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The Klingon language ( tlh, tlhIngan Hol, links=no, ''
'':
, ) is the
constructed language
A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...
spoken by a fictional alien race called the
Klingon
The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''.
Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...
s, in the ''
Star Trek'' universe.
Described in the 1985 book ''
The Klingon Dictionary
''The Klingon Dictionary (TKD)'' is a book by Marc Okrand describing the Klingon language. First published in 1985 and then again with an addendum in 1992, it includes pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. It has sold more than three hundred tho ...
'' by
Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand (; born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. His professional work is in Native American languages, and he is well known as the creator of the Klingon language in the '' Star Trek'' science fiction franchise.
Linguistics
As a li ...
and deliberately designed to sound "alien", it has a number of
typologically uncommon features. The language's basic sound, along with a few words, was devised by actor
James Doohan
James Montgomery Doohan (; March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005) was a Canadian actor, author and soldier, best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series '' Star Trek''. Doohan's characterization of the Scottis ...
("
Scotty") and producer
Jon Povill
Jon Povill (born August 29, 1946) is an American scriptwriter and television producer. He wrote the first two drafts of the screenplay for '' Total Recall'' in the 1970s, and then took up a position on the attempted ''Star Trek: Phase II
...
for ''
Star Trek: The Motion Picture''. That film marked the first time the language had been heard. In all previous appearances, Klingons spoke in English, even to each other. Klingon was subsequently developed by Okrand into a full-fledged language.
Klingon is sometimes referred to as ''Klingonese'' (most notably in the ''
Star Trek: The Original Series
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship and its crew. It later acquired the retronym of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (''TOS'') to distinguis ...
'' episode "
The Trouble with Tribbles
"The Trouble with Tribbles" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by David Gerrold and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on December 29, 1967. In ...
", where it was actually pronounced by a Klingon character as "Klingonee" ), but among the Klingon-speaking community, this is often understood to refer to another Klingon language called Klingonaase that was introduced in
John M. Ford's 1984 ''Star Trek'' novel ''
The Final Reflection,'' and appears in other ''Star Trek'' novels by Ford.
The play ''
A Klingon Christmas Carol'' is the first production that is primarily in Klingon (only the narrator speaks English). The opera is entirely in Klingon.
A small number of people are capable of conversing in Klingon. Because its vocabulary is heavily centered on ''Star Trek''-Klingon concepts such as
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
or
warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regul ...
, it can sometimes be cumbersome for everyday use.
History
The language is first mentioned in the original ''Star Trek'' series episode "
The Trouble with Tribbles
"The Trouble with Tribbles" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by David Gerrold and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on December 29, 1967. In ...
" (1967), but is not heard until ''
Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
). According to the actor who spoke the lines,
Mark Lenard, James Doohan recorded the lines he had written on a tape, and Lenard transcribed the recorded lines in a way he found useful in learning them.
For ''
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
), director
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the '' Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, th ...
and writer-producer
Harve Bennett wanted the Klingons to speak a structured language instead of random
gibberish, and so commissioned a full language, based on the phrases Doohan had originated, from Marc Okrand, who had earlier constructed four lines of
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
dialogue for ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''.
Okrand enlarged the lexicon and developed a grammar based on Doohan's original dozen words. The language appeared intermittently in later films featuring the original cast; for example, in ''
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier'' (
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
) and in ''
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'' (
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...
), where
translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
difficulties served as a
plot device
A plot device or plot mechanism
is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelie ...
.
Two "non-canon" dialects of Klingon are hinted at in the novelization of ''
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'', as
Saavik speaks in Klingon to the only Klingon officer aboard Cpt. Kruge's starship after his death, as the survivors of the
''Enterprise'''s self-destruction transport up from the crumbling Genesis Planet to the Klingon ship. The surviving officer,
Maltz, states that he speaks the ''Rumaiy'' dialect, while Saavik is speaking to him in the ''Kumburan'' dialect of Klingon, per Maltz's spoken reply to her.
With the advent of the series ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987)—in which one of the main characters,
Worf
Worf, son of Mogh is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. He appears in the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (''TNG'') and seasons four through seven of ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (''DS9'') as well as t ...
