Star Trek’s franchise has created several icons that influenced our generation’s culture. One of these is the development of the Klingon Language. Earned by the fictional Klingon race, only a few dozen people know how to speak the tongue fluently in conversation. 

One can now conveniently learn Klingon through the aid of its various dictionaries, the Klingon Learning Institute, the Duolingo Course, and conversing with fluent Klingon speakers themselves.

The Iconic Star Trek Journey

Star Trek, beginning as a fictional science television show, debuted in September 1996. After airing three seasons of the first Star Trek show, Star Trek: The Original Series, it was canceled, which is a big surprise now, seeing as Star Trek has been airing for more than half a century.

For new opportunities to continue the iconic storyline, Star Trek: The Next Generation was released in 1987, running for a total of seven seasons before reaching its finish line in 1994. The Next Generation was the first spinoff of Star Trek. Starring a new cast with Patrick Stewart’s character, Captain Jean Luc-Picard, and his crew, the Next Generation‘s setting takes place a hundred years after Captain James Kirk’s mission in The Original Series.

Following The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ran from 1993 to 1999, ending after its seventh season. Instead of the cast venturing through a traveling spaceship, the Deep Space Nine takes place in a halted space station at Federation space’s edge. Avery Brooks, playing Pragmatic Commander Benjamin Sisko, plays the first black protagonist in Star Trek. Benjamin Sisko takes the role of fathering his son, Jake, while learning new ways to keep his station progressing.

The storyline of the Star Trek television show ends with the releases of Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, the last two that were both infamous for ruining the whole of the live-action Star Trek series. Currently, Star Trek’s franchise has reached new limits, adding an animated series and more than ten feature films. (Source: Vox) 

The Complex Klingon Language

The culture of Star Trek is known to be iconic for many things, one of which is the elaborately invented Klingon language. 

The Klingon language, developed by Marc Okrand, linguistics specialist, was developed within three years for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock‘s release. Primarily spoken by the fictional warrior Klingon race, it can be the world’s most esteemed invented speech in the 20th century. (Source: Salon) 

The Klingon tongue has a dictionary, an opera, a Language Institute, and in alignment with the development of modern technology, Klingon now has a Duolingo course, an online resource that can be accessed through mobile devices, to reduce intimidation with its learning process. (Source: SYFY Wire) 

Akira Orkent, in her published book In the Land of Invented Languages, that only a few thousands of people are familiar with the Klingon language, and only hundreds of people are capable of reading and writing in Klingon. Concerning how many can speak Klingon fluently, the number is now down to only a few dozens. (Source: Salon) 

One humorous example of learning the Klingon language is the father-son experience of Klingon speaker D’Armond Speers and his son named Alec. Speers ambitioned his son to have Klingon as his mother tongue; at first, Speers remained hopeful as Alec seemed to have impressive enunciation. After Alec’s fifth birthday, Speers eventually gave up on Alec, who developed no interest in Klingon. (Source: Wired)