Translating Sirens of the Deep with David J. Peterson and Jessie Peterson

Whiskey with Witcher

While we've been known to occasionally make up our own words, our guests in this week's special episode do it for a living. David J. Peterson and Jessie Peterson are professional linguists and conlangers—those are people who construct their own languages—and you've heard their work in Dune, Shadow & Bone, Elemental, Game of Thrones and, of course, The Witcher. What's involved in creating an all-new language? How long does the process take? How difficult is it to teach it to actors? And have they created any swear words of which they're particularly proud? (Look, you knew we were going to ask.) David and Jessie answer these questions and many more, while sharing secrets about the musical language they created for Sirens of the Deep. They even answer one of our burning questions about the film's ending, so while you may not end the episode fluent in the elder tongue, you WILL learn something new. You can find David J. Peterson on Bluesky and AO3 at @dedalvs and on Instagram at @athdavrazar. Jessie Peterson can be found at @quothalinguist on both Bluesky and Instagram, and her Conlang Year experience can be found at quothalinguist.com. Watch David and Jessie conlang live at @LangTimeStudio on YouTube.