The Witcher: Creating the 'Elder Speech' Language for the Netflix Series – IGN First

When you think of the world-building necessary for big-budget fantasy adaptations like Game of Thrones or The Witcher, you’re probably thinking of the cast, set designs, and the use of special effects whenever a dragon or Kikimora is needed. And while all those facets are important for creating a realistic fantasy world, arguably one of the most important aspects of any series is creating believable languages and dialects that populate these mystical realms, from GOT’s Dothraki to The Witcher’s Elves and Mages. To prepare you to enter The Witcher’s Continent, we spoke to language guru David J. Peterson, the man behind those aforementioned tongues, to learn how it’s all done.The language Peterson created for The Witcher on Netflix is known as the “Elder Speech,” which can be found in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels. “When you’re working with an established property like The Witcher, the fans have collected some of the stuff online, but I found the best place to go is the original books themselves, and specifically, what kind of translations they’ve been given to figure out not only what the words are, but also how you think they might be pronounced, and what grammar can be gleaned from the sentences,” Peterson told IGN.

If you want to hear David J. Peterson say something in Elder Speech, watch the video below or at the top of the page:

When we sat down with series creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to talk more about the Elder Speech, she informed us that it was important to build out the language Sapkowski started in order for the show to “feel as realistic as possible.” She went on to say that by the time you get to the middle of Season 1, “There are entire scenes that are done in Elder Speech. We’re relying on it that much.”

For those of us uninitiated in the language-creation arts, the process seems like a very daunting task, however, Peterson laid out his process for us as if he were merely checking off boxes on his grocery shopping list. “If it’s a spoken language, I generally start with the sound system and then move onto the grammar, which I break down with the grammar of nouns first and then move onto the verbs — nouns are simpler,” Peterson explained. “Then after the nouns and verbs, [I] decide if we’re going to have things like adjectives, if the adjectives are going to have inflection, if there’s going to be manner adverbs that inflect, if there’s going to be any kind of ad-positions [and] if they’re going to inflect,” and Peterson’s list goes on and on.

Hissrich told us that she loves Peterson’s “methodical-perfectionist” approach when it comes to creating language, which is probably why he’s a hot commodity right now. Along with Game of Thrones and The Witcher, Peterson has worked on The 100, Penny Dreadful, and director’s Denis Villeneuve’s adaption of Dune.

David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.