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The savage horse lords of Game of Thrones would still be speaking gibberish were it not for David Peterson, an accomplished linguist and the creator of the official guide to conversational Dothraki. In an interview with Salon, he talks about how he was approached to flesh out the Essos-dwelling nomads language for the television series. Peterson began by cataloging the 50 or so Dothraki words from the book, before analyzing their structure and pronunciation. However, Peterson says that the author has used Dothraki words to create names in the The Lands of Ice and Fire map book and has also asked the linguist to assist in translations. While there are about 3,800 Dothraki words, Peterson tells Salon that his language course features around 500 words and idiomatic phrases, and can only assist in putting together a variety of simpler phrases. It should nonetheless be sufficient to help fans understand much of dialogue from the first and second seasons of Game of Thrones.