Klingon language outstrips Esperanto

Klingon-language keyboard from Cherry

    Fans, futurists, gamers, costumers, artists both graphic and martial, maybe even--by the look it it--a few bounty hunters, assemble at science fiction and fantasy conventions to watch videos with other fans, participate in panels, play trivia games (how many Norway class ships could dock on a Galaxy class starship?) and hear speakers. I was one of those speakers this spring at NarutoTrek in Fort Lauderdale, reading a portion of Homer's Iliad that I translated into Klingon with the help of Marc Okrand's Klingon Dictionary. Conference coordinator Ray Tesi was glad to add another Klingon speaker, as Klingon enthusiasts make up a significant portion of Star Trek conference attendance.

    Klingon is a rapidly growing language, both in terms of speakers and philology; since Paramount Pictures hired linguist Okrand to develop it in the 1980s for movies III-VI, it has gained more new speakers than Esperanto. The Klingon Language Institute publishes a journal that is indexed by the Modern Language Association, that arbiter of what is good and great in humanities studies.

    The intelligent questions and responses from the audience at NarutoTrek underscored what I have always said: science fiction fans are smart, and have a lot of cultural studies savvy--especially Trek fans. Despite teaching college literature courses for a number of years, only at a Trek convention could I expect to get insightful observations on probable future directions in Terran literary criticism, extrapolated from what we know about Klingon tastes. This is why Star Trek continues to exert cultural influence: it is a way of understanding the past as well as the future.