‘Game of Thrones’ fans can learn High Valyrian language on app

TORONTO — Viewers anxiously awaiting the return of “Game of Thrones’’ can get an early start on the action with a lesson in High Valyrian. Language-teaching app Duolingo and American linguist David J. Peterson drafted a virtual course that lets fans pick up the fictional vocabulary spoken on HBO’s show. It’s most commonly used by Daenerys — the ruler known as the Mother of Dragons — on the series, but Valyrian has quickly become a dying language as many of the characters get killed off. Petersen was instrumental in adapting the fictional language used sparsely by author George R.R. Martin in the fantasy novels “A Song of Ice and Fire,’’ on which the TV show is based.

He started building the language with those parts, in particular phrases like “Valar Morghulis,’’ or “All men must die,’’ and “Valar Dohaeris’’ or “All men must serve.’’ “Game of Thrones’’ returns to HBO Canada on Sunday.