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Meet The UC-Educated Linguist Who Developed 'Game Of Thrones' Language

(CBS) -- When the actors in "Game of Thrones" speak in their distinctive foreign language, they aren't just making it up. In fact, the HBO hit show may be pure fantasy, but the languages some of the characters speak is not.

They have a fully functional grammar system, phonology and lexicon, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy on Monday's edition of "CBS This Morning."

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It was invented in the home office of David Peterson, the linguist who created both high Valyrian and Dothraki - new languages that have helped define "Game of Thrones." Peterson has now created more than 5,000 words for the show and all the corresponding parts of speech. Every single word is its own battle.

According to his online biography, Peterson received bachelor's degrees at the University of California, Berkeley and a master's in linguistics at the University of California, San Diego.

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