, was a Klingon—and successors, the language and various cultural aspects for the fictional species were expanded. In the episode "
A Matter of Honor
"A Matter of Honor" is the eighth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', the 34th episode overall, first broadcast on February 6, 1989. The teleplay is written by ...
", several members of a Klingon ship's crew speak a language that is not translated for the benefit of the viewer (even Commander Riker, enjoying the benefits of a
universal translator, is unable to understand) until one Klingon orders the others to "speak their
.e., humanlanguage".
A small number of non-Klingon characters were later depicted in ''Star Trek'' as having learned to speak Klingon, notably
Jean-Luc Picard and
Dax
Dax or DAX may refer to:
Business and organizations
* DAX, stock market index of the top 40 German companies
** DAX 100, an expanded index of 100 stocks, superseded by the HDAX
** TecDAX, stock index of the top 30 German technology firms
* Dax ...
.
Language
Hobbyists around the world have studied the Klingon language. At least nine Klingon translations of works of world literature have been published, among which are: ''
'' (''the
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...
''), ''
'' (''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
''), ' (''
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
)'', ' (''
Tao Te Ching
The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...
''), ' (''
the Art of War
''The Art of War'' () is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun"), is com ...
''), ' (''
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (originally ''The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'') is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of ''Lyrical Ballad ...
''), ' (''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...
''), ' (''
the Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
''), and ' (''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...
''). The Shakespearean choices were inspired by a remark from High Chancellor
Gorkon in ''
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', who said, "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." In the bonus material on the DVD, screenwriter
Nicholas Meyer and actor
William Shatner
William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...
both explain that this was an allusion to the German myth that Shakespeare was in fact German.
The
Klingon Language Institute
The Klingon Language Institute (KLI) is an independent organization originally founded in Flourtown, Pennsylvania and now located in Kentucky. Its goal is to promote the Klingon language and culture.
General
The KLI has members from all over t ...
exists to promote the language.
CBS Television Studios
CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...
owns the
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
on the official
dictionary and other
canonical
The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical examp ...
descriptions of the language. While constructed languages ("conlangs") are viewed as creations with copyright protection, natural languages are not protected, excluding dictionaries and other works created with them. Mizuki Miyashita and Laura Moll note, "Copyrights on dictionaries are unusual because the entries in the dictionary are not copyrightable as the words themselves are facts, and facts can not be copyrighted. However, the formatting, example sentences, and instructions for dictionary use are created by the author, so they are copyrightable."
Okrand had studied some
Native American and
Southeast Asian languages There have been various classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages (see the articles for the respective language families).
Language families
The five established major language families are:
* Kra–Dai
* Austronesian
*Austroasiatic
* Hm ...
, and phonological and grammatical features of these languages "worked their way into Klingon, but for the most part, not by design."
Okrand himself has stated that a design principle of the Klingon language was dissimilarity to existing natural languages in general, and English in particular. He therefore avoided patterns that are
typologically common and deliberately chose features that occur relatively infrequently in human languages. This includes above all the highly asymmetric consonant inventory and the basic
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
.
Speakers
A small number of people are capable of conversing in Klingon.
Arika Okrent
Arika Okrent is an American linguist, known particularly for her 2009 book ''In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language'', a result of her five ...
guessed in her 2009 book ''In the Land of Invented Languages'' that there might be 20–30 fluent speakers. Since that time, with the appearance of
Duolingo's Klingon course and the increasing popularity of video chat platforms such as
Zoom
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
and
Discord
Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...
, the number of conversationally fluent speakers has definitely increased; in 2021, there are perhaps 50-60. Its vocabulary, heavily centered on ''Star Trek''–Klingon concepts such as
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
or
warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regul ...
, can sometimes make it cumbersome for everyday use. For instance, while words for ''transporter ionizer unit'' (') or ''bridge'' (of a ship) (') have been known since close to the language's inception, the word for ''bridge'' in the sense of a crossing over water (') was unknown until August 2012. Nonetheless, mundane conversations are possible among skilled speakers.
