Season seven of HBO's blazingly popular Game of Thrones series is set to debut this Sunday, and Duolingo, the language-learning app, is helping extremely dedicated fans to better appreciate the show's subtleties by offering lessons in High Valyrian. To be clear, High Valyrian is a fictional language invented specifically for the Game of Thrones series, and it's spoken by Daenerys, one of the leads.
Though High Valyrian is a fictional language, it is still real in the sense of having concrete grammatical rules and an extensive dictionary. The language was designed by David J. Peterson, a language specialist who has worked on several Game of Thrones languages as well as fictional languages for several other series. Peterson also collaborated on a university course about building fictional languages.
What's Driving This Trend
- Language Learning Apps
- The rise of language-learning apps offers disruptive innovation opportunities for businesses to create specialized courses for niche languages, like High Valyrian.
- Fictional Languages
- As fictional worlds gain popularity, there is potential for disruptive innovation in creating language lessons for other fictional languages from movies, TV shows, and books.
- Gamified Learning
- Duolingo's success in offering language-learning through gamification showcases the disruptive innovation potential for other industries to incorporate game-like elements in their learning experiences.
Who This Affects Most
- Language Learning
- The language learning industry can tap into the growing demand for specialized language courses by offering lessons in fictional languages like High Valyrian.
- Entertainment
- The entertainment industry can explore disruptive innovation opportunities by creating language-learning experiences for popular fictional languages from movies, TV shows, and books, enhancing fan engagement.
- Edtech
- The EdTech industry can leverage gamified learning approaches to create engaging and effective learning experiences for various subjects, expanding beyond traditional teaching methods.
