Trigedasleng: The Post-Apocalyptic Language of The 100

Trigedasleng is the constructed language of the Grounders in The 100, the CW series that ran from 2014 to 2020. David J. Peterson built it. If you know that name, you know he also created Dothraki and High Valyrian for Game of Thrones. Trigedasleng is a different kind of project. It is not a language built from scratch with its own phonology and grammar. It is a creole descended from English, evolved over 97 years after a nuclear apocalypse wiped out most of civilization.

The premise is specific. The 100 is set after a nuclear war destroys society. Survivors on the ground formed clans. Over 97 years, their English drifted into a new language. The vocabulary is recognizably English at the root level. The pronunciation, grammar, and idioms have shifted enough that the characters in the show, who speak standard English, cannot understand Trigedasleng without learning it.

You can experiment with the vocabulary using our Trigedasleng Translator. It handles word-level translation between English and Trigedasleng. If you want to compare it to Peterson's other work, the Dothraki and Valyrian translator covers his Game of Thrones languages, which are built from scratch rather than derived from an existing language.

The 100 was developed by Jason Rothenberg for the CW network, based on a novel series by Kass Morgan. The show premiered on March 19, 2014, and ran for seven seasons, ending in 2020. The premise: 97 years after a nuclear apocalypse, a space station called the Ark sends 100 juvenile delinquents to the surface to test whether Earth is habitable. On the ground, they discover survivors. Those survivors are the Grounders, descendants of people who weathered the apocalypse on Earth's surface.

The Grounders are organized into clans. They have their own culture, combat traditions, and political structures. They also have their own language: Trigedasleng. The language is a marker of Grounder identity. Characters who speak Trigedasleng are signaling that they belong to the ground, not to the Ark or the Mountain Men. The language barrier is a plot device in early seasons. Characters learn Trigedasleng to communicate, to negotiate, and to prove their loyalty.

According to the Wikipedia article on Trigedasleng, the language was created by David J. Peterson for the show's second season. Peterson was hired after his work on Dothraki and Valyrian for Game of Thrones established him as the go-to conlanger for television. The CW and Rothenberg wanted a language that felt like it could have evolved from English in a post-apocalyptic setting, and Peterson was the right person for that specific brief.

Peterson has said that Trigedasleng is the most phonologically divergent English-derived conlang he has created. The language is not a cipher over English. It is a creole, meaning it developed from English through a process of natural-seeming linguistic drift. The vocabulary roots are English. The sound changes, grammatical simplifications, and new idioms are invented but follow patterns that real creoles follow.

The International Phonetic Association's Handbook of the IPA documents how sound systems shift over time through processes like vowel reduction, consonant lenition, and stress changes. Peterson applied these processes to English to derive Trigedasleng's phonology. English "you" became "yu." English "I" became "ai." English "us" became "oso." These are not random changes. They follow predictable phonological pathways that real languages undergo when they split and evolve in isolation.

The grammar has simplified in ways that creoles typically do. English has complex tense and aspect marking. Trigedasleng streamlines some of this. The word "laik" (from English "like") functions as a copula and auxiliary marker. Sentence structure is more regular than standard English, which is characteristic of creole languages. Creoles tend to reduce irregular forms and exceptions that build up in parent languages over centuries.

Peterson documented the language on his personal website, dedalvs.com, where he posts grammar sketches, vocabulary lists, and notes on his conlang projects. The Trigedasleng section includes a dictionary, pronunciation guide, and grammar overview. Fans have used this documentation to learn the language, translate dialogue, and create new phrases. The The 100 Wiki also maintains community-compiled Trigedasleng resources.

The timeline matters. Trigedasleng evolved over 97 years. That is roughly three to four generations. In real-world linguistics, 97 years is not enough time for a language to become mutually unintelligible with its parent under normal conditions. English from 1929 is perfectly comprehensible to English speakers in 2026. The premise of Trigedasleng requires an explanation for why the language drifted so fast.

Peterson's answer is the apocalypse. When a speech community is isolated, under survival pressure, and cut off from the stabilizing forces of mass media, education, and written standards, language change accelerates. The Grounders had no schools, no printing presses, no television, no internet. They had oral tradition and survival needs. In those conditions, phonological shifts compound quickly. Slang becomes standard. Simplifications become grammar. Within three generations, the result can be a new variety that is hard for outsiders to parse.

