# Are there trekkies that are conversationaly fluent in Klingon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764 "2010-09-23T13:25:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/21 "2010-09-28T23:39:17Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Now THAT ain’t true. I don’t know about Klingon women, but Klingon men give every indications of being very into romance. As I recall they read poetry when courting their Lady Love, while she throws furniture at them. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/22 "2010-09-29T01:47:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > “Jabberwocky” is simultaneously extremely easy to translate and extremely difficult, due to the high density of new-coinage words in it. Translating “sword” into Klingon is easy, but what’s the Klingon word for “vorpal”? Vorpal? Won’t you borrow a word to describe something you language doesn’t have..like Europeans did for a animals when the traveled to the New World? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/23 "2010-09-29T14:45:35Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > Now THAT ain’t true. I don’t know about Klingon women, but Klingon men give every indications of being very into romance. > > As I recall they read poetry when courting their Lady Love, while she throws furniture at them. Heavy objects. Furniture is acceptable but not necessary. And there’s more, like the bit about going into the woods and killing something and bringing its carcass back so you can cook it and feed it to your ladylove. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/24 "2010-09-29T14:59:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Heavy objects. Furniture is acceptable but not necessary. Wimps. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/25 "2010-09-29T15:02:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > Heavy objects. Furniture is acceptable but not necessary. > > Wimps. What? I didn’t say they don’t throw chairs. I just meant that if the guy is quoting the love poetry in a the middle of the woods, the girl doesn’t have to wait until she’s inside to respond, but rather can pick up any availabel bough, raccoon, or battle-ax. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/26 "2010-09-29T15:30:58Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Vorpal? > Won’t you borrow a word to describe something you language doesn’t have..like Europeans did for a animals when the traveled to the New World? When bringing a concept across to a new language, you have options. You don’t always want to just adapt a foreign word to the target language. It can throw up a barrier to communication, because suddenly the audience is confronted with a word they can’t digest immediately. Sometimes it’s worth constructing a circumlocution to get around the lack of the exact word in the target language. But, um, yeah. If you’re talking about carrying a made-up word into a made-up language, what’s the problem? Well, I’d say for one thing that these invented words work because they sound like the parts of speech they represent, which is then re-enforced with word order. ‘Vorpal’ ends in ‘-al’ which makes it ring adjectival to English ears. What would it take in Klingon? Also, what contextual arrangements would you need to re-enforce it? My understanding was that Klingon was purposely designed to be difficult to learn and speak. It’s a sort of meta-linguistic double dog dare. Speaking of which, I wonder how you’d translate that. Is it a dare two dogs in proportion, or is a double dare that is dog-like? Or does ‘dog’ intensify ‘double’? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/27 "2010-09-29T16:12:30Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > > [@gbob](#): > > > > Rich Yampell, was the **first** to become conversationally conversant in the language. > > Who did he talk to? This reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon. Dogbert walks in and sees Dilbert sitting there and asks him what he is doing. Dilbert responds that he just bought the first video phone. Dogbert asks what he’ll do now and Dilbert responds that he is waiting for someone else to buy one. Dogbert opines that the scary part is technology couldn’t move forward if not for people like Dilbert. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/28 "2010-09-29T18:47:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > “Jabberwocky” is simultaneously extremely easy to translate and extremely difficult, due to the high density of new-coinage words in it. Translating “sword” into Klingon is easy, but what’s the Klingon word for “vorpal”? Having parodied [Jabberwocky](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10558600&postcount=67) for the thread “If A Chritmas Carol Were Written by Someone Else,” I can tell you (to paraphase Issac Asimov when he tried to write like Ogden Nash) it’s only easy if your name is Leiws Carroll. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/29 "2010-09-29T19:15:39Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > Trekker is what they’re called now. Trekker. Yeah…by each other. The rest of us call them trekkies. It’s a diminutive, nonrespect thing. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/30 "2010-09-29T19:23:30Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Yeah…by each other. The rest of us call them trekkies. It’s a diminutive, nonrespect thing. Come, Sir, that is Bold Talk, given your user name. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/31 "2010-09-29T20:32:29Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@inigo montoya](#): > > > > yeah…by each other. The rest of us call them trekkies. It’s a diminutive, nonrespect thing. > > come, sir, that is bold talk, given your user name. 🙂 nerd fight! ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/32 "2010-09-29T20:38:38Z")
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fi- oh, shit, run guys, here comes the teacher! ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/33 "2010-09-29T22:08:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > > come, sir, that is bold talk, given your user name. 🙂 > > nerd fight! [Nerd fight](http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/07/comic-con-stabbing/)! ---
**Author:** ![dlyongemallo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@dlyongemallo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlyongemallo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/34 "2013-05-30T20:04:28Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Who did he talk to? He was the first to become conversant, in that he could talk without constantly referring to a dictionary. But there were others with various other degrees of skill. So he had other people to talk to, he just had to pause a lot for them to decipher what he’d said or compose their replies. When I hung out with him and his girlfriend (also a conversant Klingon speaker), the three of us spoke Klingon to each other. I’ve conversed in Klingon with other people as well. I would estimate that there are about 30 people who are conversant in Klingon, in being able to hold a conversation without pausing to consult a dictionary. Also, not all Klingon speakers are Star Trek fans. Some of them are in it for the linguistics. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/35 "2013-05-30T20:10:30Z")
Zombies speak Klingon? ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/36 "2013-05-30T20:53:06Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > Zombies speak Klingon? Yes, they do, but with poorly enunciated sibilants. The shredded lips and missing teeth are always a problem. \*\*And, it is Trekker not trekkie. \*\* Do not be dismissive of a cultural phenomenon that has lasted for well nigh 50 years. It has had widespread impact upon the American technological landscape and upon the men and women who grew up looking to the stars. \ ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/37 "2013-05-30T21:27:43Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > shouts something unintelligible at those kids on his lawn There’s gotta be a way to say THAT in Klingon! ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/38 "2013-05-30T21:33:03Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > There’s gotta be a way to say THAT in Klingon! The closest I can get is: SoH puqpu’ pol lItha’ vo’ wIj [lawn] Apparently, the word ‘lawn’ doesn’t exist in the lexicon… yet. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/39 "2013-05-30T21:36:38Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > There’s gotta be a way to say THAT in Klingon! It would probably be a death threat. “Foul my grass no more, lest ye wish to be fed your own intestines.” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764/40 "2013-05-30T21:37:00Z")
I have been to any number of SF conventions over the last 25 years, and to hear Trekkers decked out in Klingon makeup and garb discussing in Klingon where they plan to have lunch or what panel they have next is not unusual. There are Star Trek associations where the members meet regularly, and these produce smaller groups of people who practice their Klingon with each other on a weekly, if not daily, basis. So, yes, there are people conversant in Klingon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-trekkies-that-are-conversationaly-fluent-in-klingon/554764.md?page=3)