Klingon language
| Klingon | |
|---|---|
tlhIngan Hol | |
| Pronunciation | ˈt͡ɬɪ.ŋɑn xol |
| Created by | Marc Okrand, James Doohan, Jon Povill |
| Setting and usage | Star Trek films and television series (TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery), the opera ʼuʼ and the Klingon Christmas Carol play. |
| Users | (Around a dozen fluent speakers cited 1996)[1] |
| Purpose | |
| Latin script (Klingon alphabet) Klingon script | |
| Sources | Constructed languages A priori languages |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Marc Okrand |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | tlh |
| ISO 639-3 | tlh |
| Glottolog | klin1234 |
The Klingon language (tlhIngan Hol, ˈt͡ɬɪ.ŋɑn xol) is a language that was made for the Klingons in the Star Trek universe. It is a constructed language, not one that developed naturally. Only a few people can speak the Klingon language well enough to talk in it. The Klingon Language Institute helps people learn Klingon.
History
The first Klingon words were made by the actor James Doohan in 1979 for the first Star Trek movie. When they made the third movie in 1984, Gene Roddenberry wanted to have a real language for the Klingons. So it was the linguist (a language scientist) Marc Okrand who made the Klingon language. He has written some books about the Klingon language.
Grammar
The Klingon language feels like talking backwards. Marc Okrand wanted the language to be as complicated as possible. He did this to make it sound very extraterrestrial. The word order in a sentence is always object-verb-subject. So the English sentence "I see the cat" is said as "the cat see I" in Klingon.
This language uses many syllables that are attached to the word:
| Klingon | English |
|---|---|
| qet | run |
| maqet | we run |
| maqetbe’ | we do not run |
Writing
When writing in Klingon, some letters are always in uppercase and some are lowercase. This never changes because the letters are spoken differently when they are written differently.
| Latin transcription | Klingon script | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| a | 
|
/ɑ/ |
| b | 
|
/b/ |
| ch | 
|
/t͡ʃ/ |
| D | 
|
/ɖ/ |
| e | 
|
/ɛ/ |
| gh | 
|
/ɣ/ |
| H | 
|
/x/ |
| I | 
|
/ɪ/ |
| j | 
|
/d͡ʒ/ |
| l | 
|
/l/ |
| m | 
|
/m/ |
| n | 
|
/n/ |
| ng | 
|
/ŋ/ |
| o | 
|
/o/ |
| p | 
|
/pʰ/ |
| q | 
|
/qʰ/ |
| Q | 
|
/q͡χ/ |
| r | 
|
/r/ |
| S | 
|
/ʂ/ |
| t | 
|
/tʰ/ |
| tlh | 
|
/t͡ɬ/ |
| u | 
|
/u/ |
| v | 
|
/v/ |
| w | 
|
/w/ |
| y | 
|
/j/ |
| ʼ | 
|
/ʔ/ |
References
- ↑ According to Lawrence Schoen, director of the KLI. Wired 4.08: Dejpu'bogh Hov rur qablli!*