Real-world examples exist. Tok Pisin, the English-based creole spoken in Papua New Guinea, developed from English-based pidgins in the 19th century and is now an official language of Papua New Guinea. It is mutually intelligible with English at the word level but has its own grammar and phonology. Tok Pisin evolved faster than standard English because it was used as a contact language between speakers of many different native languages. Trigedasleng follows a similar logic: the Grounders needed a shared language across clans, and the post-apocalyptic conditions accelerated its divergence from the English of the Ark.

The result is a language that sounds like English if you squint. Individual words are recognizable. "Jus" is "juice." "Heda" is "header" or "commander." "Wanheda" is "won" (past tense of win) plus "heda," meaning "commander of death" or "one who has defeated death." The compound words are built from English roots but have meanings specific to Grounder culture. You cannot always guess the meaning from the English root alone. You have to know the cultural context.

Here are some of the most frequently used Trigedasleng words from the show, with their English derivations and meanings.

"Yu" means "you." It comes directly from English "you" with a vowel shift. "Ai" means "I" or "me." It comes from English "I," pronounced as a diphthong. "Oso" means "us" or "we." It comes from English "us" with a vowel change and an added initial vowel. "Laik" means "is" or functions as a copula/auxiliary. It comes from English "like," which in some English dialects already functions as a quotative or filler marker.

"Jus" means "blood." It comes from English "juice." In Grounder culture, blood has spiritual significance, and the word "jus" appears in several important phrases. "Jus drein, jus daun" means "blood drunk, blood done" or more colloquially "blood must have blood," the Grounder principle of vengeance.

"Heda" means "commander" or "leader." It comes from English "header," repurposed. "Wanheda" is a compound: "wan" (from English "won," past tense of "win") plus "heda." It means "commander of death," a title given to Clarke Griffin after she kills a significant number of people. The title is not a compliment. It marks Clarke as someone who brings death, and the Grounders treat the title with a mix of fear and respect.

These words show how Trigedasleng works. The roots are English. The meanings have shifted to fit Grounder culture. The pronunciation has drifted. The grammar has simplified. You can hear the English underneath, but you have to learn the language to understand it fluently. Our Trigedasleng Translator handles the core vocabulary. For comparison with another English-derived fictional language, the Minionese Translator covers a very different kind of English-based gibberish, one that has no grammar at all.

The 100 ran for seven seasons and ended in 2020. A prequel series, codenamed "Second Dawn," was developed by Jason Rothenberg for the CW. The prequel was set in the early aftermath of the nuclear apocalypse and would have shown the origins of the Grounders and, presumably, the early evolution of Trigedasleng. A backdoor pilot aired as an episode within The 100's seventh season.

The CW canceled the prequel in November 2021. The network was going through a period of restructuring, and several genre shows were cut. No revival or reboot of The 100 has been announced as of 2026. The franchise is dormant. The seven seasons and the backdoor pilot are the complete screen output.

For Trigedasleng, the cancellation means the language is frozen at the state Peterson left it. No new episodes means no new dialogue, and no new dialogue means no new vocabulary from the original creator. The fan community continues to use and expand the language based on Peterson's documentation, but there is no official source adding to it. This is similar to what happened with Na'vi after the first Avatar film: the language existed but waited years for new material. The difference is that Na'vi eventually got more films. Trigedasleng has not.

The primary source for Trigedasleng is David Peterson's website, dedalvs.com, where he maintains grammar notes and vocabulary for his conlang projects. The Trigedasleng section includes a dictionary and pronunciation guide. Peterson has also discussed the language in interviews and at conventions, and some of those talks are available online.

The fan community has compiled additional resources. The The 100 Wiki has a Trigedasleng section with word lists and phrase guides. Reddit communities and Discord servers dedicated to The 100 and to constructed languages have active discussions where fans translate phrases and debate grammar points. Peterson occasionally engages with these communities to clarify usage.

If you want to hear the language spoken, the show itself is the best reference. The 100 is available on streaming platforms. The Trigedasleng dialogue is concentrated in seasons 2 through 4, when the Grounder politics are most central to the plot. Peterson provided pronunciation guides and audio to the actors, and the delivery on screen is generally accurate to his phonological design.

For a broader look at Peterson's work, our Dothraki and Valyrian translator covers his Game of Thrones languages, and the Na'vi translator covers Paul Frommer's Avatar language. Comparing these tools shows the range of approaches in modern conlanging: from scratch (Dothraki, Na'vi), from an existing language (Trigedasleng from English), and from a mix of sources (High Valyrian, which draws on Latin and Greek without being derived from either).