One Klingon speaker,
d'Armond Speers, raised his son Alec to speak Klingon as a first language, whilst the boy's mother communicated with him in English. Alec rarely responded to his father in Klingon, although when he did, his pronunciation was "excellent". After Alec's fifth birthday, Speers reported that his son eventually stopped responding to him when spoken to in Klingon as he clearly did not enjoy it, so Speers switched to English.
In 2007, a report surfaced that
Multnomah County, Oregon, was hiring Klingon translators for its mental health program in case patients came into a psychiatric hospital speaking nothing but Klingon.
Most circulations of the report seemingly implied that this was a problem that health officials faced before; however, the original report indicated that this was just a precaution for a hypothetical and that said translator would only be paid on an as needed basis.
[ After the report was misinterpreted, the County issued another release noting that releasing the original report was a "mistake".][
In May 2009, ]Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...
, in collaboration with Ultralingua
Ultralingua is a single-click and drag-and-drop multilingual translation dictionary, thesaurus, and language reference utility. The full suite of Ultralingua language tools is available free online without the need for download and installatio ...
Inc., a developer of electronic dictionary applications, announced the release of a suite of electronic Klingon language software for most computer platforms including a dictionary, a phrasebook, and an audio learning tool.
In September 2011, Eurotalk released the "Learn Klingon" course in its ''Talk Now!'' series. The language is displayed in both Latin and pIqaD fonts, making this the first language course written in pIqaD and approved by CBS and Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand (; born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. His professional work is in Native American languages, and he is well known as the creator of the Klingon language in the '' Star Trek'' science fiction franchise.
Linguistics
As a li ...
. It was translated by Jonathan Brown and Okrand and uses the TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard developed by Apple in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. It has become the most common format for fonts on the classic Mac OS, macOS, and Microsoft Windows operating ...
font.
In August 2016, a company in the United Kingdom, Bidvine, began offering Klingon lessons as one of their services.
In March 2018, the popular language learning site Duolingo
Duolingo ( ) is an American educational technology company which produces learning apps and provides language certification.
On its main app, users can practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and listening skills using spaced repetition. D ...
opened a beta course in Klingon. After it proved its effectiveness, the company offered to promote it from beta status, but due to ongoing software issues regarding Klingon's unexpected use of upper- and lower-case letters and the apostrophe as a consonant instead of punctuation, the course developers chose not to accept the offer until the problems were addressed.
There are Klingon language meetings and linguists or students are interested in researching this topic, even writing essays about the language or its users.
Klingon speakers are also referred to in non-''Star Trek'' TV series, including ''Frasier
''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...
'', ''The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...
'', and ''Lucifer'', and was heavily featured in the " My Big Fat Geek Wedding" episode of ''The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
''.
Other media
In 2010, a Chicago Theatre company presented a version of Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' '' A Christmas Carol'' in Klingon language and a Klingon setting. On September 25, 2010, the Washington Shakespeare Company (now known as WSC Avant Bard
Avant Bard Theatre (commonly known as Avant Bard, and formerly known as WSC Avant Bard, Washington Shakespeare Company or simply WSC) is a small, primarily non-Equity theater based in Arlington, VA. The company was founded in 1990 under the name ...
) performed selections from ''Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'' and ''Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
'' in the Klingon language in Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...
. The performance was proposed by Okrand in his capacity as chairman of the group's board. This performance was reprised on February 27, 2011 featuring Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
as the Klingon Osric Osric is an Anglo-Saxon name and may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People Anglo-Saxon kings
* Osric of Deira, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira in the 630s
* Osric of Northumbria, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the 720s
* Osric of ...
and was filmed by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as part of a 5-part documentary on language entitled ''
Fry's Planet Word''.
Google Search
Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world.
The ...
and ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'', Java edition, each have a Klingon language setting.
The 2003–2010 version of the
puzzle globe
A puzzle globe (also called ''jigsaw globe'', ''globe puzzle'', ''puzzle ball'', ''puzzle sphere'' or ''spherical puzzle'') is a spherical assembly of puzzle pieces that, when put together, form a complete sphere or globe. Puzzle globes will gene ...
logo of
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
, representing its multilingualism, contained a Klingon character. When updated in 2010, the Klingon character was removed from the logo, and substituted with one from the
Ge'ez script. A
Klingon language Wikipedia was started in June 2004 at ''tlh.wikipedia.org''. It was permanently locked in August 2005 and moved to
Wikia
Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities before 2007 and later Wikia before 2019) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e. video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). Its domain is operated by Fandom, ...
