tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 08 23:51:37 2013

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[Tlhingan-hol] tlhIngan Hol DajatlhtaHvIS nItlhejpu' 'Iv? / Counting conversant speakers

De'vID ([email protected]) 

When people find out I speak Klingon, I am sometimes asked (as I'm
sure you all are) how many people in the world can carry out a
conversation in it. Previously I've given an answer like "about
20-30", which is what the Internet claims.

Someone suggested to me that I may actually be able to get a better
number, since Klingon speakers are highly likely to be a tightly
connected social graph. There's a clique[1] of KLI members (likely the
core qep'a' attendees), then a probably larger number of people who
have spoken with someone in the clique (but not to everyone in the
clique), and maybe a few who are two degrees of separation away. Then
there may be other smaller cliques like with Germany qepHom
participants, or various other qepHommey, or Klingon clubs like
Khomerex Klinzhai or KAG or KIDC.

In the interest of science, and also because the list of Klingonists
on the KLI website is outdated and no longer accessible, can everyone
list the people with whom they've carried out a conversation in
Klingon in person?

By "conversation" I mean both parties spoke at least one entire
sentence in Klingon to the other one, which was understood and replied
to; and in turn understood and replied in Klingon in a timely fashion
to at least one entire sentence spoken in Klingon. And by "entire
sentence" I mean something with a properly prefixed verb (i.e., more
than just {nuqneH?} or {Qapla'}). By "in a timely fashion" I mean
without spending minutes composing each sentence. By "in person" I
mean either physically face-to-face, or over the phone or Skype or
Google+ Hangout (i.e., the conversation took place in voice, rather
than by typing). I'm being a bit pedantic here, but I want to make
sure everyone is talking about approximately the same thing.

I'll start. The people I've carried out a conversation in Klingon with are:
- Holtej
- 'ISqu'
- Philip Newton
- Qanqor
- Qov
- Alex Greene
- maybes: Lieven, Felix, Zrajm

Lieven is an edge case for me, because while we spoke in Klingon to
each other at the qepHom, there were beginners around and he paused to
explain each sentence to them. So I don't think it counts as a proper
conversation. But I'm sure if there were no beginners around we
could've carried out a conversation entirely in Klingon. And also, I
know that he has carried out a conversation entirely in Klingon with
Qov.

I may also have had conversations with Felix and Zrajm. I definitely
spoke an entire sentence in Klingon to each one, and I think each one
has spoken an entire sentence in Klingon to me. But I don't think we
went back-and-forth in Klingon in a conversational manner, without
mixing in sentences in English, so I'm not counting them. (Unless the
two of you remember otherwise, in which case correct me.)

I also had several "one-sided conversations" at the Saarbrucken qepHom
where I spoke entirely in Klingon, and the other person replied in
English, or sometimes even in Klingon, but only after spending several
minutes consulting with a dictionary or with other people, so those
don't count as "conversations" by my above definition.

I can already make a good case for ten conversant Klingon speakers in
the world based on just people I've spoken with, and I know of several
more by reputation, so I'm beginning to think 20 is a low estimate,
although it'll be interesting to see if we can reach 30.

[1] - I mean in the graph theoretical sense (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clique_(graph_theory) ), but I suppose
also in the social science sense. In layman's terms, there is a number
of KLI members, each of whom has had a conversation with every other.

--
De'vID

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