With HBO’s House of the Dragon set to debut just a little over a month from now, you’d be hard-pressed to bone up on your High Valyrian in time for the premiere by trying to watch all of Game of Thrones. Surely, some will try, but for those looking for a less time-consuming way of learning the fictional language or refreshing their skills, Duolingo has an alternative.
Just in time for House of the Dragon’s launch, Duolingo’s expanding its High Valyrian course with 150 new words developed in partnership with David J. Peterson, the fantasy linguist who helped design the language for HBO’s Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Duolingo’s expanded High Valyrian course also features over 700 new sentences directly related to House of the Dragon, and the company is set to begin rolling out a series of ads across the US featuring the language meant to test people’s skills.
Unlike in Game of Thrones, where Daenerys Targaryen was one of the last living people fluent in High Valyrian, the language is alive and well in the time of House of the Dragon — a prequel series set 200 years in the past before House Targaryen’s fall. While High Valyrian was present throughout Game of Thrones in a number of pivotal moments, Peterson’s said that the language features much more largely in House of the Dragon’s first season, and he hopes to expand it even further should the show end up being renewed.
While House of the Dragon isn’t set to premiere until August 21st, 2022, Duolingo’s expanded course is available now.
The post The Duolingo owl wants to teach you even more of Game of Thrones’ High Valyrian appeared first on The Verge.