. The Klingon
Wiktionary
Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a numbe ...
was closed in 2008.
The file management software
XYplorer
XYplorer (pronounced ''X-Y-plorer'' or ''Zai-plorer'', formerly known as TrackerV3) is a file manager for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11. XYplorer is a hybrid file manager that combines features found in navigational and orthodox file manag ...
has been translated into Klingon by its developer.
Microsoft's
Bing Translator attempts to translate Klingon from and to other languages. It can do a good job with individual words, and with phrases included in its training corpus, but it is not well tuned for Klingon's system of
prefixes and
suffixes. For example, "You must study it" is rendered instead as "They Must Study."
In July 2015, when Conservative
Welsh Assembly
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh ...
Member
Darren Millar formally asked the Welsh Economy Minister
about the
Welsh Government
, image =
, caption =
, date_established =
, country = Wales
, address =
, leader_title = First Minister ()
, appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...
's policy funding research into sightings of
UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
s at
Cardiff Airport
Cardiff Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Caerdydd) is the only airport offering commercial passenger services in Wales. It has been under the ownership of the Welsh Government since March 2013, operating at an arm's length as a commercial business. Pa ...
, a press officer in the Minister's office issued a written reply in Klingon: , which was translated as: "The minister will reply in due course. However this is a non-devolved matter."
With the digital-only release of ''
Star Trek: Discovery'' in 2017, streaming service
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
announced it would provide Klingon subtitles for the entire first season, translated by Klingon language expert
Lieven L. Litaer. They can be enabled like any other language provided by the streaming service, and are shown as the phonetic pronunciation rather than Klingon script.
In 2017, a version of “
The Gummy Bear Song” was uploaded to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, fully translated to the Klingon language. Its title, “”, translates to
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
as “I am a sabre bear that is chewy.” The version was released to
iTunes in 2018.
In 2020 the German artist Hans Solo (
Äi-Tiem) released an
EP ''NuqneH'', whose 5 tracks are completely rapped in Klingon language.
Language learning sources
*
Duolingo
Duolingo ( ) is an American educational technology company which produces learning apps and provides language certification.
On its main app, users can practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and listening skills using spaced repetition. D ...
features a course for Klingon, which was released on March 15, 2018 and is now in beta testing.
*The
Klingon Language Institute
The Klingon Language Institute (KLI) is an independent organization originally founded in Flourtown, Pennsylvania and now located in Kentucky. Its goal is to promote the Klingon language and culture.
General
The KLI has members from all over t ...
provides a Learn Klingon Online series of lessons to its members. The first few lessons are free to sample.
Canon
An important concept to spoken and written Klingon is
canonicity
The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...
. Only words and grammatical forms introduced by Marc Okrand are considered canonical Klingon by the KLI and most Klingonists. However, as the growing number of speakers employ different strategies to express themselves, it is often unclear as to what level of
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
is permissible. New vocabulary has been collected in a list maintained by the KLI until 2005 and has since then been followed up by Klingon expert Lieven Litaer.
Internal history
Within the fictional universe of ''Star Trek'', Klingon is derived from the original language spoken by the messianic figure
Kahless the Unforgettable, who united the Klingon home-world of under one empire more than 1500 years ago.
Many dialects exist, but the standardized dialect of prestige is almost invariably that of the sitting emperor.
Sources
The Klingon Language Institute regards the following works as canon Klingon; they serve as sources of Klingon vocabulary and grammar for all other works.
; Books
:''
The Klingon Dictionary
''The Klingon Dictionary (TKD)'' is a book by Marc Okrand describing the Klingon language. First published in 1985 and then again with an addendum in 1992, it includes pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. It has sold more than three hundred tho ...
'' (TKD)
:''
The Klingon Way
''The Klingon Way: A Warrior's Guide'' (Klingon: ''tlhIngan tIgh: SuvwI' DevmeH paq'') is a 1996 book by the linguist Marc Okrand that was published by Pocket Books. ''The Klingon Way'' is a collection of proverbs and sayings in the constructed lan ...
