A Community Forms

The Story of Klingon

Course 1 · Chapter 4 · A Community Forms

A language needs speakers. By the early 1990s, Klingon had a dictionary (The Story of Klingon, Chapter 3) and a few fans who took it seriously. This chapter follows how those fans found each other, and how an organisation grew around them that still looks after the language.

Finding Each Other

The Klingon Language Institute (KLI) describes the start of the community like this: "Human students of the Klingon tongue found each other and began to communicate using the Internet." After the 1985 book, a few fans took the vocabulary and grammar seriously and set out to learn it. Most of them write Klingon in the Latin letters of Okrand's system; some use a script called pIqaD.

The Klingon Language Institute

Fact	Detail
Founded	1992, in Flourtown, Pennsylvania
Founder	Lawrence M. Schoen
Type	independent, volunteer-based nonprofit (501(c)(3))
Moved	main operations moved to Kentucky in 2022
Motto	qo'mey poSmoH Hol, "Language opens worlds"
Members	"from all over the world"; certification testing is free for active members

The Journal: HolQeD

The KLI published a quarterly journal called HolQeD, a Klingon word meaning "linguistics". Okrand's new vocabulary first appeared in it, and it recorded the language as the community understood it. The journal later stopped paper mailings, went electronic and then ceased.

When Did HolQeD End? Wikipedia says the journal ran for about 13 years, but also says it "ceased publication in 2003". Starting in 1992, those two figures do not agree, so the chapter gives no end date. A separate page on the dictionary says new material appeared in HolQeD from 1992 to 2004, which fits neither number exactly.

The Meeting: qep'a'

The KLI holds an annual gathering called qep'a', usually in midsummer, lasting about five days and normally in the United States. Okrand attends and answers a wishlist of requested words. The eighth, in 2001, was held in Brussels, organised by Lieven Litaer, and was the only one held outside the US (as of the Wikipedia article).

Words

New vocabulary from Okrand, answering the community's wishlist. The first batch appeared in HolQeD, then on the KLI website.

Tests

Certification has four levels from Beginner to Grammarian. Only the first three have tests, and no one had earned the top level as of 2023.

Ideas

The KLI's translation work (Chapter 7) grew out of this community, including Klingon editions of Hamlet and Gilgamesh.

What a Community Changes A language with one dictionary is a set of rules. A language with a society around it becomes a set of habits. The KLI gave learners somewhere to be tested, to publish and to meet Okrand himself, and that is what makes later chapters on translation and canon possible.

A Documentary Along the Way A documentary about the community, Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water, was unveiled at the 2003 qep'a'. The article gives 2003 for its showing at Cannes in one place and 2004 in its references, so the date is unsettled.

Not Yet Verified Several parts of the KLI's Wikipedia article are tagged as lacking sources. I have not checked the board's current members, the permission from CBS Studios to use the names "Star Trek" and "Klingon" (marked "citation needed"), or the claim that twelve people have received the "Friend of Maltz" award (the list names eleven). The name of the journal's later online form is not given in the article, so I have not named one.

Sources for This Chapter

Wikipedia, "Klingon Language Institute".
The Klingon Language Institute, "Development and Use of the Klingon Language" (kli.org).

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Give the year, place and founder of the Klingon Language Institute, and say what kind of organisation it is.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

The chapter finds a conflict in the sources about when HolQeD ended. State the conflict and explain what a careful writer should do.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Describe three things the KLI gave learners (words, tests, a place to meet) and which part of the chapter mentions each.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

1992: KLI founded in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, by Lawrence M. Schoen.
HolQeD: the journal ("linguistics"); end date uncertain.
qep'a': yearly meeting, about five days; Brussels 2001 was the only one outside the US.
Certification: four levels, three with tests.

Coming Next The Story of Klingon, Chapter 5 looks at how the language grew after the dictionary, and at the argument over what counts as "real" Klingon.