Do you speak Klingon?

[Who_Trek]

Yes? No? Want to learn? Think the whole thing is stupid?

I picked up the Klingon Dictionary last time I was in the states, but really haven't sat down with it yet. At first glance, the grammar rules look pretty complicated... It'd be a cool language to learn, but not very... practical, I guess.

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

I know there are people who have learned to converse in rudimentary Klingon, but I can't see the purpose. I don't attend conventions, so, when would we use it?

Kaplagh!

 

[Jack Bauer]

No. I'd rather learn a real world language than one made up for a tv show/movies.

 

[Alyssa]

I would like to learn it someday but right now i am learning to speak Vulcan!

 

[M'Sharak]

Fluency in Klingon was once part of a stated job requirement (for a short time, at least -- it was later withdrawn.)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/05/10/offbeat.klingon.interpreter/index.html

 

[Forbin]

I've got the dictionary, and I'll occasionally refer to it to name a Klingon ship. I can say Nuq'neH and Qa'pla, which I'm sure I just spelled wrong, but that's about it.

 

[Garth Rockett]

I've got the dictionary, but I never look at it and can't speak the language. I really only got it for the "How To Speak Conversational Klingon" audio tape that came with it, and that was a hoot. I haven't listened to it in years, though.

 

[Forbin]

^It was fun playing that in the car!

 

[captcalhoun]

Mando'a is the new cool SF language, ner vode. You're nobody if you can't speak it or at least know how to sing Vode An

 

[darkshadow0001]

Who_Trek said:
Yes? No? Want to learn? Think the whole thing is stupid?

I picked up the Klingon Dictionary last time I was in the states, but really haven't sat down with it yet. At first glance, the grammar rules look pretty complicated... It'd be a cool language to learn, but not very... practical, I guess.

I actually have the Klingon Dictionary. Never used it much, but I have it.

 

[Terengo]

I used to be literate in Klingon, but I've gotten rusty in the last few years. I can speak it in the sense of reading a pre-written script, but not extemporaneously (as others have pointed out, who would you speak it with?)

 

[Jack Bauer]

captcalhoun said:
Mando'a is the new cool SF language, ner vode. You're nobody if you can't speak it or at least know how to sing Vode An

Mando'a? From Star Wars?

 

[captcalhoun]

yuppers.

Karenn Traviss, author of the Republic Commando novels, is developing it in the novels and seperately.

 

[M'Sharak]

captcalhoun said:
Mando'a is the new cool SF language, ner vode. You're nobody if you can't speak it or at least know how to sing Vode An

I can live with being nobody, thanks.

 

[Eminence]

Pickup line: Go'h'veh lucha wabeh, moka ri'chos. Go'h'veh lucha wabeh, tuva ri'lok. Ros Na'look'a.

My response: N'gostra'cha..flaaah SPIT!

Comes in handy most drunken Friday nights!

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Not much...

 

[Balthier the Great]

darkshadow0001 said:

Who_Trek said:
Yes? No? Want to learn? Think the whole thing is stupid?

I picked up the Klingon Dictionary last time I was in the states, but really haven't sat down with it yet. At first glance, the grammar rules look pretty complicated... It'd be a cool language to learn, but not very... practical, I guess.

I actually have the Klingon Dictionary. Never used it much, but I have it.

I used to have it as well. I think I got rid of it at about 14 or so.

The stupidest thing I tried to do with it was to try to make a Trek version of Eaters of the Dead entirely in Klingon. I was a nerd.

Now I perfer the Tolkien languages and I've tried a few times to make up my own (more based on Chinese and Japanese than Western languages).

Klingon is just too hard to pronounce and put together in a sentance for most people to learn. Almost as bad as Lojan.

 

[Terengo]

BalthierTheGreat said:

Klingon is just too hard to pronounce and put together in a sentance for most people to learn. Almost as bad as Lojan.

I have to disagree. To establish my total geekiness quotient, you can peruse my Klingon translation of The Fall of the House of Usher, among other texts.

 

[JD]

I actually have a copy of the Klingon Dictionary that was bought by somone in my family (don't know who) back when TNG was still on the air, but I don't think I've ever actually read any of it.

 

[Balthier the Great]

Terengo said:

BalthierTheGreat said:

Klingon is just too hard to pronounce and put together in a sentance for most people to learn. Almost as bad as Lojan.

I have to disagree. To establish my total geekiness quotient, you can peruse my Klingon translation of The Fall of the House of Usher, among other texts.

I'm not talking about writing and translating. In doing that, any person with a grammar reference and a [language] to English dictionary could probably make just about any language work.

What I mean is using it in a spoken conversation. Two people who have no language in common except for Klingon. I don't think standard Klingon is easy enough to be used that way. (Quenya and Sinderin fail this too). For most people learning enough Klingon words and phrases, word endings and verb prefixes to have a conversation in Klingon you'd be talking about years of intense effort. Besides the difficulty in pronouncing the words themselves. Some of them can get very long, and some of the letters are hard to pronounce.

Just my opinion of course, but it's awkward to prounounce and hard to memorize the vocabulary.