'' (TKW)
:''
Klingon for the Galactic Traveler'' (KGT)
:''
Sarek
Sarek is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He is a Vulcan astrophysicist, the Vulcan ambassador to the United Federation of Planets, and father of Spock. The character was originally played by Mark Lenard in the e ...
'', a novel which includes some Klingon words
:''Federation Travel Guide'', a pamphlet from Pocket Books
:'': The Klingon Epic'' (), ed. Floris Schönfeld et al., trans.
Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand (; born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. His professional work is in Native American languages, and he is well known as the creator of the Klingon language in the '' Star Trek'' science fiction franchise.
Linguistics
As a li ...
. Includes the first full edition of the ' and ' fragments.
; Audio tapes
:''Conversational Klingon'' (CK)
:''Power Klingon'' (PK)
; Electronic resources
: The ''
Klingon Language Suite'', language-learning tools from Ultralingua with Simon & Schuster
: ''
Star Trek: Klingon'', a CD-ROM game (KCD, also STK). The CD-ROM includes a Klingon learning module with speech recognition to train the player in Klingon pronunciation; this module was developed by
Dragon Systems, Inc. (which is credited on the box and in the CD-ROM) in collaboration with Marc Okrand.
: ''Talk Now! Learn Klingon'' a beginners' language course for Klingon by
Eurotalk and translated by Jonathan Brown (also known as ) and
Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand (; born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. His professional work is in Native American languages, and he is well known as the creator of the Klingon language in the '' Star Trek'' science fiction franchise.
Linguistics
As a li ...
. (2011)
; Other sources
: certain articles in ' (the journal of the KLI) (HQ)
: certain Skybox Trading Cards (SKY)
: a ''Star Trek'' Bird of Prey poster (BoP)
: on-line and in-person text/speech by Marc Okrand (mostly newsgroup postings)
The letters in parentheses following each item (if any) indicate the acronym of each source - used when quoting canon.
Phonology
Klingon has been developed with a
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
that, while based on human
natural languages, is intended to sound
alien to human ears. When initially developed, Paramount Pictures (owners of the ''Star Trek''
franchise
Franchise may refer to:
Business and law
* Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees
* Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
) wanted the Klingon language to be guttural and harsh and Okrand wanted it to be unusual, so he selected
sounds
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
that combined in ways not generally found in other languages. The effect is mainly achieved by the use of a number of
retroflex
A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...
and
uvular
Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not prov ...
consonants in the language's inventory. Klingon has twenty-one consonants and five vowels. Klingon is normally written in a variant of the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
. The orthography of this
transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
is
case-sensitive In computers, case sensitivity defines whether uppercase and lowercase letters are treated as distinct (case-sensitive) or equivalent (case-insensitive). For instance, when users interested in learning about dogs search an e-book, "dog" and "Dog" a ...
, that is,
upper and
lower case letters are not interchangeable (uppercase letters mostly represent sounds different from those expected by English speakers), although with the exception of Q/q there are no
minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate ...
s between case. In other words, while is incorrect Klingon, it cannot be misread as anything but an erroneous form of (which means ''language''); on the other hand, and are two different words, the first meaning ''be popular'' and the second meaning ''accompany''. In the discussion below, standard Klingon orthography appears in ', and the
phonemic transcription
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
is written between ''/slashes/''.
Consonants
The inventory of consonants in Klingon is spread over a number of
places of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...
. In spite of this, the inventory has many gaps: Klingon has no
velar plosives, and only one
sibilant fricative. Deliberately, this arrangement is very different from that of most human languages. The combination of an aspirated
voiceless alveolar plosive
The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postal ...
and a
voiced retroflex plosive
The voiced retroflex plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d`. Like all the retroflex ...
is particularly unusual.
There are a few dialectal pronunciation differences
(it is not known if the aforementioned non-canon ''Kumburan'' or ''Rumaiy'' dialects of ' hinted at in the novelization of ''
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' might differ):
* In the Krotmag dialect and are realized as nasal stops and
* In the Tak'ev dialect and are pre-nasalized oral stops and
In the Morskan dialect:
* is a central affricate
* is realized as glottal syllable-initially and deleted syllable-finally
* is realized as a velar fricative
Vowels
In contrast to its consonants, Klingon's inventory of vowels is simple, and similar to those of many human languages, such as
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
or
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
. There are five vowels spaced more or less evenly around the vowel space, with two back rounded vowels, one back unrounded vowel, and two front or near-front unrounded vowels. The vowel inventory is asymmetrical in that the back rounded vowels are tense and the front vowels are lax.
