NEW YORK--According to a report released Monday by the Modern
Language Association,
speakers of the Star Trek-based Klingon
language outnumber individuals
fluent in Navajo by a margin of more than
seven-to-one.
"Navajo, a 3,000-year-old
Native American tonal language belonging
to the Athabaskan/Na-Dené
group of tongues, is clearly dying and
will likely be extinct by
2010," MLA president Frederick Toback said.
"Fortunately,
though, the sad, steady decline of this once-proud Native
American tongue
has been more than offset by a rising interest in Klingon
culture."
Klingon speakers said they are pleased with the report. "Every
day,
more and more people are discovering the excitement and challenge of
Klingon,
or, as it's called by native speakers, tlhIngan-Hol," said
Doug "HoD
trI'Qal" Petersen, an official grammarian at the
Klingon Language Institute.
"After just a few weeks of studying
Klingon, you, too will be saying
'qo' mey poSmoH Hol!'"
"For those new to the language," Petersen
continued, "a terrific
place to start is Marc Okrand's The Klingon
Dictionary, published
by Pocket Books. After that, I'd suggest The
Klingon Way, also by
Okrand. A marvelous guide to all things Klingon,
it contains everything
from recipes for Durani lizard skins to the proper
way to address a B'rel
Scout to the complete lyrics to The Warrior's
Anthem."
As membership in the KLI
continues to swell, the Navajo population, whose
lands occupy
approximately 25,000 square miles in the four corners of Arizona,
Utah,
Colorado and New Mexico, has dwindled to 150,000.
"Our people are chained to the terrible suffering of our past
like
a falcon without wings," said Daniel Littlefoot, president of
the Navajo
Nation. "We consume alcohol and it, in turn, consumes
us."
With the surge of interest in
Klingon has come a corresponding surge in
publishing. Klingon-language
editions of The Iliad, Hamlet
and The Bible are now
available, as well as the classic Klingon tale The
Eyes Of Kahless.
"More than 200 titles are currently
available, with more on the way
all the time," said Bob
"nIteb'Ha" Janowitz, editor of HolQeD,
a quarterly Klingon
literary journal. "It truly is a booming industry."
Though the basics of Navajo are still taught in some
reservation schools,
and the language is spoken ceremonially at tribal
council meetings, most
Navajos do not bother to retain their knowledge
after leaving school.
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Above: One of the many learn-to-speak-Klingon interactive CD-ROMs currently
on the market.
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"The number of truly fluent Navajo speakers stands at less than a thousand,"
Littlefoot sai
d. "And of these thousand, only a handful are less than
60 years old. Within a generation, our 4,000-year-old tongue will be dust."
"We have people from all walks of life here," said Jennifer "pekaQ&q
uot;
Proehl, a member of the Klingon Language Institute's High Council. "Students,
computer programmers, salespeople--all of them banding together in the proud
Klingon tradition."
According to Proehl, the Klingon la
nguage is just one part of a thriving
Klingon culture. KLI members practice Klingon martial arts, participate
in Klingon singing and storytelling sessions, and even perform spiritual
ceremonies derived from the various Star Trek television series a
nd
films.
"What's happening with the Klingon language is extremely exciting,"
MLA associate director Stephen Hogue said. "If its popularity continues
to grow at the current rate, we may consider giving certain
Klingon-speaking
groups financial support in the form of grants and special-interest funding.
Increasingly, the MLA is diverting funds from dying languages like Navajo
to vibrant, emergent ones such as Klingon."
"I
know this is my home, but there isn't anything here for me,"
said unemployed Navajo nation member Leonard Murphy, 22, who dropped out
of school at 14 and remembers little of the Navajo he learned in elementary
school. "Everyone's leaving, gettin
g off the reservation. Now there's
nothing to do here except drink beer and watch Star Trek."
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