Klingon (was Re: RELEASED Python 2.4, alpha 2)

[Alan Anderson]

Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote:
> Hmm... the last time I heard, which admittedly was several years ago,
> there were only a couple of fluent Klingon speakers on the entire
> planet, though thousands had attempted to learn it.  And one of those
> was the originator of the language.  Maybe that data was incorrect,
> or has changed?

If you're correctly remembering what you heard, what you heard was
incorrect. :-)

The usual quote is from a 1996 issue of Wired magazine:  "All the
fluent Klingon speakers can comfortably go out to dinner together." 
That is arguably still the case, though the definition of
"comfortably" would be up for interpretation.  It would take a rather
large table, and I would say that not everyone could easily
participate in the same conversation merely because they'd be too far
away from each other.  (At the conference banquet last Wednesday, I
noticed at one point that there were three separate Klingon
conversations going on at the same time.)

I might be able to count on my digits the number of people with whom I
personally have had extended conversations in Klingon, but I
definitely would have to remove my socks.

And, ironically, the creator of the language is not one of the people
I would consider fluent.

> Perhaps as an Esperantist I have a pretty good idea of just how easy
> to learn a language can be.  But you're right that I have preconceptions
> about Klingon.  I'd be interested in stats on how many people really
> do speak it fluently now.

There are no official counts of who speaks Klingon at various levels
of fluency. The Klingon Language Institute does offer certification
testing, though not everyone who speaks Klingon has had both the
desire and opportunity to take such a test. If you're still
interested, I might be able to find out how many people have passed
each "rank".

--
  Alan Anderson, professional programmer and amateur Klingonist
    proud member of the Klingon Language Institute since 1995
qo'mey poSmoH Hol -- language opens worlds -- http://www.kli.org/