The two front vowels, and , represent sounds that are found in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, but are more open and lax than a typical English speaker might assume when reading Klingon text written in the Latin alphabet, thus causing the consonants of a word to be more prominent. This enhances the sense that Klingon is a clipped and harsh-sounding language.
;
Vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s
:
open back unrounded vowel (in English ''spa)
:
open-mid front unrounded vowel
The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-mid front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is a Latinised variant of the Greek lower ...
(in English ''bed)
:
near-close near-front unrounded vowel
The near-close front unrounded vowel, or near-high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , i.e. a small capital letter ''i ...
(in English ''bit'')
:
close-mid back rounded vowel
The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-mid back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
Close-mid back protruded vowel
The close ...
(in
French ''eau'' and English ''snow'')
:
close back rounded vowel (in Spanish ''tu'' and English ''you'')
Diphthongs can be analyzed phonetically as the combination of the five vowels plus one of the two
semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the c ...
s and (represented by and , respectively). Thus, the combinations , , , , , , and are possible. There are no words in the Klingon language that contain * or *.
Syllable structure
Klingon follows a strict
syllable structure. A syllable must start with a consonant (including the glottal stop) followed by one vowel. In prefixes and rare other syllables, this is enough. More commonly, this consonant-vowel pair is followed by one consonant or one of three biconsonantal
codas: /-'' - -''/. Thus, ' "record", ' "poison" and ' "targ" (a type of animal) are all legal syllable forms, but *' and *' are not. Despite this, one suffix takes the shape vowel+consonant: the endearment suffix .
Stress
In
verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
s, the stressed syllable is usually the verbal stem itself, as opposed to a prefix or any suffixes, except when a suffix ending with is separated from the verb by at least one other suffix, in which case the suffix ending in is also stressed. In addition, stress may shift to a suffix that is meant to be emphasized.
In
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
s, the final syllable of the stem (the noun itself, excluding any affixes) is stressed. If any syllables ending in are present, the stress shifts to those syllables.
The stress in other words seems to be variable, but this is not a serious issue because most of these words are only one syllable in length. There are some words which should fall under the rules above, but do not, although using the standard rules would still be acceptable.
Grammar
Klingon is an
agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
language, using mainly affixes in order to alter the function or meaning of words. Some nouns have inherently plural forms, such as ' "plate" (vs. "plates"), but most nouns require a suffix to express plurality explicitly. Depending on the type of noun (body part, being capable of using language, or neither) the suffix changes. For beings capable of using language, the suffix is '','' as in '','' meaning "
Klingon
The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''.
Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...
s," or '','' meaning "enemies". For body parts, the plural suffix is '','' as in '','' "eyes". For items that are neither body parts nor capable of speech, the suffix is '','' such as in ' ("stars"), or ' ("targs") for a Klingon animal somewhat resembling a boar. (However, a plural suffix is never obligatory. To say "The stars are beautiful", ' and ' are equally grammatical, although the second can also mean "The star is beautiful".)
The words ' and ', which on their own mean "man" and "woman" respectively, can be used in compound words to refer to the referent's sex. For example, from ' ("child") this process derives ' ("son") and ' ("daughter").
Klingon
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
s take suffixes to indicate
grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages pres ...
. There are three
noun class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...
es, two levels of
deixis, and a possession and syntactic function. In all, twenty-nine noun suffixes from five classes may be employed: ' "for my beloved true friends". A word may carry no more than one suffix from each class, and the classes have a specific order of appearance.
Verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
s in Klingon take a prefix indicating the number and person of the subject and object, whereas suffixes are taken from nine ordered classes and a special suffix class called rovers. Each of the four known rovers has a unique rule controlling its position among the suffixes in the verb. Verbs are marked for
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
, certainty, predisposition and volition, dynamic,
causative,
mood,
negation, and
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
. The Klingon verb has two moods:
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
and
imperative.
