Star Trek: Klingon Language Course Launches on Duolingo

Star Trek fans can now become fluent in Klingon more easily than ever before.

Language-learning app Duolingo has launched its Klingon language course.

Felix Malmenbeck led the creation of the Klingon course fo Duolingo. He’s a Klingon hobbyist out of Stockholm, and he says creating a course based on Klingon had some unique challenges.

“There are a few quirks of teaching Klingon that we had to accommodate,” Malmenbeck says. “For example, Klingon uses apostrophes in the middle of words which is not something Duolingo’s system was able to handle at first (because no other language does it). Klingon also has case sensitivity which means that a word can take on different meanings if it’s capitalized or lowercased. Luckily Duolingo already had a solution because German is similar so we just had to implement a tweak to support Klingon in the same way.

“Many Star Trek fans become curious about the Klingon language at some point, but learning a language takes time, energy and regular practice, especially when you’re just starting out,” he continues. “The Duolingo course should help lower the barrier to entry by giving people a simple way to get regular exercise with the language. I suspect that this will lead to an increased number of Star Trek fans continuing their studies of Klingon. It also helps that Star Trek: Discovery has taken the language very seriously, meaning that there is now a stronger connection between the show and the language. The more people who are exposed to Klingon, the more people will discover – perhaps unexpectedly – that this is just the sort of thing they’re into.”

Here’s a small sample of the Klingon phrases Duolingo can help you learn:

• The Klingon does not understand English. – Dlvl’ Hol yajbe’ tlhIngan.
• What do you want? Speak! – nuqneH? yIjatlh!
• Success and honor! – Qapla’ batlhje!
• A Klingon will die. – Hegh tlhIngan
• The ship is big. – tln Duj.
• Mara is brave. – yoH mara.
• You are as incompetent as a topah. – bItlhIb; toppa’ Darur.
• That Klingon is drinking bloodwine. – ‘Iw Hlq tlhutlhtaH tlhInganvetlh

To celebrate the Klingon course’s release, Duolingo is hosting a Klingon meetup event in Chicago on March 22nd with the Klingon translator from Star Trek: Discovery and members of the Klingon Language Institute.

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