Gerna Mohr,[1][a] also known as True Tongue,[1] is the language of the Children of the Forest.
Behind the scenes[]
In a February 2019 interview with Huffington Post, linguist David J. Peterson said that he developed a new, full constructed language for the Children of the Forest to speak when they appeared in Season 6. However, "for a variety of reasons" (a desire to avoid the need for subtitles during action sequences, stunt people having difficulty with their lines), they "were either cut or shortened, and all of them were turned into English." As Peterson said, "It was an idea. They tried it. It just didn’t work."
Cut lines[]
The following is a list of all Gerna Mohr lines that were cut from "The Door," as revealed by David J. Peterson.[1]
- "Nguwas shonji!" (Hold them back!)
- "Nyahl!" (Here!)
- "Hi!" (No!)
- "Shagukwamanji, ni-Burán!" (Protect Bran!)
- "Gi, gi, gi!" (Move, move, move!)
- "Nyahahl!" (Now!)
- "Tagungi!" (Fire!)
- "Shoguldani!" (Stop them!)
- "Gernat!" (For the Earth!)
- "Buranat!" ("For Bran!)
- "Nyagyesanks!" (This way!)
- "Magulnenya!" (Into the cave!)
- "Awahl utwommani!" (Block them off!)
- "Awassa gi!" (Go around them!)
- "Duraha toda oboldasa nyahenya. Gudniyahl ngugwa yahat todanasa ojigli." (Too many have died already. We must be ready before more invaders cross over.)
- "Ngubgukwamanjiyassa, fowanjildiyahl ngugwi." (Either we protect ourselves or we risk losing everything.)
- "Nassa durahal hafwa. Nyiha guldaniyahl ngugwa nyah." (The threat is too great. We must end this now.)
In the books[]
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the "True Tongue" is the language of the children of the forest. The name the children call themselves in the True Tongue means "those who sing the song of the earth."
In "A Dance with Dragons", when Bran Stark stays with the surviving children at Bloodraven's cave, he overhears them speaking the True Tongue. Leaf knows how to speak to them in the Common Tongue, but some of the other children can only speak the True Tongue.
Absolutely no words or even proper names from the True Tongue have been given in the novels.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 David J. Peterson (May 12, 2020). Conlang Dialogue: Game of Thrones, Episode 605. Archive of Our Own. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
Notes[]
- ↑ In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, it is said that the name the Children call themselves in their own tongue means "those who sing the song of the earth." In a cut line, one of the Children exclaims "Gernat," meaning "for the earth." Therefore it is probable that "Gerna" means "the earth" or "of the earth" and "Mohr" means "song," and that "Gerna Mohr" can be roughly translated as "song of the earth."