The most common
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
in Klingon is
object–verb–subject, and, in most cases, the word order is the exact reverse of English for an equivalent sentence:
(Hyphens are used in the above only to illustrate the use of affixes. Hyphens are not used in Klingon.)
An important aspect of Klingon grammar is its "ungrammaticality". As with for example
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, shortening of communicative statements is common, and is called "Clipped Klingon" (' or, more simply, ') and Ritualized Speech. Clipped Klingon is especially useful in situations where speed is a decisive factor. Grammar is abbreviated, and sentence parts deemed to be superfluous are dropped. Intentional ungrammaticality is widespread, and it takes many forms. It is exemplified by the practice of ', which Marc Okrand translates as "to misfollow the rules" or "to follow the rules wrongly".
Writing systems
![Qapla'](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Qapla%27.svg)
When written in the Latin alphabet, Klingon is unusual in being
case-sensitive In computers, case sensitivity defines whether uppercase and lowercase letters are treated as distinct (case-sensitive) or equivalent (case-insensitive). For instance, when users interested in learning about dogs search an e-book, "dog" and "Dog" a ...
, with some letters written in capitals and others in lowercase. In one contrast, ' and ', there is an actual case-sensitive pair representing two different consonants. Capitals are generally reserved for uvular or retroflex consonants pronounced further back in the mouth or throat than is normal for the corresponding English sounds, as with ', ', and '. However, ', pronounced like the in German "ich" or Scottish "loch", is further forward in the throat than English /h/. One phoneme, the vowel ', is written capital to look more like the IPA symbol for the sound /ɪ/, and can pose problems when writing Klingon in sans-serif fonts such as
Arial
Arial (also called Arial MT) is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 3.1 on, some other Microsoft software ap ...
, as it looks almost the same as the consonant '.
This has led some Klingon enthusiasts to write it lowercase like the other vowels ("i") to prevent confusion, but this use is non-canonical. Instead, a serif font that clearly distinguishes "" and "", such as
Courier
A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
or
Courier New
Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface. The typeface was designed by Howard "Bud" Kettler (1919–1999). Initially created for IBM's typewriters, it has been adapted for use as a computer font, and versions of it are installed on most deskt ...
, has traditionally been employed for writing Klingon in the Latin alphabet. In any case, it can be disambiguated through context, as never occurs next to another vowel, while always does. The apostrophe, denoting the
glottal stop, is considered a letter, not a punctuation mark, as with a
Hawaiian 'okina.
:
Klingon is often written in (
in-universe
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...
, "transliterated to") the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
as used above, but on the television series, the Klingons use their own alien writing system. In ''The Klingon Dictionary'', this alphabet is named as ', but no information is given about it. When Klingon symbols are used in ''Star Trek'' productions, they are merely decorative graphic elements, designed to emulate real
writing
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
and create an appropriate atmosphere. Enthusiasts have settled on the name ' for this writing system.
The Astra Image Corporation designed the symbols currently used to "write" Klingon for ''
Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', although these symbols are often incorrectly attributed to
Michael Okuda
Michael Okuda is an American graphic designer best known for his work on ''Star Trek'' including designing futuristic computer user interfaces known as "okudagrams".
Career
Work in ''Star Trek''
In the mid-1980s, he designed the look of ani ...
. They based the letters on the
Klingon battlecruiser hull markings (three letters) first created by
Matt Jefferies
Walter Matthew Jefferies (August 12, 1921 – July 21, 2003) was an American aviation and mechanical artist, set designer, and writer. He is best known for his work on the original ''Star Trek'' television series, where he designed many of the s ...
and on
Tibetan writing because the script has sharp letter forms—used as a testament to the Klingons' love for knives and blades.
For
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
in 2013,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
and typography company
Dalton Maag
Dalton Maag is an independent font foundry with offices in London, UK, and São Paulo, Brazil. It designs fonts for use in corporate identities, logos, and other text uses. Dalton Maag has a library of 30 retail fonts as of 2016 and offers custo ...
claimed to have used "communication devices to far-flung star systems"
to assist them in localizing the
Nokia Pure font to the Klingon writing system. Though the explanation was of course humorous in nature, as part of the
practical joke a series of real fonts based upon the most commonly used ' character mapping were in fact developed, and have been made available for free download.
