Have you ever wanted to speak Klingon? The Star Trek franchise’s most famous constructed language has existed for over three decades, and yet there are very few people who are actually fluent in Klingon. That may be about to change, because Duolingo has set up a free online course which offers to teach fans Klingon “in just five minutes a day.”
Via io9, Duolingo’s officially licensed Klingon course has been in the works for over three years. Duolingo’s techniques involve “game-like lessons” which are tailored for each user’s learning style. It’s estimated that thousands of people have already learned basic Klingon in the past few decades, and over 170,000 fans signed up for the Klingon Duolingo course prior to the launch. It’s currently available online and as a part of Duolingo’s Android app.
Although the Klingons date back to the original Star Trek series, the first lines of the language weren’t spoken onscreen until Star Trek: The Motion Picture. James Doohan (the actor who played Scotty) and producer Jon Povill came up with the Klingon lines for Mark Lenard to perform onscreen. For Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Marc Okrand was hired to further develop the Klingon language. Okrand went on to write the official Klingon dictionary in 1985.
The Klingon language and culture were given a much larger spotlight in Star Trek: The Next Generation with the introduction of Worf as a member of the crew. The official artwork for the course acknowledges this by incorporating Worf and another Klingon (possibly Worf’s son, Alexander) as they appear alongside Geordi and Data.
In addition to the online courses, Duolingo will also sponsor Klingon meet up events. The first meeting will take place in Chicago on March 22.
Are you going to take the free online Klingon lessons? Respond using the Klingon language in the comment section below!
More Star Trek? We’ve Got That:
- The most essential Deep Space Nine episodes.
- You probably won’t want a ships-only cut of Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek.
- The history of the mirror universe.
Images: CBS/Duolingo
