry? Maybe there was originally some kind of ursprache that each language has developed from. Cultures that come into contact with one another often exchange linguistic traits in their languages too. If the common tongue is to be seen as a sort of lingua franca then it would make sense that it incorporated aspects of all the languages.
I'd be hesitant to reason from orthography to phonetics, particularly with regard to gemination. Since English doesn't exhibit gemination in root words, but frequently exhibits doubled consonant letters (as in, for example, "letters"), I find it unlikely that GRRM would assign any phonetic reality to this doubling. Unless, of course, he speaks Italian—but I don't think he does.
I don't think this will help, but I never really assumed that the common tognue was english. I kinda' thought that the common tognue could be a different language, but since Martin's readers read english, he just wrote everything in english as if he just translated it into our language. That may not make much sense, but I always wondered about that.
please add subtitles to your videos
LaFara125 9 months ago
Who's to say that some of the languages don't share a common ancestry? Maybe there was originally some kind of ursprache that each language has developed from. Cultures that come into contact with one another often exchange linguistic traits in their languages too. If the common tongue is to be seen as a sort of lingua franca then it would make sense that it incorporated aspects of all the languages.
Just some thoughts.. great video though!
Cowleesa 9 months ago
japanese
burmese
...
probably a construction in the common speech. the dothraki might call themselves something else entirely. (endonym/exonym)
nactan 1 year ago
@EuripidesV Good call. I'm sure David Peterson has accounted for that, though.
LearnDothraki 1 year ago
I'd be hesitant to reason from orthography to phonetics, particularly with regard to gemination. Since English doesn't exhibit gemination in root words, but frequently exhibits doubled consonant letters (as in, for example, "letters"), I find it unlikely that GRRM would assign any phonetic reality to this doubling. Unless, of course, he speaks Italian—but I don't think he does.
EuripidesV 1 year ago
I don't think this will help, but I never really assumed that the common tognue was english. I kinda' thought that the common tognue could be a different language, but since Martin's readers read english, he just wrote everything in english as if he just translated it into our language. That may not make much sense, but I always wondered about that.
ThePhilosophersAbyss 1 year ago 2
@ThePhilosophersAbyss That makes complete sense. As I said, Tolkien did the same thing with "Westron". It's an interesting idea.
LearnDothraki 1 year ago