Klingon:
The natural and not-so-natural history of a constructed language
Guinness World Records once dubbed Star Trek’s Klingon the world’s “most widely spoken fictional language.” Though it is a conlang (or constructed language) whose sound system and grammar are unlike those of any other language, its development is rooted in more traditional (and earthbound) linguistic traditions. This talk, by the linguist who developed Klingon, will review the origins of the language, how the study of an extinct American Indian language influenced the way its structure evolved, and how it fares in the “real world.”
Join us for a student lunch with Marc Okrand, linguist, creator of the Klingon language, and former director of live captioning at the National Captioning Institute. The lunch will be an informal get-together to discuss invented languages, pop culture, American Indian languages, captioning, and other topics of interest. RSVP to Afsane at rezaeisahraei.1@osu.edu if you would like to attend the lunch. The student lunch will be held on March 9th from 12-2PM in Denney 311.
This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of English and Linguistics; the Buckeye Language Network; Popular Culture Studies; American Indian Studies; the Humanities Institute; the Intergalactic Science Fiction Club, and the Fan Studies Student Association.
