Klingon and Other Constructed Languages in the Real World

About the Lecture

People have been making up – or constructing – languages probably for as long as people have been talking. They’ve been doing this for any number of reasons, ranging from intellectual curiosity about how languages work to keeping secrets. Most of these constructed languages (or “conlangs”) are for personal use only, but some are intended for a community of users, or even, in the case of languages like Esperanto, for the whole world.

Among the conlangs are those developed to fit into fictional worlds, to be elements in novels or films, for instance. When the language creator (or “conlanger”) and the story creator are not the same, the language is, by necessity, shaped in part by what the non-conlanging storyteller brings to the endeavor. When the storytelling is a collaborative effort, as is the case with movies, influences on the language come from multiple sources, and attributes of the language are affected by all of them. Though presumed to be restricted to their respective created worlds, sometimes a language escapes into the “real world,” where its devotees exert even more pressure on its form and usage.

Klingon is a conlang invented for a race of alien beings featured in Star Trek movies and television programs. When these characters first appeared in Star Trek in the 1960’s, “alien” languages in Star Trek and most other science-fiction films and television programs were almost always just gibberish. In 1984, however, the producers of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock chose to have the Klingon antagonists in that movie speak something that felt authentic, a language not resembling any language on Earth but one that would be perceived as an actual language and not just random noise. To meet this alien-yet-natural goal, a language was constructed by following but also violating various linguistic principles while maintaining consistency in both vocabulary and grammar.

The resulting linguistic structures were put to the test when filmmaking began and the language started to be actually used. Actors’ occasional mispronunciations of the unfamiliar words, along with dialogue changes that came about during the filming and editing of the film, led to additions and alterations to the language not anticipated when the language was originally constructed, but that still had to follow the conlang’s rules. Klingon is not unique in this regard. Other languages constructed for movies or television programs are subject to the same sorts of influences.

As Star Trek programming continued, Klingon was featured more and more frequently, leading to the creation of more vocabulary (and, though less often, grammar). Fealty to what had come before varied from writer to writer, resulting in ever more linguistic innovation.

At the same time, interest in the language was growing among fans of Star Trek — and among fans of language in general, constructed and otherwise. A community of Klingon speakers arose and expanded, and, as a result, the language started being used in more general contexts. No longer restricted to conversations appropriate for alien warriors in outer space in the 23rd century, the milieu for which the language was designed, Klingon was shifting to become a vehicle for composing original songs and stories, translating works of literature, or just talking about everyday concerns on 21st century Earth.

The issues involved in bringing Klingon “back” to the 21st century are not unlike some of the challenges faced by those working to bring back — or, perhaps, bring forward — indigenous languages that had been considered extinct.

As Klingon marks its 40th anniversary this year, the attention of its users is turning to the future, with discussions centered around what constitutes “proper” Klingon, where new words come from, who decides, who innovates. The form of the language increasingly rests on what the speakers deem appropriate, not what the language’s creator decrees. That is, the language is behaving like a language.

Selected Reading & Media References
Adams, Michael (ed.), From Klingon to Elvish: Exploring Invented Languages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)

Okrand, Marc, The Klingon Dictionary (New York: Pocket Books, 1985, 1992)

Okrand, Marc, Klingon for the Galactic Traveler (New York: Pocket Books, 1997)

Okrent, Arika, In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009)

Peterson, David J., The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building (New York: Penguin Books, 2015)

Wahlgren, Yens The Universal Translator: Everything You Need to Know About 139 Languages That Don’t Really Exist (Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2021)