Vocabulary
A design principle of the Klingon language is the great degree of lexical-cultural correlation in the vocabulary. For example, there are several words meaning "to fight" or "to clash against", each having a different degree of intensity. There is an abundance of words relating to warfare and weaponry and also a great variety of curses (cursing is considered a fine art in Klingon culture). This helps lend a particular character to the language.
There are many in-jokes built into the language. For example, the word for "pair" is , a reference to the original "
Siamese twins
Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...
"
Chang and Eng Bunker
Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker (May 11, 1811 – January 17, 1874) were Siamese-American conjoined twin brothers whose fame propelled the expression " Siamese twins" to become synonymous for conjoined twins in general. They were widely exhibited as ...
; a is a mid-size stringed instrument, comparable to a
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
(i.e.
Les Paul);
a "chronometer" is (pronounced similar to "clock"); the word for "torture" is ; "
hangover
A hangover is the experience of various unpleasant physiological and psychological effects usually following the consumption of alcohol, such as wine, beer, and liquor. Hangovers can last for several hours or for more than 24 hours. Typical sympto ...
" is , and the word for "fish" is ''
''.
Sources for the vocabulary include English (albeit heavily disguised), and also
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
: for "buttocks" (from
תּחת ''tuches'' spelled backwards),
and for "ache, pain, sore" (cf. ''
oy vey
''Oy vey'' ( yi, אױ װײ) is a Yiddish phrase expressing dismay or exasperation. Also spelled ''oy vay, oy veh'', or ''oi vey'', and often abbreviated to ''oy'', the expression may be translated as "oh, woe!" or "woe is me!" Its Hebrew equival ...
'').
Many English words do not have direct translations into Klingon. To express "hello", the nearest equivalent is , meaning "What do you want?",
with "goodbye" translated as , "Success!".
Example sentences
;
:Do you speak Klingon?
;
:I don't understand.
;
:I can't eat that thing.
;
:You are wrong.
;
:
Revenge is a dish best served cold. (lit: When cold revenge is served, the dish is always very good)
;
:
Today is a good day to die.
See also
*
Klingon culture
*
Klingon grammar
The grammar of the Klingon language was created by Marc Okrand for the ''Star Trek'' franchise. He first described it in his book ''The Klingon Dictionary''. It is a nominative–accusative, primarily suffixing agglutinative language, and has an ...
*
Stovokor, a death metal band whose lyrics are written in Klingon
* ', the first Klingon opera
* ''
Klingon Christmas Carol
''A Klingon Christmas Carol'' is the first play to be performed entirely in Klingon, a constructed language first appearing in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. The play is based on the Charles Dickens 1843 novella, ''A Christmas Carol''. ''A Kl ...
'', a staged adaptation of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
's ''
A Christmas Carol'' in Klingon
Notes
References
References
*
Bernard Comrie
Bernard Sterling Comrie, (; born 23 May 1947) is a British-born linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguistic universals and on Caucasian languages.
Early life and education
Comrie was born in Sunderland, England on 23 ...
, 1995, "The Paleo-Klingon numeral system". ''HolQeD'' 4.4: 6–10.
Klingon ConScript Unicode Registry (CSUR)''Klingon (pIqaD)'' Unicode font(–)
External links
Klingon Language InstituteKlingonska AkademienqepHom SaarbrückenThe largest annual Klingon language meeting in Europe
Klingon Language WikiOpen encyclopedia about the Klingon language
Klingon and its User: A Sociolinguistic Profile a
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...
MA thesis
*
Is Klingon an Ohlonean language? A comparison of Mutsun and KlingonEatoni Ergonomics' Klingon pageincludes BDF, TTF fonts and a Klingon text entry demo
paqʼbatlh: The Klingon EpicKlingon speaking chatbot* Klingo
word list and spell checkerphoto editor translated into Klingon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klingon Language
Agglutinative languages
Object–verb–subject languages
Constructed languages introduced in the 1970s
1979 introductions
Star Trek